True Image 2013 clone has killed the MBR
I have True Image 2013 and Win 7.1 on a Dell 15R laptop. I went to clone the existing 500GB HDD to a new 1000GB hybrid SSHD via USB.
After multiple issues, mainly to do with getting chkdsk to complete, I got the Clone utility running. It spent a while displaying "calculating time remaining" and then advised with a dialogue box it had to reboot to complete the task. I clicked Yes and shutdown commenced.
The laptop then rebooted and immediately after the BIOS splash screen, I got a line and a bit of hieroglyphic text across the screen.
The laptop now will not boot. I can't even go into Windows Recovery. It looks like the MBR is corrupted as it can't see the Dell recovery partition or anything.
Why would a clone utility need to write to the source HDD? Why was a reboot even needed? What options do I have to fix this? Is it best to use the Acronis recovery disk or just proceed with a Windows recovery disk?
If I try this again after fixing the problem (hoping my backup/recovery utilities work) what likelihood is there of this happening again?
Two points in response to this:
1) That's pathetic.
2) That's incorrect.
For point 1), the drive is only hybrid behind the controller card. It presents itself to the BIOS as one single volume*. Acronis should neither know nor care that it's hybrid. And Acronis should be able to handle SSHDs by now. It's not as if it's new technology. If this is expected behaviour, why doesn't the software warn me?
As for 2), I removed my system disk and placed it in another PC, booting from a separate OS. Acronis is now happily cloning to the SSHD destination. So it appears that Acronis *can* handle SSHDs.
So thanks but I'd prefer a correct response over plain misinformation.
For anyone browsing the forum looking for the same solution as me, you need to run bootsect /nt60 sys /mbr to recover your MBR.
And I'm grumpy because what should be nearly a plug-and-play upgrade has now taken around 5 hours of sleuthing and troubleshooting, at a highly technical level that no normal punter should be asked to manage, with the concern of breaking an existing HDD plus retuning the SSHD to the shop for a refund, and I still have 5+ hours left of data transfer.
* Seagate ST1000LM014
Thanks for replying, your frustration is understandable. I will add that the fact that you must repair the boot record on a machine with a hybrid drive means that True Image is not compatible with such devices even though it should be. Additionally, the /nt60 sys/mbr switch of bootsec may work for some but not other installations so anyone reading this post is advised to do your research before using the bootsec command.