CLONE SSD for FSX
I've been using Acronis for maybe 3 months (system specs below). Today I cloned SSD 1 and then shutdown, unplugged SSD 1, left SSD 2 plugged in and rebooted. Everything booted up fine and other apps / programs seem to work fine but when I tried to start FSX all I get is "Fatal Error...". I have a number of FSX add-on things installed to a 1 TB HDD. Do I need to do anything with the BIOS settings in order for the cloned SSD to have identical settings? I'm at a loss and worried that I've wasted my time and $$ on trying to clone a 2nd SSD (Samsung EVO 500GB). The whole point was to have a plug n play clone in case something went awry on the 1st SSD. Anyone have this issue before? BTW, I installed the Acronis True Image 2016 update just prior to the clone operation.
Thanks,
Bruce
i7-4790K OC@4.5GHz, ASUS Z97 PRO-GAMER, GTX 970 4GB, 16GB DDR3 SDRAM, 500GB SSD + clone, 1TB HDD
FSX boxed DX9 with Acceleration, WIN 10 64bit


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Enchantech- nope same result. Unfortunately I have to go out of town for a week tomorrow. When I get back I'll format the 2nd SSD and retry. I see the logic of signing out of Windows. In theory a clone should retain all associations to programs or files on another drive right? I checked event viewer and I see the offending module. PowerPoint and other programs seem fine.
I also just updated ATI and I see some issues in the forum, should I do the clean up and a clean install?
Thanks for the help, I'll advise results when I return
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I would not suggest a cleanup reinstall unless you are having big issues with the product. Obviously the clone worked it is just that something in that process skewed FSX. I note you say you found the offending module, hopefully after correcting that things will return to normal for you.
As info a clone is an exact bit for bit copy of one disk to another in other words an exact duplicate. So yes all associations are carried over.
Be advised that Windows 10 is particular about drive location by connection. My thought in my suggestion was that possibly FSX noting a change in drive location didn't like that so it went south on you, sounds like that is not the case.
Hpe you get it sorted.
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I think you're right on. The first time I cloned and tested I plugged the clone SSD into a different SATA cable. When I ran FSX it failed. The second time I thought I plugged it into the same cable that was on the source SSD but at that point it was corrupt. When I get back I'll format and start over carefully and let you know. Thanks!
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Finally back. Started over fresh and still doesn't work.
I cloned from SSD 1 to 2. In that process the computer shuts down at completion, so I don't get an opportunity to sign out. When it shut down I changed the cloned SSD cables to source cables and kept the source disconnected. Rebooted and when I run FSX there is some dependency that prevents a critical set of gauges form loading properly. When I shutdown and reconnect the original source SSD everything is fine. What am I missing? Something in the clone / reboot / windows 10 process something isn't carrying over.
Thanks,
Bruce
EDIT: my configuration is C:\ is the Samsumg EVO 500GB SSD and D:\ is a WD 1TB HDD. The Win 10 OS and FSX are loaded on the SSD along with some FSX add ons and few programs such as Norton 360, Office 365 etc. Most other programs are installed on the D:\ drive. I noticed that GoodSync, which is installed on the D:\ drive also lost some activation certificate data in the clone process. So I'm doing something wrong that isn't capturing all the windows related relationships in the clone process.
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This is certainly a mystery. I have NO experience with FSX, I suppose that not being able to sign out as you say may be an issue but I am not sure how you would do that after the clone process completed anyway as you are running the clone process with the source disk in an offline mode.
I am not sure if you are running the cloning process from within the Windows installed True Image application but if you are STOP doing that! Create bootable Recovery Media using the Media Creation tool, boot to that media, and run the clone process from there. Make sure to check the Shutdown Computer option when setting up the clone which may not appear until after you actually start the process.
The Media Builder tool can be found by clicking the tools icon in the left column of the True Image GUI
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Still no luck. I created a bootable recovery DVD from the Media Builder tool. Shutdown, connected both SSDs, rebooted to the DVD and ran True Image 2016 (64bit) from the DVD. Went throught the complete clone process, selected shutdown, after shutdown removed the DVD from the drive, connected the cloned SSD to the source cables, kept the source SSD diconnected and rebooted. FSX failed with a fatal error. After shutdown, reconnected source SSD and it's fine.
There seems to be relationships between the SSD and the HDD that aren't being captured in the clone process. Or because files aren't exactly in the same place from an OS perspective the links are failing. It's not just an FSX issue though. GoodSync was another example and I haven't tried wringing out the clone SSD to see what else fails.
Thanks for your continued help and support! Maybe there is an alternate way to accomplish what I want to do... be able to fall back to a complete backup of the OS and FSX (and other programs on the source SSD) in case of a failure or if things get messed up.
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Bruce, I have no experience with Microsoft Flight Simulator FSX but I understand that this is an activated product and as such it may well be keyed to the specific hardware signature of your original source SSD drive and does not recognise your cloned drive as being the same hardware signature.
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Bruce,
Steve may be correct not sure though as the clone process should bring disk signatures along as well. You might do some research to see if you can discover how XFS does its activation. If using UUID information then not sure how you would proceed.
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Thanks both. I'll have to do some additional testing and research. I want to completely check out the cloned SSD to see what programs seem to be a problem. To be clear, Flight Simulator X isn't the issue. There is a specific add on to FSX, RealityXP GPS, that is causing the failures. That add on product is old and does require installation from a wrapper and validation online so I'm guessing it is using a UUID or some other hardware specific signature. I'm thinking the GoodSync program was also looking for a hardware signature of some kind but it had a more graceful failure mode, simply asking for the activation key again.
If those are the only two program that need "fixing" then it's not so bad, but I'm leery that in ten minutes of running at least two programs failed, seems likely others will require fixing as well. I don't really understand UUID / GUID yet so I need to research.
Thanks,
Bruce
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Bruce,
I am not sure this will help but with your reference to RealityXP GPS I can accross a thread post that has reference to FSX crashes. See below:
https://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=108&t=35825
Hope it helps!
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