Acronis 2020 True Image cloning larger to smaller disks
I also have been using Acronis for a long time - since 2008 or earlier. With the latest version I am unable to clone a factory 1TB rotating disk with 87GB active (Windows 10, OS build 18362.778) onto a 500GB SSD. After the lengthy selection of source and destination I receive the warning to remove files and no option to proceed. can anyone suggest a solution?
Thank you Steve. Actually, there's a bit more that must be done before the larger disk may be successfully cloned to the smaller SSD. Some servers and workstation have proprietary partitions that must remain intact and correctly sized. Once you've used an application to reduce the size of the Windows partition you must move any small partitions so as to be contiguous. In my case (HP) there were two small sections that had to be moved to the left to adjoin the Windows partition (unused at the end). Once that was done the cloning went properly, although I had to reboot twice with the new drive in. Everything is running properly now on the new SSD.
David, glad to hear that the end result has been achieved albeit with some variations on the method.
Hey Guys,
Let me revive this old thread.
I have ATI 2021.
I can't figure out how to clone a laptop drive from larger to smaller.
The larger drive has 2 partitions.
The smaller drive is brand new.
I spent the better part of 2 days following instructions in the forums and on YT but with no success.
First thing I did was make sure the drives are the same bytes. They are, being the same model PNY drives but different sizes.
Second thing I did was make sure the source drive was good by running Windows10 chkdsk. No problems there.
Third thing I did was shrink the Source C-drive (the drive w/the OS on it) so it would be slightly smaller than the new drive (the target drive). Slightly smaller means less than a GB. But the data is at least 10GB less than the target drive's size. So all's good there.
Forth thing I did was install the target drive into the laptop, put the source drive in a USB container, and then run Clone from an Acronis bootable thumbdrive.
So I rebooted into the thumbdrive and went through the procedure. When I got to the 'exclude files' db, I excluded the entire D-drive partition. But I kept the C-drive partition and the small one w/the boot info on it. The system is UEFI with SecureBoot enabled. I also tried disabling SecureBoot, but without success.
Anyway, everything works until I 'exclude files'. Then the app hangs for hours (yes, I ran off to do other things, and let it run for HOURS). Let me say that this app was very expensive, and I used it only once before. And even then I had to call 'tech' to get help succeeding at cloning a drive. I've been doing this kind of things for many years (I began doing PC stuff back in PC Jr. days). This is the BIGGEST PIECE OF S**T I'VE EVER USED. It's not only difficult to use, but it wastes precious time and I get no satisfaction out of it.
So my question to you guys is this: What has to be done to get this POS app to clone a bootable laptop drive?
Thanx... Chris
Chris, welcome to these public User Forums.
Your post above has only just appeared in the forums today due to moderation (hence you have not seen any responses!).
Next, I would strongly recommend not using cloning for your scenario where you are intending to exclude another partition on the source drive, as it is better to just make a backup image of the required partitions then recover that backup to the new drive (using rescue media).
In terms of resizing / shrinking the larger C: partition to fit on the new drive, then just having only around 10GB available free space is not a good recipe for success. (Assuming I am reading your post correctly in this respect?). It is best to try to achieve around 20% free space to deliver reasonable performance, especially if the target drive is a SSD.
Hi Steve,
Thanx for helping. Yes, I also tried making a backup of only C-drive (which includes the small system partition). It was barely smaller than the new drive. When I tried restoring that backup onto the new drive, with the new ssd in the laptop and the backup file on a USB drive, it ran for a while and then a message popped up to the effect that the restore failed. I did this process with secure boot disabled. The reason the drives are so close in size is b/c I want to keep the source drive as-is, and delete apps on the target drive and use it as a generic system backup. So right now there's only 500mb of empty space on the new drive with the target backup being restored. But like I said, it failed to burn the new SSD.
Do you guys have a list of do's and don'ts and also a list of problems encountered with solutions, so I can read it and see which ones I need to apply to this scenario?
Thanx...
Steve,
What's the difference between 'settings of partition 1 & 2' and 'settings of partition c'?
Thanx...
Chris, there is no specific list of do's and don'ts to my knowledge though there are plenty of these scattered around the various forums I am sure!
