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ATI for WD 2021- Don't understand "Cloning Method" differences

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I purchased a WD Blue SSD which comes with "Acronis True Image for Western Digital" Version 2021 Build 39230 (up to date). I am cloning SATA disk 5 which came from a dying PC (G:\ on my bench PC) to SATA disk 6, a new WD blue SSD. When I get to "Select the required cloning method" my options are:

1-To replace a disk on this machine. "Clone with bootable OS"

Acronis PDF manual online says: " the system disk data will be copied, and the clone will be bootable. Use this clone for replacing the system disk with a new one on this PC. ")

2- To use on another machine . "Clone with bootable OS"

Acronis PDF manual online says " —the system disk data will be copied, and the clone will be bootable. Use this clone to transfer all the data to another PC on a bootable disk. "

3-To use as a data disk

clearly I'm not doing #3. I dont understand the difference between #1 and #2. The source disk came from another system. The clone will go into that system. Neither disk has anything to do with the bench PC I'm using to perform the clone.

I assume I'm doing #2. But what is #1 doing differently than #2? Is it copying the boot partition from my Bench PC C:\ drive, instead of from the G:\ OS drive? I've been cloning drives for 20 years and never seen such a confusing option. Maybe I'm just dense.

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Richard, welcome to these public User Forums.

See KB 2201: Support for OEM Versions of Acronis Products which applies to all OEM versions of ATI supplied with hardware purchases.

I am cloning SATA disk 5 which came from a dying PC (G:\ on my bench PC) to SATA disk 6, a new WD blue SSD.

What is SATA disk 5 from your bench PC used for?  Is this an OS boot disk or is it used for Data?  What partition style is used by this disk?  Is it GPT or is it MBR?
Note: in Windows Disk Management, right-click on the left-most box with the Disk 0/1/2/3 heading and open the Properties panel then the Volumes tab to see the partition style.

1-To replace a disk on this machine. "Clone with bootable OS"

Acronis PDF manual online says: " the system disk data will be copied, and the clone will be bootable. Use this clone for replacing the system disk with a new one on this PC. ")

This is to be used when cloning the OS disk drive of the machine where cloning is being run, so is not applicable for your scenario where you are bring a disk drive from a different PC.

2- To use on another machine . "Clone with bootable OS"

Acronis PDF manual online says " —the system disk data will be copied, and the clone will be bootable. Use this clone to transfer all the data to another PC on a bootable disk. "

See my initial question above!  Is SATA disk 5 from your bench PC an OS boot disk or not? Does this disk when cloned need to be bootable?

3-To use as a data disk

If SATA disk 5 only holds data then this is the option that should be used.

Returning to the partition style question, what style is being used on the PC being used to perform the cloning?  This is important and Acronis by default will clone all disk using the same partition style unless you boot the computer using Acronis rescue media in the correct, matching BIOS mode.

KB 59877: Acronis True Image: how to distinguish between UEFI and Legacy BIOS boot modes of Acronis Bootable Media

UEFI = GPT and Legacy = MBR.

I would strongly recommend making a full disk backup of the source clone disk drive before attempting any clone operation - this is your safety net in case of any issues / errors etc.