Can't Clone?
Hello, I have had Acronis True Image 11 Home for about a year now. In the past I've used the Clone feature to rescue myself from many critical issues and I've loved the program for how much stress it saves me. (Nothing beats the reality of crushing a terrible virus in less than half an hour with a Clone.) However today I decided to make an up-to-date clone to my External HD and during the cloning process it just seems to lie and say that the cloning proceedure is completed. When I check the External HD it still seems to have the old clone.
As before I'd simply choose Cloning Tool, then Automatic, then choose Source and Destination disks, then choose 'Yes' to delete partition data on destination drive, then review proceedure, then reboot. Acronis appears before Windows XP bootup as usual, appears to start the initial steps, but on about the 3rd line of the process it suddenly says the Cloning Proceedure is complete. I knew it was too fast to be true and sure enough when I checked the destination drive it still has the old clone information.
Does anyone know why this would be happening? I've used this program so many times before to clone and never had an issue. All of a sudden today it's lying to me.
PS- There are no error messages of any kind just the usual "Cloning complete, hit any key to shut down."
Correction, its about step 4 in the cloning process after reboot where it pauses at 33%, then after a couple seconds hits 100%; then I get a false message of Clone complete.
Hi Bruce glad to see im not alone in this, Ive tried everything even wiping the destination drive of previous clone and still same result. Which means I now have lost my only back up. Where are you Acronis? Conveniently Live chat is gone. Are you using version 11 as well?
I know theyr'e going to be tempted to tell us to do this from a downloadable bootable disk, but that is NOT a true solution because it means I paid for a product that only worked for half a year. I'm guessing the only thing that could have caused this must be some sort of Universal Windows update if we both ran into this at the same time. All this needs is a patch.
Yes, if you are using the Home version, the Acronis recommended procedure when cloning a system disk is for it to be done from when booted from the TI REscue CD.
Also, any recovery or diagnostic partition should not be resized. Using the manual (rather than automatic) provides more controls for the user.
Why do a full clone and totally lock up the external HD for anything else? I only clone to my second internal HD. My two external HDs have tasks set to back the entire comuter up into an archive file, which is not a "clone". I've done multiple restores, like Darth Trini has, to completely eradicate a bad virus situation. It's worked every time. Just a bit slower with the externals over USB 2.0 versus cloning my INTERNAL backup HD back to my "working" C: drive. So, try doing a backup "my computer" and see if that works. You'll need to create an Acronis restore CD to boot from first before restoring a "my computer" archive file from an external HD...
Thanks for the responses and suggestions guys I have individual responses below:-
GroverH: If the recommended proceedure to clone is to use a bootable disk then why bother installing Acronis on my HD anyway? Why bother making an option to clone from within the program itself? I know you may not have the answers yourself since those are questions for Acronis, and I'm not trying to be rude because you are trying to help, but look at it from my perspective: I was happy with a feature in the program before, now its malfunctioning after less than a year. An actual solution is going to be preferred instead of a workaround. I only bought it to clone, all the other features don't interest me, if a workaround is the only way to clone I might as well uninstall and save space.
Scott: I like the idea of a Clone because it is not being written to constantly, I have a snapshot of an instance in time and so wear and tear of live archiving on the external is minimal. Also I don't have an internal spare HD as you do, nor blank CDs to make a bootable CD. Live archiving sounds convenient but has its risks, like wear and tear or accidentally archiving a virus.
Overall I'm really trying to focus on fixing the problem not working around a problem. Thanks again for your suggestions, please note I'm not trying to be rude so don't misinterpret my responses, just frustrated that a feature that worked fine a month ago is malfunctioning.
Darth,
Basically, TrueImage Home is advertised as a Backup & Recovery solution. Cloning just happens to be one of its features. When performing a clone from within Windows, it reboots and uses the same Linux software as on the CD. Booting from the CD takes Windows out of the picture. In the past, an install was necessary in order to create the a Rescue CD. However, with version 2009, registered owners now have access to an iso file download so installation is not a requirement if you only want to use a Rescue CD. I can sympathize with your issues which once worked but now do not. Perhaps something has changed. Newer drives or lack of drivers, or whatever. My response was simply to provide a solution which offered the best chance of success. Since a new build was just released on 2010, maybe it has the features you need. Good luck.