The best way of figuring out why any backup, restore or clone operations are failing is to look at the logs that are created for each of these.
For the Windows Acronis application, then the logs are kept on the OS drive, but if using rescue media to boot the system, the logs are volatile and will disappear when rebooted, so have to be captured while the offline application is still open (via the Logs option - right-clicking on the entry will offer the option to save the log).
When doing a recovery of selected partitions from a disk (as opposed to a whole disk), then the user has to specify where each partition will be restored and set the size etc (though the size can normally be accepted as shown).
There are going to be at least 3 partitions involved, a pair of small ones for the Microsoft System Reserved, and EFI System partitions, then the larger one for the OS C: partition, plus if you have included it, the Windows Recovery partition.
The MSR is still present even on UEFI boot systems due to legacy requirements.
Hi Steve,
Thanx for the info.
I am confused when doing a Restore by the 2 different screens, one for 'settings of partition 1 & 2' and one for 'settings of partition C'. What does each d/b apply to?
Thanx...
Chris, you should be able to just accept the information shown on the 'settings of partition' screens assuming that you have already selected the correct target disk for the recovery. You are only seeing these screens because you are not doing an entire disk recovery due to excluding the larger data partition.
Steve,
Thanx for the info.
But what do the screens mean?
I could find nothing in the Help file or online explaining them.
Cheers...
Chris, please post some screen shots of the screens you are asking about.
Hi Steve,
Well, I couldn't wait any longer, esp. for the forum Nazi's to censor every one of my messages.
At this rate, the Nazi bureaucracy is forcing Acronis to lose customers.
Stupid bureaucrats!
Anyway, I needed to get the job done, so I SWITCHED TO AOEMI FREE VERSION.
Aside from the fact that I spent a grand total of 20 minutes with AOEMI going through the menus to create a 'backup' and then restore it (since Acronis was unable to do it), the actual backup file was 30x smaller than Acronis' and the process (when I walked away from the computer and did something else while it wrote the backup file) took only about 2 hours total. So, I've officially switched apps, and won't ever regret it. Only thing is, I believe I'm entitled to a refund since Acronis was sold to me on false pretenses (a constructive fraud). I used it a mere 1x for $100+, b/c that's all I could get it to work. That's stealing by normal standards.
FREE AOEMI SOFTWARE BEATS EXPENSIVE ACRONIS SOFTWARE BY A LIGHT YEAR!
Evidence that the Free Enterprise capitalism market beats the Monopoly capitalism market every time!
Thanx for all your help.
Cheers...Chris
Chris, first comment is to say that I am glad that you have found a solution that works for you and that you are happy with!
I have tried various different backup & recovery solutions over the years including AOEMI but for my own needs I have kept to using just Acronis and Macrium Reflect. The former because I have many years of licenses dating back to version 9.0, and the latter because I have used their free version for years too for when working on PC's from friends, neighbours, family etc. More recently I use paid versions of both applications with perpetual licenses.
You would need to contact Acronis regarding any possible refund assuming you bought the software directly or through an authorised reseller.
Please see KB 21242: Refund policy for Personal products for information that should help you if you want to request a refund.
Dear Chris,
We are sorry to hear that you unhappy with the product that much. If you agree to give us a second chance, we would be happy to investigate the issue. Please install a trial version Acronis Cyber Protect Home Office and if the issue persists, we can open a support ticket, so that our engineers can look into the issue and help.
Chris Huminski wrote:Hi Steve,
Well, I couldn't wait any longer, esp. for the forum Nazi's to censor every one of my messages.
At this rate, the Nazi bureaucracy is forcing Acronis to lose customers.
Stupid bureaucrats!Anyway, I needed to get the job done, so I SWITCHED TO AOEMI FREE VERSION.
Aside from the fact that I spent a grand total of 20 minutes with AOEMI going through the menus to create a 'backup' and then restore it (since Acronis was unable to do it), the actual backup file was 30x smaller than Acronis' and the process (when I walked away from the computer and did something else while it wrote the backup file) took only about 2 hours total. So, I've officially switched apps, and won't ever regret it. Only thing is, I believe I'm entitled to a refund since Acronis was sold to me on false pretenses (a constructive fraud). I used it a mere 1x for $100+, b/c that's all I could get it to work. That's stealing by normal standards.
