Cloning setup can't get past selecting destination disk
I am trying to clone from one drive to another, both are in a dock connected by USB. My PC is running Windows 10.
The source disk has 4 partitions identified as follows:
RECOVERY (E:) NTFS 9.881 GB
OS (F:) NTFS 293.0 GB
DATA (G:) NTFS 628.6 GB
One partition has no drive letter but a mouse-over shows this...
FS: FAT 16 Partition: 0xDE (DELL Server utilities) 39.19 MB
The destination drive has a single partition...
OS (H:) NTFS 465.8 GB
I first chose the manual method. I was able to select the source disk, then the destination. After I OK'd the deletion warning, I selected Manual as the data moving method, then clicked Next. The Clock in a box appeared after which I expected to get options for sizing the partitions. But the Clock in a box went away after a short time, and nothing else happened. I could click Next again, so I did, but still nothing.
So I tried the Automatic method and got similar results. After selecting the destination disk I expected to see the before and after partitions. But after the Clock in a box disappeared, there was nothing.
I tried re-booting and got the same results. I used Windows to check for drive errors and it said no errors were found and so no need to do a scan. I used Hard Disk Sentinel and both drives were showing as being in perfect condition.
Any ideas on what could be wrong?
Thanks for your reply. Here is additional info...
The E: drive (RECOVERY) - 6.17 GB used, 3.70 GB free (38%)
The F: drive (OS) - 73.2 GB used, 219 GB free (75%)
The G: drive (DATA) - 212 MB used, 628 GB free (99.9666%)
The 39.19 MB partition is 100% free according to Windows Disk Management
My reason for trying the manual method first was to set the DATA partition much lower so that the other 3 partitions could have the same size on the destination as in the source.
I downloaded and used the MVP tool. The latest log file that it finds is from Feb. 22 when I last used Acronis to clone something. It worked fine then. I see no logs from today.
David, thanks for the usage details - you look to have plenty of free space available so resizing shouldn't be an issue unless there are serious fragmentation or file system issues involved here!
I can only suggest trying the clone operation a further time and giving it longer if it seems to be 'stuck'?
Have you used this same USB dock for cloning a pair of drives previously and successfully?
Is the USB dock powered from the USB ports on your computer or does it have a separate power supply?
Have you disabled 'USB selective suspend' in the Power Options for the host computer?
I checked the source drive for errors and none were found. The OS partition shows only 1% fragmentation when analyzed by Windows, the other partitions show 0%.
I tried the cloning setup again and waited 40 min after selecting the manual data moving method and clicking Next. The clock in the box runs for only about 50 sec, then goes away. During this 50 sec I can see activity on the dock with the LED for the source drive blinking. When the clock in the box goes away, the blinking stops and no activity is seen on the dock for either the source or destination drive. The process is not getting stuck, it is simply aborting with no error message.
I have used that dock many times with no problems. As a further test, I removed the 1 TB source disk and put in a 320 GB drive that has a Windows 10 backup on it. I was able to proceed through both the automatic and manual cloning setup all the way to the proceed step. I didn't actually proceed, just wanted to see if I could get past the point where it aborts when using the 1 TB drive as the source.
The dock is powered by a separate 12V, 3A power supply, so 36 watts. Both the source and the destination drives are Seagate Momentus drives, each requiring 0.52A at 12V and 0.72A at 5V, so about 10 watts each. The USB selective suspend is disabled when PC is plugged in, which it is, but since the dock has its own supply that shouldn't matter.
It looks like the cloning setup software is having a problem with my 1 TB source disk.
In your last post you mention the destination drive is a (USB) dock. Windows will not boot from USB drive, therefore, as I understand it, an attempt to clone to a USB drive will fail. Unfortunately ATI is not giving an explanation for what is happening.
What you will have to do is to create a backup of the existing drive. If you intend replacing that drive, then take out the drive and put in the new one, then restore to the new drive.
Steve is more knowledgeable on this than I am but I think he will agree with my suggestion.
Ian
I am using an Orico dual bay docking station which holds two actual hard drives, not USB flash memory. The docking station connects to a PC via a USB cable. It also provides power to the drives. I have used this docking station many times to clone disks using Acronis software. Once cloned, the destination drive is removed from the dock and installed in some other computer.
It is definitely possible to clone to drives in a USB dock (or external case). Done it many times myself.
However, cloning does have limitations. It is not possible to clone drives that have a different sector size. So, are the original drive and the new drive both using 512Kb sector sizes, or is one a native 4K drive? If one is one type and one the other, cloning is not possible - a hybrid drive could potentially be a stumbling block for cloning as dynamic disks are not supported for cloning and hybrids are read as dynamic disks. Also, some docks/external cases use a non-standard sector size which could cause this issue too - even though the drives may be using the same sector size, the dock reports a different size to the rescue media, resulting in an inability to clone.
Because cloning does have some limitations, and can be a bit finicky if certain criteria are not exact, I would also suggest attempting to backup the original drive (hopefully you've done this already anyway) and then restore the backup to the new drive and see if the behavior is different / better as the result. Cloning is great when it works, but backup and recovery can overcome the limitations/challenges of cloning and is nearly just as fast... however, you also get a nice backup for a "oh crap" just in case moment if cloning goes terribly wrong and that can be the difference between having the ability to recover again, or not.
