How to initialise a new SSD
Hello!
Today I have a new problem. My sytem drive C: (SSD) crashed. I ordered a new bigger one and assembled it. As I have a complete backup of C:on an external drive I started my Acronis rescue disk, but unfortunately Acronis did not find the new SSD where I wanted to recover my backup of C:. So I went to EXTRAS and TOOLS and there to ADD NEW DRIVE. There I found my new SSD, but it was not initialised. I wanted to initialise it but at the end of the process a pop-up informed me, that I use a testversion of Acronis, which is not true. I have a registered full version. So what can I do, that my new SSD will be recognized and that I can recover my sytem drive C: with the help of my rescue disk. Thank you very much for your help.
Kind regards
Klaus Hausmann
Hi Steve,
thank you for your quick answer. I have some older versions of Acronis rescue diks and with one of them I managed to initialize the new SSD. I also managed to handle its properties etc. So it got the name "Windows 10 & programs", I made it primary and active (C:)and then I was able to recover my system from a backup to the new SSD. It seemed to work, I was happy. But after the recovery process was finished my pc did not boot fom it. It didn´t boot at all. I repeated the procedure several times, but my system did not boot. When I started the rescue disk again I found out, that the second disk in my pc (HD with my own data) is labelled "DYNAMIC", my new SSD not. Might this be the reason, that my pc does not boot and if so, how can I change it? Or what other suggestion do you have? Thanks fpr helping me again.
Kind regards
Klaus
Klaus, thanks for the update - at this point I have a couple of thoughts to suggest to you.
First is your system UEFI or BIOS - do you have an EFI partition on your SSD drive, and if so, did you boot the Acronis Rescue Media in EFI mode to restore the backup to the new SSD?
Second, have you tried disconnecting the second drive (HDD) and booting from the restored SSD?
After a recovery of an image, you may need to go back into the bios and make sure the newly recovered disk is the first boot option in the menu - it is not uncommon for the bios (not acronis) to list another drive (CD, USB, or another internal hard drive) first after a recovery and stop there before it gets to the newly reocvered drive.
2nd - when you recover, you need to boot the recovery media in the same manner as the OS was originally installed. If the OS was UEFI - then boot the recovery media in UEFI mode. IF it was a legacy/MBR OS install, then boot the recovery media in legacy mode. How you boot the recoveyr media will determine how teh OS is restored (similar to how you boot a Windows install will determine how the OS will be installed). Please take a look at the original image to see if there is an EFI parition or not. If there is, you need to boot the recovery media in UEFI mode. If there isn't you need to boot the recovery media in legacy mode. This thread shows examples of what to look for to detemine how you booted your recovery media and how you can specifically do so if yoiur bios supports both legacy and UEFI mode and you can use your one time boot override menu to specifically pick one or the other.
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/121829#comment-378318
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/121829#comment-378318
As for why your recovered disk would be dynamic, that is based upon how the original disk was setup - basic or dynamic. If you had a hybrid drive to begin with, a RAID configuration, or a system that uses a caching SSD and a regular hard drive together, that would be a dynamic setup. Do any of these apply to the original OS install and/or original hard drive or motherboard where a small caching ssd may be embedded on the motherboard in addition to the older, slower spinning drive?
Thank you so much for your support Steve and Bobbo_3C0X1. But whatever I tried my problem is not yet solved.
1. I disconnected my second drive (HDD), my pc started but did not boot.
2. With the assistance of my Acronis rescue disk I initialized my SSD in MBR layout (not knowing if this is the correct initialization). It did not boot.
3. With the assistance of my Acronis rescue disk I initialized my SSD in GPT layout (not knowing if this is the correct initialization). It did not boot.
4. I got to the UEFI/BIOS (Called: Aptio Setup Utility - Copyright 2013 American MEGATRENDS). There under the register-card MAIN I found my SSD under
SATA Port 1 > Samsung SSD 85 (1000,2 GB) This is my new SSD. But when I went to register-card BOOT, where you can configure the boot options,
it seems not to be listed there. In the list there are 8 options:
#1 CD/DVD:UEFI: TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-216BB
#2 USB Key
#3 Hard Disk
#4 USB CD/DVD
#5 USB Floppy
#6 Network
#7 USB Hard Disk
#8 Disabled
I put Hard Disk as first boot option, because my SSD was not listed. It did not boot.
How can I find out if my system is UEFI or BIOS? I thinkk it is UEFI as my PC has only 2 years of age. But don´t really know.
I also do not know if I have an EFI partition on my new SSD. How can I find out? (The old one has crashed.)
I also took a look at the original image. There is a lis of 6 items:
- NTFS (windows 10 and programs) (C:)
- MBR and Track 0
- Recovery partition
- EFI System Partition (It seems I have one)
- FAT 32 (PRC_RP)
- Recovery Partition
When I tried to recover my partition C: I only chose the first item NTFS.... (C:). As you know it did not work.
The following i cannot answer, cause I have no idea:
> As for why your recovered disk would be dynamic, that is based upon how the original disk was setup - basic or dynamic. If you had a hybrid drive to begin with, a RAID configuration, or a system that uses a caching SSD and a regular hard drive together, that would be a dynamic setup. Do any of these apply to the original OS install and/or original hard drive or motherboard where a small caching ssd may be embedded on the motherboard in addition to the older, slower spinning drive? >
Klaus,
If your original backup image of the failed SSD had an UEFI partition, then you have your answer for whether your system is UEFI or BIOS - it is UEFI - that partition is only present on such systems.
