Please- TIH 2011- Simple instructions for transferring to a new hard drive.

You don't need to format the new drive.
Here is the process:
- using ATI in Windows, produce an Acronis bootable recovery CD,
- take a screen shot of your disk management console and print it for reference later,
- boot your computer on this CD. The drive/partition letters that you will see are not the same as in Windows,
- create a disk and partition backup of all the partitions on your disk to a USB disk. Once the backup has completed, validate it.
- put the new disk in the computer,
- boot the computer with ATI again,
- in tools, choose add new disk. Paying attention to the disk you select, choose your new disk, delete the partition that ATI proposed to create, finish the add new disk wizard,
- choose restore, select the backup you created earlier,
- restore one partition at a time, in the same order they were laid out previously: check your disk management printout
= the new location is on your new disk,
= leave a 1MB space before the first partition,
= do not resize any partition except the C:\System partition,
= make primary active the partition that was active before,
= no need to reboot inbetween restores,
= once complete, restore the MBR+Track0, and the disk signature,
That's it.

don't forget that you can get the user guide for ATI2011 and older prodcucts here:

http://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/legacy.html

Hi Pat,
Thanks so much for your reply.
So let me run through some questions I have. When I open the "Disk and Partition Backup" selection I see the following;

1) Unnamed partition (Fat 16 0.1GB of 0.1GB used

2) Recovery; (NTFS 4.9GB of 8.7GB Used)

3) OS (C:); (NTFS 126.2 GB of 465.9GB used)

4) Drive D; (NTFS 402.1 GB of 456.8 GB used)

I'm not concerned with the D drive, I only want to restore the first three properly to a new hard drive.

When I open the "Disk and Partition Backup" selection the first (unnamed partition ) isn't checked.

Do I back up each of these partitions separately or do I check all of them at once?

Do I click on "Make this media bootable" below the destination box?

You mentioned making this backup after booting from the Acronis bootable recovery CD. I'm curious why I can't do this from within Windows 7.
I've always made my backups from within Windows. Are these not reliable? Should I always make my backups after booting with the recovery disc?

I have a secondary hard drive in my system that I usually make backups to. Do I need to use an external USB hard drive for the backups?

Thanks again for the help. I REALLY appreciate it.

pg

Hi Scott,
Thanks for the link. I wish it was easier to find on Acronis' web site.

pg

PGD wrote:

Hi Pat,
Thanks so much for your reply.
So let me run through some questions I have. When I open the "Disk and Partition Backup" selection I see the following;

1) Unnamed partition (Fat 16 0.1GB of 0.1GB used

2) Recovery; (NTFS 4.9GB of 8.7GB Used)

3) OS (C:); (NTFS 126.2 GB of 465.9GB used)

4) Drive D; (NTFS 402.1 GB of 456.8 GB used)

I'm not concerned with the D drive, I only want to restore the first three properly to a new hard drive.

When I open the "Disk and Partition Backup" selection the first (unnamed partition ) isn't checked.

Do I back up each of these partitions separately or do I check all of them at once?

Include *all* the partitions that are on the disk that contains the system

Do I click on "Make this media bootable" below the destination box?

No. This works only for DVDs and USB *Flash* drive (aka removable media). When it works, you get a disk that can boot, run Acronis and contains the archive. In most cases, you want your archives on a USB disk, and boot your computer on the recovery CD.

You mentioned making this backup after booting from the Acronis bootable recovery CD. I'm curious why I can't do this from within Windows 7.
I've always made my backups from within Windows. Are these not reliable? Should I always make my backups after booting with the recovery disc?

Backing up from Windows is very reliable. This is not the problem. I recommend to do it from the recovery because it forces you to build the recovery CD and actually test it: does it boot? can you use your mouse and keyboard? can you see your disks correctly (all of them? Raid ones as a single drive? etc.). That's all. If you have already tested your recovery CD, you can safely backup from Windows.

I have a secondary hard drive in my system that I usually make backups to. Do I need to use an external USB hard drive for the backups?

You can backup anywhere with ATI. Some thoughts about backup destinations:
- DVD backups are fragile with ATI if you have more than 2 disks,
- internal disks, same as data, will not save you if the disk dies, obviously,
- external disks are probably the most reliable & performing destination for ATI, all things considered,
- local network locations can be tricky to reach at restore time, from the recovery CD, and are less performing,
- remote network locations (ftp etc.) even worse,
- diversifying your backup locations (offsite/onsite through disk rotation, online as redundant backups for irreplaceable content) is highly recommended.
The best basic config I'd recommend for backup is a USB 2.0 disk. eSata/UBS3.0/NAS are high performance and reliable, but you have to test it specifically with ATI to make sure there is no hardware support issues with the recovery CD.

Thanks again for the help. I REALLY appreciate it.

pg

[/quote]

Thanks again Pat.
One last question. As the last step you mention;

= once complete, restore the MBR+Track0, and the disk signature,

How do I do that or is it self explanatory in the program when I get to that step?

Thanks again,

pg

For the last restore step, simply check only the MBR+Track0 when you select what to backup. With 2011, you have the option to restore the disk signature. Not with 2010, apparently. You will see this option in one of the last, if not the last, screen of the recovery wizard.

