Acronis True Image for Crucial - LONG time cloning SSD-to-SSD
I use Acronis True Image for Crucial to clone the 1TB Crucial SSD in my Acer notebook to a 1TB HD or another 1 TB Crucial SSD, via a USB2 connection. When cloning to a HD, it took about four hours. Today I'm cloning to an SSD (for the first time) so I expected it to go much faster. But it seems to be taking about the same amount of time. Why would that be so?


- Log in to post comments


It turns out that my Acer notebook has a USB3 port, so I got an adapter to fit that port and connected my backup SSD to that port. The clone job completed in 30 minutes instead of four hours :-)
- Log in to post comments

Glad you found a USB3 port - using USB 2 is frustratingly slow.
Ian
- Log in to post comments

Now, a few months and many "clones" later, I'm cloning again (still via USB3) and this time it took almost 2 hours instead of the usual 1/2 hour.
Then I tried to view the clone SSD via Windows File Explorer, and it wasn't visible. I then removed it from the USB port and a message popped up, saying, "USB device not recognized - The last USB device you connected to this computer malfunctioned, and Windows does not recognize it.". I then checked all the items for the two SSDs and they were identical, so it looks like the clone operation worked.
But something is wrong because of (1) taking 2 hours instead of 1/2 hour to clone and (2) the error message.
- Log in to post comments

While the speed problem was solved, there was one other thing that could potentially cause issues (which I should have mentioned earlier but the significance of the fact that you were cloning did not come to mind at the time). I note that the following statement is made in the ATI 2021 user guide (section 10.1):
Note: If you clone a disk with Windows to an external USB hard drive, you might not be able to boot from it. We recommend cloning to an internal SSD or HDD instead.
This is due to limitations imposed by Windows that prevent the creation of a bootable USB drive; it is not a limitation imposed by Acronis. You need to have an Enterprise version of Windows to be able to create a USB installation (called Windows on the Go). See the following support documents:
2931: How to clone a laptop hard drive
61878: Acronis True Image: Disk clone is not visible in Windows Explorer
45831: Acronis Software: Unbootable System after Cloning Operation
The MPV community recommends that you create a backup and then restore the backup to the new drive once it is installed in the computer. Even if you decided to do a clone, you should always create a backup first just in case something goes wrong.
Edit: Forgot about the increased time - could be that one or both of the drives has a problem, either physical or with the file system. This can slow down the process, particularly if ATI decides it has to do a sector by sector clone/backup rather than the usual method which ignores sectors that do not contain data and can exclude hibernation files which will be automatically recreated.
Ian
Note: Windows on the Go was removed from Windows 10 as of version 2004 (see here)
- Log in to post comments

1. >Note: If you clone a disk with Windows to an external USB hard drive, you might not be able to boot from it. We recommend cloning to an internal SSD or HDD instead.<
I'll note that the current internal SSD was originally created with it connected via USB, with the internal drive the original HDD being cloned to it. It worked like a charm.
2. The increased time to clone and error message - This morning I decided to just try the clone again, and it completed in its usual 1/2 hour. But I still got the error message when removing the clone SSD from the USB port, and Windows File Explorer still doesn't display that SSD when connected by USB. But honestly, I can't be sure that wasn't always the case because (1) the error message takes a few (or several) seconds to appear and then disappears quickly and (2) I may never have tried to view that drive in Windows File Explorer.
- Log in to post comments

When you clone to an external drive, Acronis will normally set that drive as being hidden with no assigned drive letter to avoid any disk signature clash by having two drives connected using the same signature. The expection by Acronis is that the external drive will be disconnected and then later will replace the internal drive when it would be fully visible again.
- Log in to post comments

Steve Smith wrote:When you clone to an external drive, Acronis will normally set that drive as being hidden with no assigned drive letter to avoid any disk signature clash by having two drives connected using the same signature. The expection by Acronis is that the external drive will be disconnected and then later will replace the internal drive when it would be fully visible again.
Thanks! That makes total sense.
- Log in to post comments

Hi,
The argument given about USB 2 is logical. USB 2 transfers will be slow even if you are using 2 high speed NVME. But in my case, I'm using USB 3.1 Gen 2 which by all standards is pretty fast and yet, I still get slow cloning procedure. If I would have installed a clean Windows and recovered with TI then copied files from drive the time would have been much much faster.
Why didn't I do it? I expected transfer time to be just as fast this way and saves connecting disconnecting drives. How terribly wrong I was. LIVE & LEARN.
- Log in to post comments