Disk cloning failure - "Error 0x101f6: A format/resize error"
Hi, I have a second SSD in my laptop on which I hold all my data (so none is on my C drive) which I am trying to clone to a brand new drive the same size, both are 2Tb / 1,863Gb available. The existing drive is in my laptop and the new plugged in to a USB port. It's not a bootable Windows system disk, so there are no concerns about which drive should be in the laptop for the cloning.
I have the existing drive partitioned into 4 logical drives, which I use to hold separately different types of data - regular files such as Office docs, photos, videos, and media such as my audio collection. On the new disk I want to tweak the size of each logical drive, so I am doing a manual clone to specify the size of each drive on the destination disk.
The cloning fails as in all the others above with "Error 0x101f6: A format/resize error", See the attached which includes log files from TWO attempts to do exactly the same thing, on consecutive days - they do not fail in exactly the same way - that alone is a little odd, surely?
Noting the advice in an old thread for the same disk cloning failure (thanks Steve) about possible unmovable data causing the problem, as suggested there I have checked for the 2 of the 4 drives whose size I want to reduce, and there is plenty of headroom. F: I want to reduce from 249Gb to 140Gb and shrink volume suggests it can be reduced to 77,177Mb. H: I want to reduce from 649Gb to 424Gb, and shrink volume reports it can be reduced to 262,984Gb. This is also screenshot'ed in the attached.
Before attempting the clone I ran chkdsk /f for each of the four logical drives and no errors were reported. Both disks are 512 bytes/sector.
So what's the problem Acronis?
Also, I have been using TrueImage for many years, why Acronis are such problems still resulting in the clone operation FAILING and us having (1) to find out where the log files are (thanks Acronis for NOT telling us this in your error message!!); (2) find out how to read them, or where the forum-created tool is to do this; (3) resort to a forum to research the problem, then report it and ask for any ideas.
Why Acronis aren't you intelligently reporting to the user what the problem is, e.g. (although clearly not in my case) "Immovable data found which prevents partition being reduced in size as requested". Even better for this problem, rather than abandon the attempt, how about then asking "Would you like me to increase the size of the affected partition to compensate for this?". What intelligent, useful software that would be!
Not impressed.
Any pointers appreciated, thanks very much in advance. :-)
Adrian
P.S. if no file is attached I'll try adding later, separately - the Acronis website seems to be very flaky this evening and I keep getting page load errors (504 Gateway Time-out). The file upload button here allows me to select a file, but then there is no indication that the file has actually been uploaded...
Adrian, some comments / questions:
First, does a straight forward clone from disk 1 to 2 with no manual resizing work? All of the errors are format / resize for all of the partitions, hence this question given the two disks are in essence the same size.
Second, personally I am not a fan of using cloning and very rarely ever use it! For a non-OS drive there are a number of options available to you to achieve the same end result.
- You could use Backup & Recovery for which I have never yet seen a 'format / resize' error reported.
- You could make a Files & Folders backup for each of the partitions contents then recover this to the new changed size partitions on the second drive.
- You could do a simple Copy of all the source Files & Folders to the second drive.
- You could use a synchronisation tool such RoboCopy or a free tool such as Sync Folders to copy all the data.
The advantages of choosing one of the above methods is that you can setup the new drive exactly as you want in terms of partition sizes, then just move, copy or restore the data from the original drive to the new one without needing to bang your head on the wall!
Jose and Steve, thanks very much for your swift responses – much appreciated!
Jose, to respond first to your comments and suggestions:
(1) The two attempts I made that resulted in slightly different error messages, nothing had changed. Same two disks, and no data had been changed on the source disk between the two attempts. Odd!
(2) Your suggestion about first creating partitions on the destination disk that I want each logical drive to end up as (and I don’t actually want to MATCH sizes on the source disk, I want to change the division of space between my four drives – otherwise I’d just allow TI to do an automatic clone)… unless I am missing something, you can’t clone one partition at a time? Cloning copies an entire disk. The only thing TI takes note of on the destination disk is its size relative to the source disk; apart from that it simply deletes any existing partitions on the disk before commencing to overwrite it? It doesn’t take any note whatsoever of what partitions already exist.
Steve, yes a straightforward clone with no manual resizing completes successfully. This suggests to me there is no issue with any data on the source disk that is tripping up the cloning process.
And what is really weird, in this automatic cloning TI is CHANGING the size of each partition from the source disk to the destination, as I allowed it to do a proportionate cloning – and since my source disk has a largish unallocated section at the end of the disk, TI makes each partition on the destination disk LARGER than it is on the source disk, to leave no unallocated space. So, TI is indeed successfully resizing!! The only difference being that (1) it’s making up its mind what the sizes will be, and (2) no partition is ending up smaller – what I’ve been trying to accomplish.
My conclusion: there is something about me stipulating that two of my four partitions on the destination drive are to be SMALLER than on the source that is somehow tripping TI up. Yet as previously observed it doesn’t look like there is immovable data, as Disk Management happily offers to shrink these two partitions in-situ to way smaller than I want to make them on the new drive.
Me, I have always been a fan of cloning. Historically for many years I’ve used it to overcome the inevitability of a Windows installation to age and decay with time. Every time I get a new computer or set up a new machine for a friend or family member, I get the system set up just as wanted then ‘ghost’ (as it used to be called) a complete copy onto a spare disk. 18-30 months later when the system starts to fall apart, I take the pristine system build off the shelf and ghost it back. This approach has stopped many friends and family over the years from popping down to Curry’s for a new PC/laptop because theirs is “going too slow” or has developed problems. Think of it as a sustainability, good-for-the planet initiative! Nothing wrong with the hardware – all software, and as you will know as well as I do, a complete rebuild of the system will give them a new computer back. Ghosting the original build to a copy is by far the fastest way to do a rebuild; you just have to bring it up to date with all the Windows etc. updates and install anything that’s been added since the ghost copy was taken. This approach btw is why I personally nowadays keep all my data (incl. Outlook files) on a separate drive, it makes this refresh process simpler and quicker.
Yes, for a non-OS drive there are several other ways to move all my files across. But intrinsically when one is wanting to copy an entire drive, that’s what ghosting software as it was once called is there for – and what Acronis built into TI as disk cloning; a better, less obscure choice of terminology. When it works, since it’s a sector-by-sector copy it will be much faster than copying files and folders one by one. It just makes sense.
I used to work in IT many years ago, and have a degree in computer science from before the term ‘IT’ was even invented. Hence I guess my obstinacy. It SHOULD work, Acronis. And when it doesn’t, my background causes me first of all to question WHY, since if one can get to the bottom of that, one can usually uncover some useful insights or learnings along the way. Only as a last resort do I reach for the packet of sticking plasters and use a workaround. I like to hold the software accountable. And in this case, if there is a genuine reason why TI really can’t complete my clone when I use the facility it offers me to pick for myself destination partition sizes, I’d like it to tell me WHY, what the problem is – not give up half-heartedly with a vague format/resize error message. What’s the real problem guys?
Do the developers read stuff posted on here?
Since a non-manual clone works fine, I guess I’m going to have to give up on my attempt to understand and resolve, and do this, then use another tool to resize my partitions on the new drive as I want them…
Thanks again for the help and suggestions, both of you!