GroverH: thanks for the quick response, don't worry your workaround is appreciated. I'll have to buy a CD to follow your workaround. 2 questions though: 1) Could you provide a link to this ISO file? & 2) Do Acronis Tech Support personnel actually respond to these posts? If they do I'll wait around a bit to see if I get a response then proceed with yours.
Just some additional info on this problem, the 4th process that it stops at mentioned above is "Checking Partitions", where it pauses at 33% then completes at 100% then gives false message of clone completed. Checked knoweldge base found a similar issue but its only record with Acronis is for Internal to Internal HD Cloning and caused by USB drives accidentally inserted.
Here is a link to the iso. This is for registered owners of 2009 or 2010. You must login to same as where you registered on the Acronis support site.
Sometimes Acronis support will respond but rarely will it be the same day. If you really want them, you need either to use Live Chat or create a support ticket on the support site.
MudCrab's Download iso image Post #10
GroverH: thanks for the quick response, don't worry your workaround is appreciated. I'll have to buy a CD to follow your workaround. 2 questions though: 1) Could you provide a link to this ISO file? & 2) Do Acronis Tech Support personnel actually respond to these posts? If they do I'll wait around a bit to see if I get a response then proceed with yours.Just some additional info on this problem, the 4th process that it stops at mentioned above is "Checking Partitions", where it pauses at 33% then completes at 100% then gives false message of clone completed. Checked knoweldge base found a similar issue but its only record with Acronis is for Internal to Internal HD Cloning and caused by USB drives accidentally inserted.
This sounds like your external has developed some sector error or some kind of hardware error. Run chkdsk /r on it and you might as well do the same on the source drive. True Image is very picky when it comes to the integrity of hardware and will stumble on something that Windows will happily ignore. It may also be a memory module has become flaky - MemTest run for at least overnight will show up any problems.
GroverH: Will the iso file work for True Image Home 11? Also Live Chat is no longer an offered service, everything seems to be pay as you go now. How do you make a support ticket, I saw no option for this on the support site?
DwnNDrty: You seem to be on the right track, ran chkdsk on both drives, and defragment, when I went through the cloning process it got past the 4th check of the partitions and went on to do what looked like a 5th 6th and maybe 7th, was happy for a few seconds and then false message of clone complete masseage appeared. You may be on to something, just don't know if I want to buy a whole new external HD just to learn that it was a problem with True Image to begin with. MemTest seems to be a check for RAM though what would be its relevance? If you were in my shoes would you buy a new external HD or continue more troubleshooting first if any?
Darth,
Maybe find a posting by support and send them a private message asking for an iso for your version. Include your serial number and give a brief description of your problem. You may or may not be successful. Acronis has never promised to keep old versions up to date.
Hey guys, just wanted to say I figured out the problem, thanks to DwnNDrty I realized it was the External HD that had gone bad. Shelled out 100 bucks for it, and it worked 1st try. So this is just my apology to Acronis and whatever headaches I may have caused fellow posters like GroverH, sorry Acronis nothing was wrong with your software. And thanks to all the posters who helped
I had a similar problems and was able to clone from the boot CD as recommended above.
I have a windows xp pro system with two sizable sata hard drives. My plan is to periodically clone the primary disk to the internal backup. In testing if I can use the clone as my primary drive I switched the sata cables making the clone the boot drive. The problem I am now faced with is that the drive letters assigned to the two partitions on my original drive are still C: and D:. The partitions on the clone (now my boot drive) are F: and G: I would like to reassign the partition letters so that C: and D: are the partitions on my boot HD.
I can not do so in windows because the current C: drive has "Page Files". What is the proper way to insure that the drive letters are assigned correctly if both hard drives will always be in the system? Do I have to reassign them outside of windows?
Thanks for any help.
George Bosela