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ATI 2021 CLONE DESTROYED MY COMPUTER!

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Created a clone today and after completion, my new Dell XPS desktop is trashed! Can't start up, can't run system repair, can't even restore from the factory image or a system image or from the ATI bootable media and a TIB backup. Am totally destroyed ...

I expect I will have to lose a day's work or more taking this to the local PC doctor to have the PC re-imaged and will lose a day reinstalling software, restoring data from backups, etc. Between the lost time at work and the PC doctor, I'll be out between $750 and $1000. And the wasted money on ATI for my three PCs -- thank God I didn't install it on the other two or my wife and I would be unable to work at all.

Not sure what ATI did, maybe trashed the partition table or some other disaster. Can't even see the machine on my network. Support told me they would try to call back in 2-3 hours.  Never again, Acronis, never again.

2 Users found this helpful

Craig, sorry to read of this issue after cloning but do not understand what would have caused your system to be trashed?

The first rule before using any clone tool (Acronis or any other vendor product) should always be to make a full Disk backup of the Source disk drive, so that a safety net is available to allow recovery should the worse case scenario arise.

Please see forum topic: [IMPORTANT] CLONING - How NOT to do this - which was written some years back after dealing with many cloning issues in the forums.

See KB 56634: Acronis True Image: how to clone a disk - and review the step by step guide given there for the correct, recommended method to use.

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.

YUP - nearly the same thing here, installed 2021 - tried to clone desktop primary drive, operation got to the restarting function - and locked up the PC. Manually shut down computer, thankfully, it restarted normally. THEN, re-tried cloning operation again, SEVERAL times - was able to write other files to the outboard HD I was trying to clone to, no problem. Tried the cloning function to another, known good HD - got same result as earlier with first drive. Determined problem was with the new 2021 program, deleted it, downloaded and installed all over again and after this installation, the PC HD went into some sort of loooooong constant activity that essentially made the PC unusable for normal operation - and even multiple shut down/restart was no help - took a full 12 hours for the HD to finally stop whatever it thought it was doing. Proceeded to again attempt the clone function - this time it seemed to work, but after completion, Windows 10 can't "see" the newly cloned HD - even though diskmgmt.msc sees it just fine. I've deleted 2021 again, and am here trying to find an installation for return to Acronis 2020 - but can't find it - NO WAY will I update my 2 laptops until these issues are resolved - and like others here, I have had to use LOTS of my time to correct these issues - and the very LEAST Acronis can do, AFTER fixing whatever is wrong, is EXTEND user's contract by a month or 2!

If you have a perpetual license and if you registered your software with Acronis then you can log into their server and download the latest copy of True Image 2020.  If on the otherhand you have always had a subscription license that had to be renewed each year then I am not sure how you would obtain copies of older versions of True Image.

 

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Not really any help - all I seem to have access to with my current license is the "latest and greatest" version of Acronis software - which is EXACTLY the version I'm wanting to replace - the older 2020 version worked just fine - 2021 sucks, so WHY would I want to just load it all over again? FORTUNATELY, my current 3 PC license expires in about 2 months, so unless something changes radically, I can just go with some other backup software program. A shame, because I've been with Acronis for many years - too bad they apparently have NO provision for customers like me to just go back to a previous program version that actually has been proven, and WORKS!

Not a big help for your situation, but you can buy a copy of True Image 2020 Perpetual version for about $32.00 or $33.00 at the following link.  https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1508611-REG/acronis_tih3l1los_tr…

 

Yup - nothing like buying and paying for a product for the SECOND time - and from a 3rd party seller...

As for the "perpetual" bit - yeah, I'm REALLY glad I bought that "perpetual" stock in Commodore, Studebaker and Hudson a while back. Situations with companies shuffling off BAD and poorly tested products to trusting customers is the EXACT reason to not fall sucker for "perpetual/permanent" stuff... In cases like mine, paying the annual fee means I can only get burned for a few months - not a lifetime... BUT, thanks for taking time to offer suggestions.

Try this link to the Acronis products old page. I can see a download link to TI 2020 in my account.

https://www.acronis.com/en-us/my/products/index.html

Thanks Mustang - I can open the directory there, but it won't let me download any - the list for my account only goes to the 2017 version - which I would take, if it would let me...

Referring to one of Steve's comments earlier:

"Please see forum topic: [IMPORTANT] CLONING - How NOT to do this - which was written some years back after dealing with many cloning issues in the forums."

In an earlier forum on the cloning topic, IF that particular Acronis operation is so touchy and potentially damaging and erratic, WHY has Acronis continued to even include it as a product feature? For the record, it was exactly for the cloning feature I bought Acronis in the first place - it was included in a new HD I bought quite a few years back - and I have since then been updating the Acronis software - AND using the cloning feature as both backup and when installing new HD's - NEVER any problems with the cloning feature EVER - until Acronis 2021 hit the scene.

Yeah, I know I'll get the same BS Acronis Cloning flack as I did in earlier forum threads - but I remain skeptical as to any logical reason a reputable software supplier would provide and advertise a product feature they themselves describe as unpredictable, erratic, and potentially damaging... :-(

Gary, try this direct download link here for the 2020 installer.

Steve, thanks for the pointer - that download works, but is twitchy on my PC - the GUI's on the "tools" page don't work, and I had to drop down to the "additional tools" menu to get it to work - not sure the Acronis 2020 version available there was the latest build version or not, but the 2020 version I updated from HAD worked perfectly on this same Windows 10, latest update, PC - not sure why it's glitchy now? I'm beginning to wonder if a recent Windows update might be an underlying issue - but running the same OS and updates on my 2 laptops - and am now reluctant to try any cloning on them, until we get some better info or updates from Acronis on 2021 - but, thanks again.

Gary, the ATI 2020 installer is the same one that I have used on my own PC's previously without any 'twitchyness', so this would suggest other factors at work here?

For strange Windows 10 issues, an in-place upgrade of the same build version would be my own next step to consider, effectively repeating the upgrade to that build without risking losing any installed applications or user data etc.

Steve, I'm suspecting some recent Windows 10 update, on my specific model PC, may be the issue. I've run various diagnostics, chkdsk,, etc., etc., - and run a registry cleaner, as well as disc/system cleanup - and reloaded both Acronis 2020 and 2021 numerous times - all above issues remain the same. Guess I cautiously try 2021 on one of my laptops, and see what happens there... OH, my Desktop PC is a Lenovo, Intel core I3 - 3.3 CPU speed, 1TB SSD. All else is working great.