Crucial SSD not appearing in destination disk list
In the instructions and the video provided of how to clone a disk during the process of installing an SSD, they say to, and show someone, simply choose the new SSD from a list of destination disks, which magically appears in the list for them somehow. How did it get there? I don't have it to choose from, and don't see an option anywhere to add it.
Thanks for directing me to that post to read. I searched for an hour+ for any solution, and couldn't find one, so hopefully there's something within that will resolve this enormous obstacle. That information would be nice to have from Acronis when trying to use their software. We'll see what result it yields.
OK; read the post, and links therein. It doesn't address my issue at all. Perhaps I'm not being clear in the describing the problem. When I try to clone my disk using the Acronis tool, I choose the source disk from ones available, then go to the destination disk page, which has a list of disks. The SSD I want to clone it to doesn't appear(I'm not sure how it would be recognized, really) so I have nowhere to clone the source disk to. At least not the right place.
A possible problem is my source (a partitioned hard drive with 465GB) and destination disks (525GB) are different sizes, which may well be the problem, but messing with hard drives and certain technical things seems beyond the scope of using this cloning product. That also seems like it would be a very common issue if so. This is about to the point I give up on Acronis and just take it to a shop (which seems shameful, even for "free" software) I've spent the better part of a day just trying to clone my disk before I install the SSD, which will now be the easy part.
Michael, there are a number of reasons why your new SSD will not show up, it may be because of size reasons, but you haven't told us what the actual disk drive sizes are. Another reason is if the drive sector sizes are different.
One reason for pointing you to the post with warnings, is to try to help you avoid making any mistakes that could wipe out all the data on your current disk drive.
If you care to post some screen shots of your current drive - taken from Windows Disk Management showing all the partitions for the installed drive and size of free space / used space. That will help.
When you have the new SSD attached to your computer, can you see this in Windows Disk Management? If yes, then include this in a screen shot too.
The safest way of migrating your current disk drive to the new SSD is to use Backup & Restore which requires that you have a third drive on which to store the backup image of the source drive. This method will also use the Acronis bootable Rescue Media to avoid any complications caused by trying to clone from within Windows. When doing the Restore of the backup, the original source disk drive can be removed from the computer and replaced by the new SSD, keeping the original drive safe from any accidental changes etc.
There has been many problems reported concerning Acronis and Crucial SSD's. Try connecting another hard drive to the exact same cable as the Crucial and see if it is recognized?
The instructions say not to install the Crucial SSD until AFTER the cloning procedure is complete. Are they incorrect? If I need to install the SSD before doing the cloning procedure, that helps explain a lot.
I have backup software and plenty of external storage which I'm tempted to just use to move a copy of my c drive to. I've attached a screenshot of my disk setup, just for kicks.
Michael, the recommended method of cloning is to always do this using the Acronis bootable Rescue Media (booting from CD/DVD or USB stick - the latter being preferred), and to remove the original drive, installing the new SSD in its place, then connecting the original drive externally by USB or a drive dock or caddy.
From your screen shot, I cannot tell if you have the SSD attached to your system but it looks as if either you don't (there is no 525GB drive shown) or the drive simply isn't being recognised in the way you have it connected?
The SSD hasn't been installed yet because I haven't successfully cloned my existing disk yet, so that's why it isn't appearing in the screenshot. My previous post asked if the disk should be presently connected, as you asked if it's been. Since it isn't connected, it isn't being recognized. And if it isn't recognized, I can't select it as the destination drive. So it seems like it should be connected so it'd be recognized. But if it's recognized, that means I've already installed it which the instructions and you say not to do. That's my confusion and possibly the root of this issue.
Michael, I was under the impression that you wanted to clone your existing disk to the new SSD - if so this will never happen unless the SSD is connected to your computer. If you don't connect it then Acronis cannot offer you to option of cloning to it.
I do not know what the Crucial instructions may be telling you - they are written by Crucial, not by Acronis as far as I am aware, but either they are wrong or you are misunderstanding them.
Yes, I know I can't clone to something that isn't even installed. But the instructions say to make the clone, then install the SSD, then load it up with the clone I made. That's what's confusing me. On the other hand, if I install the SSD, and unplug the existing hard drive to do that (which is obviously necessary,) then I can't access the original data/Hard Drive to clone it anymore.
I've been searching Youtube and finding some help there. There are ways to circumvent this issue I'm sure.
But the instructions say to make the clone, then install the SSD
Crucial and OEM software usually equire that you clone to their brand of drive. If it does not detect crucial being the drive being cloned to, it may not be possible. There is no way to circumvent these OEM imposed restrictions - that's why they offer this modified, outdated software for free with their specific hardware.
Even though you're not installing the drive yet, it still needs to be connected - via USB usually. If it's not attached, and such a restriction is imposed by the OEM, don't see anyway around it.
Hi, I've just installed my 4th Crucial SSD in probably 4 years. I confess that I've never been successful in cloning, there always seems to be some snag. I strongly recommend using the backup and restore approach as this is a lot more dependable. To install and use the free Acronis for Crucial, the SSD must me connected. Crucial sell an optional USB to SSD cable so that you can connect the SSD to a USB port which will satisfy this requirement. You can then create a rescue media DVD or whatever, do a full Acronis disk and partition back up to a portable drive, then uninstall the existing drive, replace it with the SSD, boot from the rescue media and use the recovery option to migrate your backup to the SSD. This is all described more fully in the Acronis instructions.
The only point I would highlight here is that in my most recent experience, my new Crucial SSD was not recognised by Acronis True Image when in the recovery mode, but if I used the install new hard drive tool, the drive was detected and showed up as not initialised. I initialised it with a single partition of all 480Gb, then returned to the Recovery tool whence my SSD was now recognised and I was able to complete the recovery process creating four partitions to match my old HDD with no further hitches.
For information the laptop in question was an HP 250 G4 recently upgraded to Win 10 from Win 7 pro, with the existing HDD formatted under GPT rather than MBR. I am a private citizen with no connection to either Crucial or Acronis. I am not an IT professional, just a semi-retired engineer with a reasonable degree of familiarity with computers.
Good luck.
Andrew, thank you for taking the time to share your experience with the community!