Can't get past sector size issue despite multiple workarounds - solved
I have solved the issue on my own. Rather than delete this post, I thought I'd leave it up for others who may have experienced the same problem. I borrowed a friend's USB - SATA adapter and attached my new SSD to it. Acronis has no issues with my SSD when connected with this adapter and is cloning my old HDD as I type this. Apparently it was the USB connector causing the problem.
Orginial Post: I have a slowly dying HDD in my HP laptop. I purchased a Crucial brand 450 GB SSD, a Sabrent USB adapter, and Acronis Trume Image 2014. From the very beginning, the software refuses to clone or restore a backup to the new SSD always telling me that the sector size is different between the two drives. I've tried just about everything I can think of and even spent a session with Acronis tech support:
- Reformatted the SSD to make sure it had the same 4096 sector size that my HDD. Confirmed with checkdisk that the sector sizes are indeed the same. SSD is fully accessible through explorer and files can be written to it just fine.
- Installed the new SSD in my laptop and connect my old HDD via USB and used a rescue CD to boot in to Acronis to attempt to "reverse" clone. Received the same error about sector size.
- As recommended by tech support, I performed a backup of my HDD to another removable drive I had and then attempted to restore the backup to the SSD. Tech support promised me this method was basically full proof, but the attempt resulted in the same error.
To be fair to Acronis (and their tech support was actually great to work with), I've tried at least one other clone program and am having the same sort of problems. The only thing I haven't attempted yet is to try a different USB adapter (as I don't have an extra right now). I've read in other forums that some USB - SATA adapters may be responsible for this error as they incorrectly report sector size to software such as Acronis. I'm hopeful somebody here might have some other things I can try?