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Problem using Acronis True Image 2014

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I was planning to move everything from an 80 GB 5400 rpm HD to a 320
GB 7200 HD in the hopes it would improve performance on an old XP machine.

I bought a "Plugable USB 3.0 SATA Lay Flat Hard Drive Dock" to do this.

I already had Acronis 2014 from a similar operation I did earlier.

I connected the drive and backed it up using Disk mode. I forgot to
use Clone. I then recovered it to the 320 GB drive. 

And when I put the copied drive in the computer it would not
boot.  Remembering I needed to do Clone instead of Backup, I put the
original drive back in the dock and it was no longer detected. After
many attempts and reboots it still would not be detected.    

I put the original 80 GB drive back in the computer and it would not
boot Saying drive Init failure.  

I went back to the 320 GB which just shows a flashing underscore after
the bios screen and never gets to windows. I have tried booting from
an install CD and:  
        Booting to the Recovery Console from CD and:
                bootcfg /rebuild
                fixboot C:
                fixmbr
        Reinstalling XP with the Repair option
        Reinstalling XP to a different folder than the original

None have helped. 

I am not sure if Acronis or Plugable caused the initial drive failure
of if it was me, or the drive itself. 

I have swapped drives in the dock numerous times through this
operation and it is only the one (most important drive) that is not
detected.  

Whatever the cause, any help resolving the problem is appreciated.

Thanks,

Spencer

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Spencer Morgan wrote:

I was planning to move everything from an 80 GB 5400 rpm HD to a 320 GB 7200 HD in the hopes it would improve performance on an old XP machine. I bought a "Plugable USB 3.0 SATA Lay Flat Hard Drive Dock" to do this. I already had Acronis 2014 from a similar operation I did earlier. 
I connected the drive and backed it up using Disk mode. I forgot to use Clone. I then recovered it to the 320 GB drive. 
And when I put the copied drive in the computer it would not boot.  Remembering I needed to do Clone instead of Backup, I put the original drive back in the dock and it was no longer detected. After many attempts and reboots it still would not be detected.    
I put the original 80 GB drive back in the computer and it would not boot Saying drive Init failure.  
I went back to the 320 GB which just shows a flashing underscore after the bios screen and never gets to windows. I have tried booting from an install CD and: Booting to the Recovery Console from CD and: bootcfg /rebuild  -  fixboot C:  -         fixmbr
Reinstalling XP with the Repair option         Reinstalling XP to a different folder than the original.  None have helped. 
I am not sure if Acronis or Plugable caused the initial drive failure of if it was me, or the drive itself. 
I have swapped drives in the dock numerous times through this operation and it is only the one (most important drive) that is not detected.  

Spencer, welcome to these user forums.

When you created the Disk mode backup, did you make this using ATIH 2014, either from within Windows XP (if installed) or using the Acronis bootable Rescue Media?   Restoring such a disk mode backup to the second drive should be the equivalent to using Clone.

I am assuming that all drives involved here are SATA and not any IDE (PATA) drives, given you say these have been placed in the Plugable USB 3.0 SATA Lay Flat Hard Drive Dock.

Have you also ensure that you are connecting the boot drive to the correct SATA cable and controller?

Have you confirmed that your XP system can support the size of the new 320GB drive? - I have encountered some older systems which refuse point blank to work with larger drive sizes!  This would tend to be a limitation of the system BIOS on the motherboard.

I would recommend downloading a copy of the Hiren's Boot CD and booting from this with your original 80GB drive attached, then go into the Hiren's Mini-XP environment and check that you can read the contents of the 80GB drive via the Explorer option.

I am running acronis on a windows 7 machine.  The drives I was backing up and restoring were both from and for XP machines. They are all sata.

I put the original 80 GB drive in the dock which was accessable as E: and backed it up with Disk mode to a file on on my Win 7 machine.

I then put a formated 320 GB drive in and restored it.  But when I put it the drive in the XP computer it would not boot. The bios detected it, but windows never started.  I took the drive back to the dock and can see the files.  I am not sure what the problem was (MBR, etc).

I then tried to check the original 80 GB drive and it is now non-functional. If I put it back in the computer the bios says the drive will not initialize.  So I cannot back it up again, or use any of the tools you suggested on it.

What I ended up doing is copying the data files from the restored drive. Then I formated it and did a fresh XP install and reinstalled all the programs, and restored all the data I copied after the restore. So in the end they have their computer working again bit it was more of a hassle than I expected.

Thanks for trying to help.

> I have activated and registered my copy of Acronis True Image HD, got the serial number
> and can go no further in using the software. 

I have the same problem. Each time I try to start the program, I get the opening picture; but the fans for Backup and recovery & Synchronization & Tools and Utilities are greyed out.
It seems to deactivate when I start the program?

I’m using Win7 x64

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Erik, please look at the ATIH 2014 Help menu >> About information and check that you have a full license and have activated the product - see example image below:

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> .. check that you have a full license ..
Yes, and I have to activate again and again :-(

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Erik, 

I would recommend contacting Acronis Support as we cannot help solve activation issues in the user forums.

Please see post: 18623: How to get Technical Support: Tips, Tricks and Useful Information

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