Clone disk repeatedly - get Windows XP to ignore disk
Hi:
I searched the forums and did not find an answer to this question. So please let me ask this question:
I have used Acronis 11 to clone a disk with a primary and logical partitions.
I re-use the backup disk. In other words, I take a previously cloned disk and mount it externally. Then Windows XP tries to scan the disk as part of its autorun procedure. I cancel the autorun procedure on each logical disk. Then I direct Acronis to backup the physical disk. I have done this dozens of times successfully.
I upgraded to Win XP SP3 and found that I could not cancel the autorun sequence in time and Windoze therefore started writing cache to the backup disk. I got delayed write errors and error messages saying that various directories on the backup disk were not accessible.
Questions, please:
1. Is Acronis designed to work in this manner?
2. How should I reuse and rewrite previously cloned disks?
3. Why does Acronis not have support for their current product version?
Thank you,
Fred

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Hi, Scott:
Excellent advice - I turned off autorun per this MS KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/967715
I recommend doing this if you are trying to re-attach a previously cloned disk. It appeared to fix my problem. I confirmed this with another disk on another PC. Sorry that I was not clear describing the problem. To clarify:
1) Regarding ATI: No problems with ATI as far as I can tell. Thus, my question deals with Windows as opposed to ATI.
2) My (non-ATI) cloning problem: I upgraded from Win XP SP2 to SP3. I then attached the external drive that had already been a clone destination drive - so it contained C, E, F, G partitions.
I thought the problem was that after the SP3 install, I could not re-attach the external drive correctly. I got delayed write errors to the drive - presumably of a cache file (I did not record the error message). But at this time the disk is not recognizable by disk manager on either of two PCs. So I must conclude that the disk crashed just as I started to use it.
3) Is this forum the only support venue for the current version of ATI?
Thanks for your help,
Fred
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Sorry about your disk. Hopeyou had other backups -- always good to keep one or two extra on a secondary backup drive, preferably stored in ta difffernt geographic location form your primary backup disk.
You can contact TEch Support via the website. You can do email or Chat. Chat is usually best.
For a faster answer, the forums are usually best place to try first but sometimes the users on forums can't help and it needs Tech's involvement. Acronis does read the forums and usually jumps in on stuff but can't cover everything that comes in over the forums.
Not a perfect world but much better than lots of other software I use.
Turning off autorun meansyou have to manually start installation disks but that's a minor inconvenience compared to having a program start that you did mean or know was going to start.
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Yes, I have a regular set of backup disks.
Thanks very much for your reply.
Onward!
Fred
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