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TI 2021 Disk Clone OS - How do I use source disk again?

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I would like to transfer my OS from a 8200 Pro 1TB NVME to a S11 512MB NVME. I would like to use the 1TB drive afterwards as internal storage for games. I have a NVME enclosure to help with the process (I read that is handy to have). I have a SATA SSD where my C: will be cloned from. I have a USB boot drive. True Image 2021 installed fine. I feel mostly prepared. I read the instructions online about how to clone a disk, but I would like some clarity.

Do I need to remove the source disk at some point? If so, do I format it in the enclosure? Then reinstall in PC? 

 

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Dave, welcome to these public User Forums.

Can you clarify some points in your topic description above please?

I would like to transfer my OS from a 8200 Pro 1TB NVME to a S11 512MB NVME.

I have a SATA SSD where my C: will be cloned from. I have a USB boot drive.

My reading of the above is that Windows OS is currently on the 1TB NVMe drive and you want to transfer this to a new 512GB NVMe drive, so I don't understand the reference to the SATA SSD being involved here?

My recommendation would be to forget about cloning for this transfer!  Using an NVMe enclosure can cause more problems than it solves due to the introduction of new hardware when cloning.

Personally I have not used cloning with my own NVMe M.2 SSD's as I have no suitable adapter to connect 2 with and have no systems with 2 slots for this type of drive, therefore I have always used Backup & Recovery to migrate to a new or larger drive.

The steps in outline are as follows:

  1. Create the Acronis Rescue Media (use the Simple option for WinPE)
  2. Test booting your laptop from the rescue media, ensuring you understand how to boot in UEFI mode and can 'see' your current SSD drive and an external backup drive to hold a full disk backup image.
  3. Make a new full Disk backup of the working SSD to an external drive as a one-off backup action.
  4. Shutdown the PC, remove the current SSD and install the new SSD.
  5. Boot from the Acronis Rescue Media with your backup drive connected.
  6. Recover the Backup from step 3. to the new SSD.
  7. Check the Log messages before exiting from the rescue media (all logs are lost on exit) to check all is OK.
  8. If all ok, disconnect the external drive, remove the rescue media and restart the PC normally from the new SSD.
  9. When you have confirmed all is ok with the new SSD, make a new backup again to include any new device drivers installed for the new SSD.

See KB 65508: Acronis True Image 2021: 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 65539: Acronis True Image 2021: How to restore your computer with WinPE-based or WinRE-based media

Final note: check how much free space you have available on the source 1TB drive to ensure that this can be shrunk down to fit on the new 512GB drive and still leave a minimum of at least 20% free space.

Once you have tested that the new NVMe drive is working fine, then you could connect the removed 1TB drive in your NVMe enclosure and reformat this for use in a second NVMe slot if your PC has one, or in another PC etc.

Important: do not try to boot your PC with both the 1TB and 512GB NVMe drives connected internally if they both have a working Windows OS installed on them.  This can cause a disk signature clash and could corrupt the Windows boot files etc.

Thank you for the reply. Please allow me to clarify:

 

-I have an C: ISO backup on a connected SATA SSD, my plan is to use that ISO image to help myself out of trouble

-once the USB recovery drive is removed, I wonder if leaving the SATA SSD installed is ok (at present it does not cause any issues even with an ISO image on it)

-I will remove the source drive (step 4), I can understand leaving it installed will create bigger problems

-I have everything setup for UEFI (always a good reminder!)

-the data will fit with plenty of extra room on the destination NVME SSD

 

Could a recovery drive created through Windows 10 work in place of one created through Acronis ?

 

Dave, sorry but what exactly do you mean by "a C: ISO backup on a connected SATA SSD" - what is this ISO backup of?  How are you booting your PC from this ISO here?

Have you actually tested using the ISO to boot the PC and checked that it can correctly see your NVMe source drive?

My reason for asking is that there are known issues with using the Acronis Linux based ISO media with NVMe drives, especially if RAID is being used for the SATA controller mode.

Could a recovery drive created through Windows 10 work in place of one created through Acronis ?

No, not if wanting to use ATI to migrate the OS.  This could be possible if using a Windows backup image (.VHD[X]) coupled with a Windows recovery drive, but I have never used that method personally.  I used Ghost prior to using Acronis plus have used other similar applications from Paragon, Macrium, EaseUs etc.

The ISO backup is in case everything goes wrong, so I can have a copy of my system drive... In the end everything went perfectly.

I used Acronis Clone Disk, shut the system down, removed the source drive, fired right up on the new NVME. I formatted the source drive in the enclosure, reinstalled it, runs perfectly. Acronis has made a great program!

 

EXTRA: Once I had things working again, I used DiskCleanser to wipe any extra data that could be on the source drive. Even though I am reusing it I wanted the peace of mind everything was cleared. I could not be more pleased with my purchase of True Image 2021!