45437: Acronis True Image Does Not Clone Drives with Different Logical Sector Sizes
56634: Acronis True Image: how to clone a disk
Source and target disks must have equal logical sector size. Cloning to a disk with different logical sector size is not supported. E.g., you can clone a 512 bytes/sector disk to 512 bytes/sector disk; you can clone a 4096 bytes/sector disk to 4096 bytes/sector disk; but you cannot clone a disk with logical sector size 512 bytes to disk with logical sector size 4096 bytes.
Only basic disks can be cloned with Acronis True Image. You cannot clone dynamic disks.
Bob, thanks for the clarification - obviously having a seniors moment.
Ian
Ian,
Happens to us all. When I haven't tested or used something in awhile, I forget too! Just cloned to an external PCIe NVME to USB 3.1 enclosure (twice) recently so it's fresh in my mind.
Bob, I remember your describing how you did that.
Ian
David, in addition to the comments / references from Rob (Bobbo) and Ian, I would suggest trying to do a full disk backup of the source 1TB drive to see if that gives any error messages in the log file?
One other thought, given the usage details you posted earlier, can you shrink your virtually unused G: Data partition to its minimal size then retry the clone? You can shrink via Windows Disk Management or else resize using a partition manager program such as MiniTool Partition Wizard (free). This would remove one aspect of resizing for the clone operation.
Regarding the disk sector issue, both source and destination drives have 512 byte sectors. Using fsutil I get the same results on all named partitions such as these results for F:
C:\WINDOWS\system32>fsutil fsinfo sectorinfo f:
LogicalBytesPerSector : 512
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 512
PhysicalBytesPerSectorForPerformance : 512
FileSystemEffectivePhysicalBytesPerSectorForAtomicity : 512
Device Alignment : Aligned (0x000)
Partition alignment on device : Aligned (0x000)
Performs Normal Seeks
Trim Not Supported
Not DAX capable
Not Thinly-Provisioned
I decided to try another cloning utility. I have only the free version of that so it took hours overnight to run. But it was successful and the destination drive is working fine in the target computer.
If I get a chance, I may try the suggestions in Steve Smith's last post to see what happens. But for now my immediate problem is solved.
David, thanks for the update and glad that you have been able to get a successful clone using a different product.
Trying to clone one external USB drive to another, just learned that "Acronis True Image Does Not Clone Drives with Different Logical Sector Sizes," and now see that the source drive is 4096 Bytes/Sector but target drive is 512.
Bobbo_3C0X1 above suggests "attempting to backup the original drive (hopefully you've done this already anyway) and then restore the backup to the new drive" -- before I take the time to do that, anyone know if that will actually work (with external USB drives)? Thanks.
Welcome to these public User Forums.
Using Backup and Recovery should work just fine but with some caveats.
What are these drives?
Do they contain a working Windows or other operating system?
What partition scheme and format is used on the drives?
Eg. are they MBR / NTFS drives, or are they GPT / NTFS or exFAT drives?
What BIOS mode is used on the computer where you are doing the cloning / Backup & Recovery? Run the command msinfo32 in Windows to check the BIOS mode.
Finally, what version of ATI do you have or will be using?
Thanks for responding. Decided to just use TeraCopy instead, almost done with it. But just so I know (and for benefit of others): no OS, just data (source WD 4TB, target Seagate 4TB), both NTFS, BIOS Mode UEFI, ATI 2019.
Thanks for the update, hope the TeraCopy completes successfully for you.
Given these are just data drives, then you could simply do a Files & Folders backup using ATI then restore that to the new drive but would need a spare backup drive on which to store the backup, so your direct copy from source to target is probably equally effective and quicker.
Google found this thread for me, I was trying to solve the same issue
My issue, Computer support for family and friends, very old laptop, circa 2012 with 560GB disk. Very slow PC, user only uses it for email, does not want new PC. Got western digital 240GB SSD, downloaded ATI for WD.
First issue, version of ATI is for WD and does not recognize WD easy store SSD as a WD drive, ATI reports “No WD device connected” No problem, plug in old WD passport. First issue resolved.
Run the clone tool, get to selecting target drive, select “replace drive in this machine” clock starts spinning, takes 12 min and just stops on the same screen, never advances to the “new layout” disk usage screen with proceed button.
Tried everything mentioned here, USB power suspend, never, defrag old drive, run disk cleanup, still same error.
Open disk manager, and realize that the old drive had 4 partitions, 16mB created by ASUS? 540mB recovery, and C and D. D is labeled “data” but empty. Old drive was 560GB, new drive is 240GB. Apparently ATI could not resize down the existing partitions. Tried “manual mode” but ATI hangs at same point, it never allows me to select what to include / exclude.
Solution: open disk manager, delete “d” drive, leave as unallocated space. Reboot, select clone, automatic, and boom, while actually 20 min later, did I mention it is a circa 2021 laptop?, ATI gets to the final screen and allows me to hit proceed with clone!
Solution, old drive bigger than new drive, ATI can’t figure out how to resize partitions, use Disk manager to delete or resize as necessary.
Suggestion: ATI lite, when suppling ATI for a mfg clone, have a lite version that only installs the clone tool and prompt user with why it fails, if it fails to auto allocate space, some error codes, and suggestions of what to do. I hope this post helps someone else with the same issue
the forum is not allowing me to post link to new SSD that is not in ATI SSD database, at Best buy it is
skuId 6411188