Not sure what just happened, but it scared the heck out of me!
I just changed to a newer PC and I own Acronis True Image 2016. So I transferred the software license over to this PC and deleted it on the old one.
This new PC is an Asus M32BC running Windows 8.1, and it has USB 3 ports. So I bought a BlacX dock for cloning my HD and put a 1TB WD drive in it.
I like to do my cloning manually - I just feel better controlling it. I never cloned to a USB drive before. In the past I used a ESATA dock on the old PC.
So I start True Image 2016 and go to clone. I pick this drive as the source and the docked drive as the destination drive and go for it. I just wasn't familiar with the way USB 3 drives are formatted. With Esata it's always been NTFS.
So it tells me that the docked drive needs formatting. I went into my PC's disk management and did that.
I restarted True Image and started the process. So it says it needs to reboot. Fine. But when I ok that, it sits there and says that two Acronis programs are preventing the reboot. I'm thinking WTF?!
I let it be, and it eventually exits the whole process, back to my desktop.
I try again and it does the same thing. So this time I tell it to force the reboot and it reboots and starts backing up. I didn't realize how much slower USB3 is, than Esata, but it looks like it will take hours, so I let it go and went to bed.
I come in this AM and restart the PC and it cant use the OS! It says it's damaged or something, and cant be fixed. I'm freaking out, because I have no original OS disk, restore point, or recovery disk!
I try a few times, to get it to boot into Windows and it won't work! I'm seeing my whole computing life flash before my eyes, and my home based business which feeds us!
So finally I turned off the power to the docked drive and tried it again, and it brough the PC up into Windows!
But jeez, people, this is a horrible way to start the day! Does anyone have any idea what happened? Was it just trying to boot from the USB drive, and failing?
If you left the newly cloned drive connected when you rebooted thew machine then its likely Windows became confused becasue it saw two identical drives. In the future I recommend that you make your clones while booted from the rescue CD/USB drive. When you start the process within Windows TI has to reboot and rewrite the boot code and then restore it which can cause the types of errors you saw. Recommend you read [IMPORTANT] CLONING - How NOT to do this!!! | Acronis Forum
I'm thinking you're right. I need to turn the drive dock on, then reboot and hit Del to get into the boot menu, and see if I can make it where the PC ONLY boots to the internal drive - even when the dock might be on.
Oe thing that didn't occur to me when I bought this BlacX dock. That being it's USB 3, the clone cant be booted from.
I had Esata on my old PC and the clone could be booted from.
So I may move the old Esata plug and back panel over to this new PC and use that old BlacX dock. The problem is, there's a sticker on this newr PC that says that if I open the box up, it voids the warrant, which runs to October, I think. It's refurbed unit.
I would check your BIOS and make sure the boot drive is set correectly. Now that you have the machine booting properly there shouldn't be any issues. I personally never clone and us full disk backups that I can restore when needed.
What I mean, though, is that with the Esata dock, if I NEEDED TO, I could boot from that clone, instead of the primary drive. But it looks like, with the USB3 drive, I cant, because the speed is so slow.
Melissa, Microsoft will normally prevent any removable external USB drive from booting into Windows unless you purchase their Windows Ultimate edition and use their Windows to Go tool to allow this.
When using an eSATA dock, this may enable your external drive to be recognised as a non-removable drive and thus will allow you to select and boot from it provided that, as Thomas has said, you have set the BIOS options correctly to allow this.
On the old Win 7 PC, I could set the BIOS to boot off the cloned drive, to test it, and being it was ESATA it would work. My point above is that I don't think USB3 is fast enough to do that? Is that why it said that the OS couldn't be found, when I had the dock turned on during reboot?
Melissa, it is not an issue with USB3 speed but a restriction imposed by Microsoft that does not allow Windows to boot from removable USB drives. You eSATA drive would be seen as a non-removable drive.
So if I told the system it was ok to boot from the USB drive, it would?
I just don't understand why it was acting like the OS was destroyed, when I booted after the cloning, and still had the USB drive powered on.