Hi Pat,
Thanks again for all the help. I think I'm ready to give this a try. I'll try to do it tomorrow or Thursday. It depends when I finish a job I'm currently working on. I'm anxious to give it a go. I'll post a reply to let you know how it turns out.

Thanks again,

pg

I highly recommend Grover's Guides http://forum.acronis.com/forum/3426 section 3.

Hi Tom,
Thanks for the link. It looks invaluable.

I'm going to have to wait until at least this weekend to do the hard drive transfer. I have work and can't take a break until then.

I'll post the results after that.

Hi Pat, Well I tried to add the new hard drive and wasn't successful. One problem I had was regarding the part of your instructions that read;

"- in tools, choose add new disk. Paying attention to the disk you select, choose your new disk, delete the partition that ATI proposed to create, finish the add new disk wizard,"

After selecting the new disk, there was no option to delete the partition that ATI proposed to create. It simply said there was xxxx amount of unallocated space on the drive, then after I hit "next", in the upper right of the screen a check mark appeared next to the word "partition" I assume indicating the partition had been created.

I couldn't find any way to delete a partition at this part of the "Tools" menu. I went ahead anyway and restored all the partitions and the MBR. I also restored the disc signature.

When I restarted the system it launched into a diagnostics program that apparently comes with Dell and wouldn't boot to the hard drive. It would just exit the diagnostics and keep rebooting.

I'm wondering if something Dell installed in the bios or somewhere can tell this isn't the original hard drive and isn't accepting it or if the delete partition step mentioned above could be preventing the proper system transfer.

Appreciate any advice, pg

Letting ATI create the partition before the restore is not an issue and won't be the reason for your problem.

I would guess that the issue is with your Diagnostics partition.

I am assuming there is no password or disk encryption active before you did the backup.

A question, did you change the offset before the first partition? I was telling you to set it to 1MB. Did you actually change it? If yes, it is possible this is a mistake.

You can try 2 things:
- redo the restore, but this time do not change the offset before the first partition (Whatever it is, don't change it)
- if this doesn't work, restore the disk again, but this time simply click the box at the disk level and restore the partitions as is. The disk will be restored in one shot, with all partitions. Don't forget to include the disk signature.

Hi Pat,
Thanks for the reply. I didn't make any changes in the offset. It defaulted to 1mb which is what you advised so I left it alone.

I tried to restore again and had the same result.

I thought I'd try making a fresh backup tomorrow, then try it again.

If that doesn't work I was thinking of trying the following:
Do the restore, then insert the Dell recovery cd. I've never used the cd, but I'm assuming it accesses the recovery partition that's on the hard drive, (and that I'll have restored onto the new hard drive). If that gets the system booting properly, I could then restore just the c drive. What do you think?

Thanks again for your help,

Well, I made another backup, validated it and tried it again with the same result. Just kept running the diagnostics without booting into Windows.

I had a couple of other questions;

When doing the partition restore there is an option for "Use Acronis Universal Restore?" I left this unchecked. Would this have helped?

I checked the box for "Recover Disk Signature". Is this correct?

Also, Pat, you mentioned earlier; I am assuming there is no password or disk encryption active before you did the backup. I do have a password once Windows starts in order to get into the desktop, is this a problem?

Finally, isn't there an option to simply duplicated the current disk onto another? Not sure if this is "Cloning" or not.

I remember about four or five years ago I used Acronis, (I'm pretty sure it was Acronis), to duplicate a tiny hard disk that contained the operating system for an HP computer I'd bought, put it on a much larger hard disk and it worked just fine. I don't remember the process I used. As I said it was four or five years ago, but I remember it went much easier. Anyway any ideas to help would be appreciated.

PGD wrote:

When doing the partition restore there is an option for "Use Acronis Universal Restore?" I left this unchecked. Would this have helped?

No. This is only when you restore to another computer or motherboard. Not to a new disk.

I checked the box for "Recover Disk Signature". Is this correct?

Yes this is correct.

I do have a password once Windows starts in order to get into the desktop, is this a problem?

That's fine. Not a hardware-level password.

Finally, isn't there an option to simply duplicated the current disk onto another?

Yes. You can try a clone process. Do it from the recovery CD. You need to put your old disk in an external enclosure, and your new disk at the spot where the old disk was. Then boot on the recovery CD, clone from the old disk to the new disk, choosing manual, as is.
Don't forget to disconnect the external enclosure before you boot on the new cloned disk.

Thanks Pat,
I'll try the cloning method tomorrow. I'll let you know how it goes.

One thing we could try also is to eliminate the diagnostics partition. That will take to repair the computer startup with the Window DVD. Let's see how the cloning goes.

Hi Pat, So I did a clone as you described.

When I started the computer I got the following error message:

Windows failed to start.

A recent hardware or software change might be the cause.

1) insert the Windows installation disc and restart your computer.

2) Choose language settings, then click next.

3) Click "repair your computer"

status 0xc000000e

Info: boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible.

So I did what the error message suggested. If the windows disc did anything, it was so fast I didn't see anything repaired or written.

When I restarted the computer everything seemed to be working fine. It's still doing fine.

What do you think? Is this drive good to go?

You are good to go. Check that Windows is activate and that Windows updates service is working fine.

Thanks so much for all your help Pat.