FREE AOEMI SOFTWARE BEATS EXPENSIVE ACRONIS SOFTWARE BY A LIGHT YEAR!
Evidence that the Free Enterprise capitalism market beats the Monopoly capitalism market every time!Thanx for all your help.
Cheers...Chris
Hi Daria,
Just issue me a refund of all the money I spent on this POS software.
I can't believe you have the balls to try to sell me something else!
If people stood up to the wicked bankers who shoved their evil fiat money banking and finance systems upon all of us, as well as all their enslaving money laundering wars, we wouldn't be in the position that we have to lie, cheat and steal to make a living, while hiding behind corporate veils and filthy attorneys. 'The people perish from lack of knowledge.'
Disgusted...Chris
Dear Chris,
We are sorry to hear you are leaving. According to our refund policies you may request a full refund from Acronis for any reason Within 30 days of your software download purchase. You can learn more about it here: Refund policy for Personal products
After this period we can offer to contact our support and investigate your case personally.
Also, we can offer to install a trial version of the product and to update in case the problem was solved.
Hi Steve,
Thanx for getting back to me.
I'm going to take a look at Macrium as well.
Thanx for the referral.
I'm pretty much done with Acronis b/c it's so difficult to get to work.
I've never had any success with German software.
The Russians make some of the best apps I've ever used.
Some of the Asian software is good too.
Same with the Brits and Americans.
But the Krauts...'not so much'.
Let them stick to cams and other mechanical devices!
Anyways, thanx for helping.
I'll check out the refund policy.
Cheers...Chris
Hi Daria,
Thanx for your input.
The app that you directed me to install is a RENTAL.
I don't RENT software.
Do I RENT the tools I use to fix my vehicles?
Does Shapon require their customers to RENT wrenches and other hand tools?
It's bad enough that software is COPYRIGHTED when it should be PATENTED.
But that's another subject regarding the EVIL FINANCIAL SCHEME OF perpetual planned obsolescence based on FRAUD + THEFT. It's an evil mafia scheme designed to guarantee the continuous influx of revenues to the corporate criminal syndicate. It's how SOCIAL PARASITES (people with minimal to no marketable skills) continue to get a paycheck without constantly working like the rest of us have to do to make a living every day of the year. It's disgusting and evil. That's the reason why God destroyed the earth with a flood and after that another interstellar catastrophe using a comet (not Venus) and then Mars. When will people learn?
I'm not interested in your SUBSCRIPTION SLAVERY.
...Chris
I have cloned a 1TB HDD to a very slightly smaller (118MB) SATA SSD on a Win11 machine. The original is not a drive with an OS on it, but a second drive in the machine, basically a storage drive although with a few .exe files where I installed utility programs. Just one partition on the original
It appears to have worked successfully, but using the Windows disc tools the cloned drive shows the USED size about 2MB bigger on the new drive. The FREE size is smaller on the new drive as expected.
I have compared all the folder sizes on the original and cloned drives and they appear to be exactly the same size, same number of files etc, so why is the cloned drive slightly bigger???
Nic, welcome to these public User Forums.
If the differences in used size is only around 2MB then I would suspect that there are different block sizes involved between the sector size used on the HDD and the blocks used by SSD's.
Hi Steve, thanks for the suggestion. I do not know much about the way discs are organised so I will need to investigate. Could you give an outline of your idea though? It would help.
I should add that I put the new drive in the laptop and changed its drive letter to the drive letter of the old drive and it is all working well. All the Quick Access links in file manager that accessed folders on the old drive now correctly access the duplicated folders in the new drive. Brilliant!
Nic, HDD's use a physical disk platter and disk sectors along with all the mechanics that go with that system. SSD's are essentially more permanent memory drives that use logical blocks and not sectors, so there are some small differences in size due to the different technologies being used by each type of drive.
A difference of only 2MB that you mention is really not worth worrying about given the difference in drive technology and type. You could get a similar difference even with two supposedly identical drives, simply because of manufacturing tolerances, especially with HDD's which are anticipated to have some potentially bad sectors even for brand new drives but which meet the target specification for published drive size.
Thanks Steve, it's out of interest really as all seems to be working well. Thanks for the time answering