Hello Ed,

1) First, run chkdsk /f /r on both disks (even new disks can have bad sectors) - if there are any bad sectors on either disk, cloning will fail. 

2) Don't start the clone from windows.  Please start with your offline bootable recovery media.  It's safer and more reliable. Safer because when you start in Windows, it will need to reboot anyway, then overwrite the Windows bootloader with the Linux Acronis bootloader and may not revert back if Acronis doesn't load properly.  You can avoid this possible situation entirely by always starting a clone (or full disk recovery) with your offline bootable recovery media. 

3) Never boot your computer to the OS after a clone with both drives attached - the bios will see them as the same physical drive and this may result in Windows bootloaders getting corrupted as it tries to figure out which one to boot to.

To test your cloned drive, remove the original and put the clone where the original was and only boot with it attached. If it works, then pull it out and put the drive away until you're ready to do a clone again, or in case you need to revert to it for a real world replacement. 

4) Cloning may not always work - there are some limitations with cloning compared to an image backup and recovery.  If you've followed the first 3 steps exactly and your resulting clone still won't boot, then you should try a full disk image and restore instead.  The result is ulitmately the same, but you get a backup image out of the process too and even the documentation recommends you take a backup before a clone - just in case!

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/#21822.html

• What is the best way to migrate the system to a new disk: cloning or backup and recovery? - The backup and recovery method provides more flexibility. In any case, we strongly recommend to make a backup of your old hard disk even if you decide to use cloning. It could be your data saver if something goes wrong with your original hard disk during cloning. For example, there were cases when users chose the wrong disk as the target and thus wiped their system disk. In addition, you can make more than one backup to create redundancy and increase security.
• Could you tell me how to clone: in Windows or after booting from the rescue media? Even when you start cloning in Windows, the computer will reboot into the Linux environment the same as when booting from the rescue media. Because of this, it is better to clone under rescue media. For example, there may be a case when your hard disk drives are detected in Windows and not detected in Linux. If this is the case, the cloning operation will fail after reboot. When booting from the rescue media, you can make sure that Acronis True Image detects both the source and target disks before starting the cloning operation.

45437: Acronis True Image Does Not Clone Drives with Different Logic Sector Sizes

56634: Acronis True Image 2016: Cloning Disks

Hi,

Maybe you already gave an answer before but my problem is slightly different: I had a clone my 120GB SSD (inside the laptop) to a brand new 480GB SSD (through an USB device). Cloned through Windows10 and everything went well. I removed the old disk form my laptop and put the new clone instead.

The PC starts booting on the new disk but, then,  Windows 10 doesn't stop booting (blue screen with the dots turning around below the windows logo)

I did it twice with exactly the same result

If I try to do reverse procedure (new disk inside the laptop and old disk in the USB device....the old drive is not detected and Acronis tell me that is impossible to clone with one disk only...indeed)

So, what to do?

Something on the existing clone to solve the situation?

Redo a full process with backup and recovery?

Thanks for helping...

Been here before too.

Try this one:  http://www.thewindowsclub.com/repair-master-boot-record-mbr-windows

After running the commands, power off and see if it boots.  If not, go back in to the Windows installer avanced options and attempt a startup repair (even if it says not successful) and try to boot again. 

Or this one too... 

http://www.kapilarya.com/fix-windows-10-master-boot-record-corrupted

The cloning of an operating system disk should be done only using the bootable Recovery Media which you can create using the Media Builder Tool found in the Tools Option screen in the Windows installed True Image application.

The cloining of an operating system disk also should only be done in the following manner:

1. Remove the existing operating system disk from the PC. (Source disk)

2. Install the new disk in the same place as the existing disk was removed from. (Target disk)

3. Attach the Source disk to the PC via USB transfer cable, dock/craddle, or spare internal data port and power connector.

4. Boot your PC using the Recovery Media that you created using the Media Builder tool.

To clone a disk:

1. On the sidebar, click Tools, and then click Clone disk.

2. On the Clone Mode step, choose a transfer mode.
 Automatic—Recommended in most cases.
 Manual—Manual mode will provide more data transfer flexibility. Manual mode can be useful if you need to change the disk partition layout.

If the program finds two disks, one partitioned and another unpartitioned, it will automatically recognize the partitioned disk as the source disk and the unpartitioned disk as the destination disk. In such case, the next steps will be bypassed and you will be taken to the cloning Summary screen.

