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When Cloning from Desktop how do I connect the Source Disk

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I'm confused by the KBs, Tutorials, and Videos. Hope someone can help.

I'm cloning the Windows system SSD drive C: to a larger SSD. The new disk will be unused straight from the shop. The desktop computer also has a D: drive for DATA.

Acronis recommend putting the new disk where it's going to be used. Am I right in saying I replace the old (source) disk with the new disk so that the same space and connectors are used?

So how does the source disk connect and boot so that I can run Acronis Clone software? 

 

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Acronis recommend putting the new disk where it's going to be used. Am I right in saying I replace the old (source) disk with the new disk so that the same space and connectors are used?

So how does the source disk connect and boot so that I can run Acronis Clone software? 

That advice is primarily aimed at laptop users because the use of an external adapter, dock etc can introduce new hardware that then prevents the cloned drive from booting correctly when moved to be the internal drive.

You can use the same method with desktop PC's but you need to create the Acronis bootable rescue media and boot the PC from that media to do the clone, and ensure that the media uses the same BIOS boot mode as the Windows OS uses.

Personally, I prefer not to use cloning for this type of migration to a larger drive as using Backup & Recovery is much safer by virtue of the source drive being removed and set aside in a safe place for the recovery element.  It is always strongly recommended to make a disk backup prior to attempting a clone operation because this is a safety net against any unforeseen issues arising or mistakes being made!

See KB 63226: Acronis True Image 2020: how to create bootable media and KB 59877: Acronis True Image: how to distinguish between UEFI and Legacy BIOS boot modes of Acronis Bootable Media

KB 63295: Acronis True Image 2020: How to restore your computer with WinPE-based or WinRE-based media

Please see KB 56634: Acronis True Image: how to clone a disk - and review the step by step guide given there.

Note: the first section of the above KB document directs laptop users to KB 2931: How to clone a laptop hard drive - and has the following paragraph:

It is recommended to put the new drive in the laptop first, and connect the old drive via USB. Otherwise you will may not be able to boot from the new cloned drive, as Acronis True Image will apply a bootability fix to the new disk and adjust the boot settings of the target drive to boot from USB. If the new disk is inside the laptop, the boot settings will be automatically adjusted to boot from internal disk. As such, hard disk bays cannot be used for target disks. For example, if you have a target hard disk (i.e. the new disk to which you clone, and from which you intend to boot the machine) in a bay, and not physically inside the laptop, the target hard disk will be unbootable after the cloning.

Thanks Steve. Sound advice indeed. I also found out the drive is a single PCIe MVE M.2 socket. Every M.2 caddy in the shops has reports of frying nice new SSDs.

I am very familiar using Windows 7 System Image Recovery. I expect I can extend the partition afterwards on the new drive.

Hopefully this will go smoothly with Windows 10.