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Clone with bootable OS to replace a drive on this machine option

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So it has been a while since I used Acronis and didn't understand that the first clone option actually makes the source volume unbootable. Does anyone know how to fix this and make it bootable again? What does it actually do to the drive to make it no longer able to boot?

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Posts: 2
Comments: 1727

Hello Allen.

 If you clone a disk with Windows to an external USB hard drive, you might not be able to boot from it. We recommend cloning to an internal SSD or HDD instead.

It is recommended not to format the source hard disk after the cloning until you are sure that the cloned target disk boots fine.

Please also refer to the following KB's:

https://kb.acronis.com/content/45437

https://kb.acronis.com/content/2931

https://kb.acronis.com/content/56634

Could you please provide us with more details about what steps you took, the entire background?

Thanks in advance!

Not booting off USB, just would liek to be able to boot off the original source disk by somehow fixing the booting.
 
Jose Pedro Magalhaes wrote:

Hello Allen.

 If you clone a disk with Windows to an external USB hard drive, you might not be able to boot from it. We recommend cloning to an internal SSD or HDD instead.

It is recommended not to format the source hard disk after the cloning until you are sure that the cloned target disk boots fine.

Please also refer to the following KB's:

https://kb.acronis.com/content/45437

https://kb.acronis.com/content/2931

https://kb.acronis.com/content/56634

Could you please provide us with more details about what steps you took, the entire background?

Thanks in advance!

Allen, what exactly did you do when cloning for your original post for this topic?

The source disk should still be fine provided that you remove the cloned disk from your system and not try to boot with both disks connected.

You may need to check the BIOS boot settings to ensure that it is selecting the correct disk to boot from, and if this is a UEFI boot system, you should have 'Windows Boot Manager' as the boot option from the original disk.

Ok I know what broke it. It was if you don't choose the option to use on ANOTHER machine, it will break the source from being bootable. What I need to know is if that can be fixed.

The problem is that when you don't chose the option to use on ANOTHER PC, it destroys the bootability of the source. My question was if there was a way to fix the bootability of the source disk if you did that

Allen,

So in answer to your question (The problem is that when you don't chose the option to use on ANOTHER PC, it destroys the bootability of the source. My question was if there was a way to fix the bootability of the source disk if you did that)? The answer is maybe.

In general terms bootability can likely be restored to an Windows OS disk using BCDEdit from the command line and fixing the entry for the disk itself.  There are a number of articles on doing this on the web but I recommend looking to MS TechNet articles in looking for information on that.

You do not say if your clone attempt was performed from within a booted Windows system but I assume that it was.  You also do not mention what version of Acronis you are using here but I will assume the latest.

When performing a clone procedure on a booted Windows system this process is known as Active cloning, sometimes called "Live" cloning because the source disk is "online" to perform this process.

I believe the key to performing an Active clone without corrupting the source disk is to do so as follows:

  1. Make certain that your target disk is in an "Unallocated" state meaning that no formatting has been applied.  Windows Disk Management should show the disk and report that it is Unallocated to confirm this.
  2. Attach this target disk to the source PC via a USB adapter or enclosure.
  3. Run the clone tool from within the Acronis applications Tools tab.

When you setup the clone to be performed in this way you will not see the options of selecting bootablility for the target disk unless there are more than the source and target disks attached to the source machine (internal or external). 

When only the source and target disks are in the picture, the  Acronis clone tool will only show the source disk on screen and you simply select Next to continue.  The next screen will show the target Unallocated disk showing a Before clone and After clone view for you to confirm visually and if all looks correct then clicking the Proceed button will kick off the clone and when finished you will see a success screen displayed with instructions on how to proceed from there. 

Those instructions say, Turn off the machine, disconnect or remove the source disk and reboot.  Doing this will likely not work due to the Windows requirement of not allowing Windows to boot from an external disk.  You should install the target disk internally in the PC and then boot the PC.  This will allow the firmware on the motherboard to adjust the BCD Store to boot to the target disk meaning success.

Please review the KB Article found Here for more detail on Active Cloning.