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ATI Home11 HDD Clone not perfect

Thread needs solution

I use ATI Home11 for cloning my hard drive. The procedure worked fine at least once, I believe even twice. I am working with a clone since. But on every clone from my current drive a particular program becomes a demo version which means the clone is not 100%. Otherwise it seems to work fine. One hint might be, that when booting from a new clone for the first time I always get the message, “new hardware detected”, which is the HDD of course but may be it shouldn’t be recognized as “new”? Is there any known workaround for that problem because the way it is, Acronis is useless for me?
OS - Vista Home Premium SP2
all HDDs - Western digital scorpio blue 500GB
Regards
Egon

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Hi Egon, why are you using the clone option so often and what is it you are trying to achieve?

From a clone you may or may not receive messages from installed software depending on when they were installed or activated, whether its system or 3rd party software - it will be looking at registry entries and/or current system set up, including which disk drives you are using.

Are you using the latest build of TI 11 (8,101)?

It's not uncommon for Windows to detect "new" hardware when booting to a clone or even a restored image.

You don't say what program keeps deactivating, but some use some pretty touchy methods to detect hardware changes. You may have better results doing backups and restores.

Another option is to try TI 2010. It may handle the process better/differently.

Hi Bin, hi MudCrab,
thanks for the answers. I’m using the clone option basically to have a spare HDD in case one would really quit. Didn’t happen so far but I used a 3D software that frequently crashed leaving itself behind damaged. This problem is solved but I still like the clone for the first reason. It takes me 4 minutes to swap the drives (I’m using a notebook) which is much faster than a recovery from a backup especially when working under time pressure. Years ago I used a free version of XXClone to clone my Hdds. The program can only handle one partition but at least it worked 100%, it even copies the drive No. That’s what I expected from Acronis.
No I didn’t use the latest build I have installed it in the meantime.
But why would Acronis perform the cloning perfectly before? The program that loses its registration hasn’t been changed or updated since!?
Regards
Egon

You are welcome Egon and I'm sure that echos with Mudcrab

I think before either of us pursue it further is to wait and see if the latest build solves the issue for you.
I can't think of a reason why any software would lose it registration but as mubcrab aluded to, it may be because of the ways some software investigates its environment.

Keep us posted

The 2009-2010 version of TrueImage Home appears to provide a solution or at least a partial solution.

excerpt from True Image 2010 user manual, Section 11.1.4 wrote:
When MBR recovery is chosen, the "Recover disk signature" box will appear in the bottom left corner at the next step. Recovering disk signature may be desirable due to the following reasons:

1. Acronis True Image Home creates scheduled tasks using the signature of the source hard disk. If you recover the same disk signature, you don't need to re-create or edit the tasks created previously.
2. Some installed applications use disk signature for licensing and other purposes.
3. If you use Windows Restore Points, they will be lost when the disk signature is not recovered.
4. In addition, recovering disk signature allows to recover VSS snapshots used by Windows Vista's "Previous Versions" feature.

If the box is unselected, Acronis True Image Home generates a new disk signature for the recovered drive. This may be needed when you use an image backup not for disaster recovery but for cloning your Windows Vista hard drive to another one. Trying to boot Windows after cloning with both drives connected will result in a problem. During Windows booting, its loader checks the disk signatures of all the connected drives, and if it finds two identical disk signatures, the loader changes the signature of the second disk, which would be the clone disk. Once this happens, the clone disk would not be able to boot up independently of the original disk, because the MountedDevices fields in the clone's registry reference the disk signature of the original disk, which will not be available if the original disk is disconnected.

Item 4 (green) above would seem to emphasize the importance of having only the target disk attached on first boot following the procedure.

Below is an example of the 'Recover Disk Signature" option when in TIH 2010 Recovery mode.

Perhaps Acroinis support can advise whether the "Disk Signature" is transferred to the new target disk during the 2010 Clone function?

Attachment Size
32657-89713.gif 30.11 KB

Grover you never cease to amaze me - me 30 years younger but with 10% of your energy, and I am 25 and a liar!

Bin,
Thanks. like "Popeye the sailor cartoon", I just continue to eat my spinach.:)

I continue to be amazed at the significant amount of pertinent information that is contained in the TI user manual. Not only "how to" information but the "troubleshooting" help is significant. Open the pdf user manual file and do a file search on any topic. The information displayed will be a pleasant surprise

What is the old saying.......... When all else fails, read the manual.

I eat cabbage and lettuce and cucumber and raddish and beetroot and and.... hehe, rice and pasta but not with sandwhiches, also Cows and Sheep that I see all around on the hills are my next burger! So lets get the record straight, I eat lots and most of it is good lol. Spinach I never had so I must try it!

I must read the manual one day.

Hi thanks everybody,
Sounds very interesting what Grover writes and makes sense in my case (but I’m still wondering why it worked once or twice). So you suggest taking the risk and investing some more money to upgrade to the latest version. Well I might do it even though I was pretty angry with the Acronis folks. Not so much because of my actual problem. But apparently there is no more support at all for the ATI Home11. I was ready to pay for that but on their support site they just leave me in the rain.
I’m very busy at the moment. Give me a couple of days to try once more with the latest build that I just installed.
Regards
Egon

Egon,
I don't know that it will make a difference but there is a ISO file download available from your registration page.

You can burn a Rescue CD with the ISO file.

Be sure and don't boot with both the source and clone attached following the clone operation.

Hi everybody,
just a last comment
I tried with the latest build in the meantime - same result. Everything seems to be fine except for that particular program that keeps losing its license. Apparently ATIH 11 cannot create a real 100% Clone. Remains the question - why would it work once or twice?
I'm giving up now, just can't afford to spend more time on that issue.
Thanks for your attention

Egon