3. On the Source Disk step, select the disk that you want to clone. 

4. On the Destination Disk step, select the destination (Target disk) for the cloned data.

If the selected destination disk contains partitions, you will need to confirm deletion of the partitions. Note that the real data destruction will be performed only when you click Proceed on the last step of the wizard.

If any disk is unpartitioned, the program will automatically recognize it as the destination and bypass this step.

If your clone attempt has failed I would recommend removing any partitioning information on the (Target disk) and then following the above instructions. If you do not see the Target disk in the Recovery Media after this step then you would need to Cancel the Clone operation and use the Add New Disk tool in the Recovery media to initialize the (Target disk) then, setup the Clone again using the wizard.

The Automatic Mode is the best choice when cloning from smaller to larger disk as the clone tool will automatically resize the smaller disk partitions to completely fill the larger disk to full capacity.

After the clone operation has completed shutdown your PC and remove the (Source disk) from the PC then boot the machine to the new (Target disk) which if you followed these instructions will already be installed in place of the old (Source disk).

If your PC fails to boot to the newly cloned drive then reboot the machine into the bios configuration setup screens, select the boot tab, look for Boot Priority and make certain that Windows Boot Manager is listed first in the priority order if you have a UEFI bios.  If your PC has an MBR (Legacy) bios then the new disk itself would need to be first in the boot priority order (with no other disks attached it should be the only one found in the Priority list).

In addition to the above I highly recommend that only the Source and Target disks are attached to the PC when performing clone operations.   This will avoid cloning to the wrong disk.

Using an unpartiioned Target disk and having only the Source and Target disks connected to the PC makes the process dead simple and is recommended for most users.

Sorry for replying late, been away with work, thanks for all the info. I will try again

Regards

Ed

Thank you for the guide to information

In the 56634 post, the last image shows the destination drive partitioned. I want to move 60GB from the source 2TB noisy HDD to a new M.2 2280 270GB SSD. I would like the 270GB destination to be a single partition when the process would complete. Is that possible?

BTW; I have 1) Acer recovery USB, 2) Windows 10 recovery disk and image, 3) Acronis recovery disk and image backups to a WD external USB drive and lastly 4) Windows 10 ISO install USB

I seek the best way to move to the new SSD, and remove the noisy HDD. Soon after, I would like to add back a large HDD for storage of documents, music, etc.

I only have a desire to clone for the ability to save the Acronis and CyberLink installs. My fallback position is clean install from windows 10 USB.

Please do teach me to clone if possible

thank you greatly for your time and knowledge

Mike

Mike wrote:

 I want to move 60GB from the source 2TB noisy HDD to a new M.2 2280 270GB SSD. I would like the 270GB destination to be a single partition when the process would complete. Is that possible?

Mike, there are already comprehensive guides to how to perform cloning in this topic thread in the earlier posts.

Cloning can only work with entire disks, so if you have more than 60GB of data on your source 2TB HDD then it all would be moved to the SSD with doing a clone.

If you want to only move specific partitions to the new SSD, then you should use Backup & Restore as the method to do so.  It is always highly recommended to make a full disk backup of the source drive before attempting a clone so you should have this before hand.

In terms of a single partition, that is unlikely simply because Windows works with multiple partitions, some of which are hidden system partitions such as the Microsoft System Reserved and EFI partitions - these would be needed on your SSD drive.

Hi Steve, thank you for your post. I am presently, reading all I can. Here and other sources. Lots of conflicting comments to sort through and as always, clear communication is a challenge.

I would like your further comment on one point.

If there is only 60GB of data showing on the source, and I accept that some space on the destination drive may be allocated to EFI, or a Recovery space, (these are normally "hidden" and do not have a drive letter assigned to them, right?) my query is, can the new (destination) be as large as the remaining space allows?

OR, are you saying that the 60GB cloned source size will close the size of the new "C" destination drive and be partitioned EXACTLY the cloned size, and the "unused balance" will be furthrt partitioned as a different drive letter? see attachment

thank you for your amazing patience, I will keep reading previous posts on this topic

Mike, please see the ATIH 2017 User Guide: Using the Clone disk utility

Using the Clone disk utility

To clone a disk:

1. On the sidebar, click Tools, and then click Clone disk.
2. On the Clone Mode step, we recommend that you choose the Automatic transfer mode. In this case, the partitions will be proportionally resized to fit your new hard drive. The Manual mode provides more flexibility. Refer to Clone Disk wizard for more details about the manual mode.

See also from the same guide: Migrating to SSD using the backup and recovery method and separately, Recovering your system to a new disk under bootable media