Can't clone Samsung SSD to Hard Drive using Acronis TI 2012
I had no problems cloning hdd to hdd. Then I installed a Samsung 500GB 840 EVO SSD a few weeks ago and was able to migrate my C:\ drive to the SSD using Samsung's software.
Now I want to make a clone of the SSD to a 1TB mechanical drive and I have tried and failed 4 times already. The process seems to be going okay, it starts to reboot and then I get a screen full of stuff I don't understand (attached is a screen grab), and at the top is an error message: "mounting usbfs on /proc/bus/usb failed: Device or resource busy". This happened twice and it appears to freeze on this screen.
Once it got as far as the blue background with the mouse pointer, but the progress indicators never came up.
Is Acronis 2012 even capable of doing just a plain old clone like I'm used to doing?
Appreciate the help
Joe
I think you have it reversed so I would like to verify this first before I do anything.
The SSD is the C: drive and is the source disk, the 1TB is the destination disk. I could use a smaller disk than the 1TB but it's what I have for now.
You're saying I should remove the SSD, the source disk, and install the 1TB, then boot from the CD? Do I now hook up the SSD?
Then do a manual clone. I'm assuming the clone software is on the recovery CD (I've never had to use the recovery CD so I don't know what's on there).
Then you say to boot with only the 1TB attached. This is where I get confused. I would think I want the SSD attached, not the 1TB.
This may help. This is the Acroniis Knowledge base article.
This is the laptop procedure.
Cloning not possible with TrueImage if source disk is GPT partitions.
2931: Cloning Laptop Hard Disk
This is for a desktop, not a laptop, and I'm not replacing the SSD, I just want to make a clone as a backup for the SSD in case it crashes.
But, based on the linked article I will try the following:
I will have both the source SSD and the destination HDD hooked up and running.
Then I'll insert the recovery CD and reboot the computer. I'll go in to the BIOS (using F2) and have the computer boot from the CD.
Hopefully, I can then do the clone. When it's done, if it works, I will have the computer shut down, not reboot.
At this point, I can remove the CD and remove the cloned HDD.
If I still get the error message noted in the original post, then maybe I'll have to look for other software or another way to get the job done.
Well, that didn't work. It totally locked up my computer on the Home page. see attached. That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence that this bootable media disc will actually be of any use if I ever need it.
I thought maybe Acronis 2014 might have better luck so I downloaded the trial version. I was careful to install it in a different folder so as not to mess up my 2012 version in case I had to go back to that.
When I ran the trial version, I find out that the clone feature is disabled in the trial version. That doesn't do me any good. I'm not going to pay $50 to find out v2014 is no better than v2012. So I deleted the trial version only to find out that it deleted my Acronis TI 2012 files. So I had to jump through all the hoops to download my old version and get it re-installed. If you ask me, that's pretty arrogant of Acronis to assume I would purchase the trial version.
I've had Acronis for a long time but I'm pretty much fed up with it. It worked okay hdd to hdd, but ssd to hdd seems beyond it's ability and I need to have something that will work.
As you have found out, only one version of TrueImage can be installed at any one time. The installation of the trial version (or any other version) would cause the loss of the installed version.
Your options are getting fewer and fewer. If it were me, the next step I would try would be to do a full disk backup and then restore the backup as per my signature link 3, item 1 inside that link.
The type of backup I would make (from the CD or from within Windows) would be a "switch to disk mode" option (if using Windows) as illustrated in signature link 2 below, the very first picture.
As part of the restore, I would use the tools menu "add new disk" option to make the new Samsun to be totally unallocated.
My suggestion continues to be using the Recovey Cd but you can attempt from within Windows--if that is your preference. If you use the CD, no version of TrueImage needs to be installed.
I did try using the Recovery CD but it froze up for some reason on the screen shown in the attachment on my previous post. So it almost worked, but close enough isn't good enough.
More and more people every day are replacing their mechanical C: drives with SSD's. I don't understand why there isn't more information available on how to clone an SSD to a mechanical drive. There should be a huge number of people needing to clone their SSD's back to a mechanical drive. I sure don't want to spend the money for another SSD just to clone the drive.
I'll try it again but in the meantime I have downloaded the trial version of Casper 8.0. I'll try that in the next day or two because I'm just worn out right now from trying to accomplish what should be, imho, a simple process. My SSD has the MBR partition type just like my mechanical drives do. It should be as easy to clone SSD to HDD as I was doing HDD to HDD.
I appreciate your help up to this point. If I succeed I shall post back here, even if it's the "other guy" that gets the job done.
Joe
While Clone saves a step and saves a bit of time compared to Backup and Restore, it comes with risks as if you don't do it correctly you can end up with a non-booting system.
And, as you clearly are having difficulty with cloning, why not use the method suggested by Grover? Create a full disk mode backup and restore it, using the bootable Rescue Media, to the new disk, as it's far safer and simpler.