Next, when you restore the original backup image to your new SSD, you should be restoring the entire disk, not just selecting individual partitions - for this you select the top level disk for both source and target and let Acronis work out where to put the actual partitions involved.
Once you have restored the whole disk, then check again in the UEFI BIOS settings and look for either your SSD drive or else look for Windows Boot Manager as the option to select for the boot device.
Steve,
thank you so much! I was so happy, it worked, it worked, it worked, BUT......
After I had restored the entire disk, my computer booted. Everything seemed to be alright. I shut the computer down and opend the UEFI/BIOS and looked for my new SSD, it was not there but the Windows Boot Manager was there. I put it at the first place of the boot-order. Then I connected my disk with my personal data and restarted the computer. It booted a bit, then a window appeared from CyberLink PowerRecover telling me, that no image exists and I was advised to contact the customer service.
Whatever I did afterwards, my computer only boots until this CyberlInk window appears. How can I get rid of it. Have you got some ideas?
Klaus,
Make sure that Windows Boot Manager is stil listed first in your bios boot order. Sometimes it takes settign this a couple of times to make it stick. Make sure you SAVE the settings when you exit the bios.
Klaus, you've confirmed your backup image was taken from a UEFI system, but are you sure you're booting the recovery media in UEFI mode as well to match it? To be certain, your system should have some time of boot overrided or one time boot menu (see 07 example below). On many systems like Dell and custom motherboard PC builds, to get there, you press F12 after a cold boot or restart. On some other OEM systems like HP, Asus, etc, it can be F1 or ESC - you'll have to check your manual to verify if you're not sure. Alternatively, you may be able to get to a boot override menu from your bios (last tab usually has a save option and boot override). This way, you can specifically click the option to boot your recovery media in UEFI mode and not legacy.
Attachments 10 and 11 show what you should see when you boot into your Acronis recovery media in UEFI mode. 08 and 09 show what it looks like if you boot in legacy mode. You want to make 100% certain you're booting in UEFI mode to perform your recovery.
When the UEFI recovery is complete (click the option to shutdown after restore within Acronis so it shuts down cleanly), unplug any external drives and remove any USB flash drives and eject any CD/DVD. Then boot straight into the bios and make sure that Windows boot manager is first in the priority and be sure to save it as Enchantech suggested. Save and then boot and see what happens.
In this example: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/_/rsrc/1463337347761/windows/UEFI-Boot_Priority_Order.JPG - the user has the Windows bootmanager listed last - this would cause problems as it will stop at any drive, usb or cd/dvd and fail to boot. It needs to be first and needs to be saved to ensure it remains in the top priority when you go to boot again.
As Steve also mentioned, make sure you're doing a full disk recovery - select all paritions - everything... just restore the entire disk too.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| 07_boot_override_menu_example.jpg | 306.17 KB |
| 08_legacy_boot_override_menu_example.jpg | 313.16 KB |
| 09_legacy_boot_acronis_menu_example.jpg | 513.35 KB |
| 10_uefi_boot_override_menu_example.jpg | 295.7 KB |
| 11_uefi_boot_acronis_menu_example.jpg | 356.11 KB |
Thank you for all your suggestions.
In the meantime the notice from Cyberport Recovery during the boot-process has disappered (I don´t know why) and my computer is able to boot.
Something else seems strange to me: My old SSD (System-Partitition) had a capacity of 236 GB, the new one has one of 930 GB. But as I recovered ALL partitions from my latest backup, my system-partitition C: (new SSD) has got 236 GB as well, and there remains an unallocated space of 693 GB. I wanted to enlarge C: with the unallocated space to make it larger, but windows administration prevents me from doing so. It seems not to be possible. Have you all again some ideas?
Kind regards
Klaus
I have had the same issue. You will need a dedicated partition/HDD management tool to do this. As things can go badly wrong when playing with partitions do a full backup before attempting to do so.
Another possibility is to creat a backup, boot using the recovery media, and then do a custom recovery (which allows you to adjust the partition sizes). It is a bit 'clunky' but it works - I did this yesterday (no-system HDD). You go through and adjust the partition size one by one (in the order they are on the HDD). (I managed to do this without having to resort to the manual - however I suggest you have a look first.)
Ian
Klaus,
Where are you trying to extend the disk in Windows? If you are an administrator on the account, you should be go to control panel >>> administrative tools >>> (right click on "computer management" and select "run as administrator"
Computer Mamagement >>> Storage >>> Disk Management
Right clicck on C: and "extend volume"
If that is greyed out or not working, that means there alre locked files at the end of the disk - these can be due to antivirus or even paging file being allocated at random sectors of the disk further down the line which prevent Windows from being able to extend out.
If this is the problem, as Ian pointed out, using a dedicated paritioning tool would be the way to go. As long as you have a backup (just in case), you're good to go. I've never needed to use a backup here, but better to be safe than sorry. Personally, I use the free version of minitool parition wizard which allows you to install in Windows and if it needs to reboot the system to complete, will handle things on it's own. Alternatively, they offer a bootable .iso that you can boot to to do this completely outside of Windows as well.
Minitool_Free_9.1.exe installer
Hi Ian and Bobbo,
it lasted quite a while til I tried out what you suggested. And what shall I say? It worked! It worked with the help of `minitool partition Wizard free´. It did not work with Windows Disk Management. There it was not possible to extend C:. It was greyed out. But with mini tool it worked. I´m pretty happy. Thanks to you all, who helped me!
klaus
Good deal! Glad you are back in business again and know how to go through this with Minitool if you need to down the road.