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Can Acronis be used on HDD cloned by other software ?

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Hi, if a HDD was cloned years ago onto an external HDD using cloning software other than ATI , can that external HDD be cloned back onto a  new drive using ATI 2020 or only via the software originally used ?

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You will need to use the software used to create the clone to do the recovery. Some clarification would be appreciated; there is a distinction between cloning and creating a backup - the former creates a fully operational drive, in which case it would not be necessary to clone to another drive to access the files; a backup creates a file from which the original data can be restored to the original location or to a new location. If you have a backup, you will need to restore it to a empty disk - however, you need to be careful that in the process you do not render you computer unbootable - this can happen if the "cloned" drive is one with a Windows operating system on it; so make a backup of the OS disk drive before doing so as a precaution. 

Ian

Hi, if a HDD was cloned years ago onto an external HDD using cloning software other than ATI , can that external HDD be cloned back onto a  new drive using ATI 2020 or only via the software originally used ?

Adrian, further to Ian's comments:

Is the external HDD a fully operational drive, i.e. could you install it in the original computer the clone was created from, and would it boot correctly into the OS from the cloned HDD?

If so, then it is no different to most source drives for a further backup or clone operation, and ATI could be used to perform those types of operations with that HDD.

Is this a Windows HDD or from a different type of OS, i.e. MacOS or Linux etc?  That can make a difference here?

Having more information to work with would be helpful in giving you a more complete answer.

What actual type of HDD is this?  SATA, PATA or IDE, SCSI.
From what type of PC?  Desktop / Tower PC, Laptop or Notebook, Tablet.
What file system is used on the HDD?  NTFS, FAT/16/32, exFAT, EXT2/3/4
Is this an OS boot HDD or a Data drive?
How long ago is 'years ago'?  Is this 1,2,4,8,10 years or more?