I am going to try the full disk mode backup as suggested by Grover and to that end I have bookmarked the #2 link. As long as I have a way to restore to a bootable drive, that's all I really want. I have never had an OS disk crash, but sure as heck if I don't get this backup done, Murphy's Law will kick in.
However, one thing concerns me, which is the recovery disk freezing on the screen shown in the attachment above. I made a dvd recovery disk, and when that froze my computer I made a CD recovery disk, but got the same result. If I can't get past that screen, all the disk backups in the world won't do me any good.
It might have been freezing because there was inherently a problem with the cloning method I was trying to use. I'll have to try again in the next day or so.
btw, Casper 8.0 was not able to do a clone either. I got an error about insufficient storage available to create a shadow copy.
The installed option "create bootable media" also offers the capability to create a bootable flash drive. That might provide another option and hopefully it would not freeze. In order to see this as an option, the flash drive has to be attached before starting the media builder. Best to se some brand other than San disk
YOu may also want to consider checking the source disk for disk errors as that can can cause failure of the clone as well.
I have made the full disk mode backup without any problem. I did it on a 640GB hard drive and somehow, for some reason, Acronis appears to have partitioned it to a 437GB drive with about 157GB unallocated. Coincidentally, the 437GB is the same size as the SSD primary partition. This seems to have been done yesterday while I was exploring the different options in Acronis. It's not that important I suppose, but I better be careful of what buttons I push. It also started that Sync operation again which I have no use for and which I thought I had disables in services.
I'll have to pick up a flash drive and try making the bootable media that way.
I was also thinking about checking the source SSD for errors and I did some checking around yesterday. There seems to be several different viewpoints to that as it concerns SSD's. Some people say never use chkdsk on an SSD. Others say it's okay. Others says you can do it but it probably won't make any difference since the way data is stored is so different. The SSD is only 3 weeks old, I can't imagine it would accumulate so many errors in such a short time to create this problem.
Joe
Tried with a flash drive and still no luck. Still freezes. I thought maybe it was just the keyboard locking up so I tried a different k/b, same results.
Talked to a friend that has Acronis TIH 2013. She said she purchased an additional disc with her initial purchase. It's called the Plus Pack and has a separate license, install, etc . She gave me this link: http://kb.acronis.com/content/41681. She doesn't remember what she paid for it. She has been faithfully making backups but now she's worried that she will run into the same problems I am having if she ever needs to restore her files.
On that page it has a link for "True Image 2013 by Acronis: GPT & UEFI Support". My mobo, Asus Z87 Pro, has that UEFI for the BIOS. I do not have the GPT partition type, it is MBR. I don't claim to understand what UEFI is, I just know I have it. And it's possible the issue is not with the SSD but rather with my BIOS type.
So, my question now is, does Acronis TIH 2014 include support for UEFI? If it's not included is there a separate disc available as it was for 2013, because on the upgrade page, it shows a price of $29.99 but does not mention anything about additional discs being needed. At this point in time, I don't need any more surprises. I don't want to spend $30 to find out I have to spend another $xx dollars for it to work.
Joe
This post may be of interest. Also do a forum search on "secure boot" if your computer has such installed.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/38136
Read the linked thread. I was able to find in my advanced settings that secure boot is there and it's enabled. I saw no way to directly turn it off. There was an "OS" option for either "Windows UEFI mode" or "other OS". Changing it to Other OS still leaves Secure Boot enabled. But I tried it anyway.
There were options to clear the Secure Boot Keys, also options to save Secure Boot keys to a USB storage device. There were 4 or 5 different keys and I don't know enough about this stuff to go and delete keys or change settings I know nothing about. I should not have to be digging around my BIOS just to do a backup.
I'm still in the same position, the screen freezes when i get to the Acronis home screen. I've read the posts, I've done the search on the forum for secure boot and read through numerous posts trying to sort this out. I've spent hours and hours trying to research this thing, all to no avail. And I don't feel like I should have to do this stuff. I asked a simple question, will ATIH 2014 do what I want without all the hoops to jump through and I didn't get an answer. All I got was a link to yet another thread.
I'm sorry to say it, but it's getting beyond ridiculous now that I can't do a simple thing like recover a backup of my SSD.
One other option open to you is to download he 2014 trial Recovery CD and try it when restoring your 2012 backup. The trial CD can only be used for a restore and is not enabled for any other functions.
To use this, you must sign up for the trial 30 days program and you will be provided with a 64 char. trial serial number.
Register (required) the trial serial and this makes the trial ISO CD available for download from your account.
Once you have the download on your computer, then, if using Win7, you can right click on the ISO file and choose the "open with" option and then select the "Windows Disk image Burn" option which will burn the iso to a new blank CD.
I believe the Secure Boot option must be disabled in order for you to boot the TI CD.
Do a forum search on "UEFI" and read some of the comments.
24018: Acronis True Image 2012: GPT & UEFI Support
http://kb.acronis.com/content/24018
44348: Acronis True Image 2014: GPT & UEFI Support
http://kb.acronis.com/content/44348
kfdaddy,
I believe your issues are all from the Secure Boot feature on your machine. Each manufacturer has the ability to configure Secure Boot to their own desires. You should go to your Mfg. web site support page to determine how to disable/enable Secure Boot for your machine. Secure Boot enabled will block the TI boot CD from running, it is designed to do so. It is also designed to help prevent malware attacks on machines such as rootkits so leaving it disabled is not advised.
You may need to download the user manual for your machine from the support site to find out how to disable on your machine.
First of all, I was able to use the Clone Tool to clone my SSD C: drive. I have an Asus Z87 Pro mobo running Win 7 Pro 64 bit, which figures in to all this. But, here’s the rest of the story, so far:
Earlier today I went to the Asus forum and did some searching. I found out several things not the least of which is that Secure Boot does indeed need to be disabled in order for Acronis TIH to work properly. I really had no doubt that you all were correct about that part.
They stated that Secure Boot is only compatible with Windows 8. So if you have Windows 7 it’s okay to disable it and leave it disabled. For my mobo the disable process is not so cut and dried. So this info is for anyone who has a Z87 series mobo running W7. If you have W8, you should re-enable Secure Boot after you do your restore.
To disable Secure Boot I had to go into Advanced mode, go to the CSM and set each of the 4 items to “Legacy OPRom First”. Then set Secure Boot to “Other OS”. This still does not disable it. Then you have to go to Key Management and delete the 3 Secure Boot keys. Now Secure Boot will show “Disabled” and Platform Key State will be “Unloaded”.
Then, I proceeded to try a restore from the Full Disk Mode backup I had made 5-6 days ago using the bootable media USB drive I had made. When I got to the Acronis TIH option screen, wouldn’t you know, it was locked up again, so I still could not select any options.
At that point I decided to try and use the Clone Disk option that does not need bootable media. What did I have to lose right? Well, son of a gun it started to do the cloning . . . .but the mouse pointer was locked on this screen too. But the only options there were to shut down or reboot after the clone so I just let it finish. It rebooted after cloning and I went into the BIOS and had it boot from the cloned disk to see if it had done a good clone, and it did. So I at least knew that TIH could do a proper clone.
But now I was curious about why both of those screens were locked up. I went into the BIOS again to look for any keyboard or mouse options. What I found under USB configuration was that the BIOS was saying I have 2 keyboards and 2 mice, which I don’t. I do have a KVM switch because I have a second older PC that shares a monitor and k/b with this new system. Even though they are totally turned off, it appears the BIOS thinks I have 2 keyboards and 2 mice. Maybe this confusion is what’s causing Acronis TIH to freeze on those screens, maybe it’s connecting to the “phantom” keyboard and mouse. This would be a unique situation that not too many people would run in to I suppose.
The bottom line is, if I can sort out the keyboard/mouse problem I will probably be able to get the bootable media USB drive to work properly so I can continue to use the Full disk mode backup method as my first choice as suggested by Grover, instead of using the Clone Disk option. So my adventure continues but it looks like Acronis is back in my good graces, at least for now.
thanks again for your help, if I seemed a bit agitated for a while . . . . . . . . well I was, and I apologize ;-)
Joe
Sounds like you are well on your way to resolution, that's good to hear. Happy to be of assistance.
Great Thread!
I agree with others, your issues are/were related to secure boot and the KVM, even if not in use. I often use a KVM in my environment, so reading of your experience was helpful. I'm running win7 on my z68 rig, and had disabled Secure Boot prior to install.
I was able to get my USB configuration to show 1 keyboard and 1 mouse by swapping out my Logitech keyboard, which is not wireless, and my Logitech mouse, which is wireless, for an old USB MS keyboard and an IBM mouse. I also completely disconnected the KVM switch so that no longer figures into this as a possible cause.
Unfortunately that has not fixed the issue with the Acronis page being frozen.
So I still won't be able to use the Full Disk Mode backup since I can't access the recovery option. Not sure where to go from here, but I do have the Clone Disk option available.
Joe
To access the Recovery partition, this is normally done via Windows Disk Management and a drive letter (such as drive letter X) is assigned temporarily so the disk can be checked from a command prompt for disk errors. After the test, reuse Windows Disk management and remove the drive letter X from the partition so it returns to being un-lettered.
CHKDSK X: /R
Before I ran chkdsk I noticed that the NUM LOCK light was off on my keyboard when I got to the screen that was locked up. So I was guessing that for some reason, either Acronis's fault or my BIOS setup, my USB k/b and mouse were being shutdown at that screen. I was going to go buy a USB to PS/2 adapter as a last resort, to use an old IBM mouse I have, but before I did that I decided to try one more thing . . . . .
As Grover suggested on 3/27, I made a bootable USB drive using the trial version of ATIH-2014 and, finally, everything worked! I was able to navigate that last page. So I went ahead and just upgraded my 2012 to 2014.
I will never know what it was about v2012 that was mucking things up for me. But whatever it was has apparently been fixed in v2014. And that's all I need to know.
Joe