Melissa. When you reboot with the cloned drive still active immediately after cloning, Windows will see see two identical drives and won't know which one to use. The instructions for cloning tell you to disconnect the newly cloned drive before rebooting. Following this procedure will prevent the situation you encountered.
Microsoft does not allow booting from an USB external drive so if you told it to boot from that drive it still wouldn't.
So why was it freaking me out with messages that it couldn't find Windows?
Melissa, can we step back a little here and establish exactly how you are booting your system when you are getting the message about not being able to find Windows?
What I would expect to hear is that you have taken the cloned drive and use this to replace the original drive in your computer so that you only have the one drive installed (in the original internal location) and that you have gone into the BIOS configuration after making this change and have selected 'Windows Boot Manager' as the boot device (assuming that you have a UEFI BIOS system).
If you are attempting to boot into Windows with the clone drive connected in any other configuration, then I would suggest not doing so and doing as above.
OK, here's what happened:
I ran True Image and cloned the main drive to the USB3 BlacX drive. I let it do its thing overnight and shut the PC off when done.
I came back in the morning and started the PC again and it apparently cant find or repair the OS. I'm freaking out. It tries this a few times, and it looks like my PC's OS has been destroyed, or something. THEN I get the idea to switch off the BlacX dock and try again, and it comes up.
Melissa, sorry but we appear to be going round in circles with you on this one.
If your computer is set to try to boot from USB devices and you leave your USB3 drive attached, then it will try to boot from this and this is where it cannot find a valid OS to boot from.
As stated previously, if you want to boot from the drive attached to the USB3 dock, then remove it from the dock and use it to replace the normal OS boot drive in the computer, then check that your BIOS is showing the Windows Boot Manager on that drive as the main boot device selection.
The alternative is to ensure that your internal drive is set ahead of any USB drive in the Boot priority order, so that it boots from the internal drive before attempting to look for and boot from any USB devices.
Someone here was saying that Windows 8.1 won't allow booting from the USB dock drive, so I don't understand how it can even do that.
Secondly, with the Esata dock that I have on my old PC, it CAN boot directly to the cloned drive on the dock, if I tell it to, so I'm confused by this, but was thinking that it cant boot to the drive in this dock because it's USB instead of Esata, so it may be too slow to.
But this is why I'm confused. One person says that Windows 8.1 won't allow it to boot to the docked drive, and another person says that it's not supposed to be booted to the docked drive. So which is it?
And I was hoping to set this up so that it COULD, if it's ever needed, boot to the docked drive, if I tell the BIOS to, when the machine starts. So if a USB dock isn't the way to go, to be able to do that, then I guess I'd need to buy an Esata dock and plug it into the Esata port on the motherboard.
Just trying to figure this out.
Melissa, it is not any particular version of Windows that won't allow booting from an external USB drive, this is a Microsoft imposed restriction, but that does not mean that if your BIOS is set to look for a bootable USB device, that it won't try and fail to boot from your cloned drive.
There is a significant difference between an eSATA dock and a USB dock - the eSATA dock will present any drives as non-removable / fixed drives in the same way that your internal drives are shown, and these will be valid options to boot from. USB external drives are seen as removable drives and are invalid options for booting Windows from.
See webpage: Windows OS on external hard drive for a discussion on this vexing subject and the options that are available when using USB drives.
Oh I see. Thanks for explaining that Steve. I guess, to do what I want to do, I need to get one of the dual docks. On Amazon they have this:
Anker® USB 3.0 & eSATA to SATA External Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5 or 3.5in HDD, SSD
It can apparently be used either way.
I got the USB dock because this newer refurbed PC doesn't have an ESATA port in the back, and says the warranty is void if I open the case before October. So if I get the dock with both, I can run clones until then, with the USB, then put the plug panel in for ESATA and use that.
Thanks!
That sounds like a plan for getting one of the dual docks, you can also get these that can do a hardware clone between the two dock bays without needing a PC to drive this. I have a pure USB dual dock that can do this which has been very useful.
I have always thought that those 'warranty void if removed/opened' sticky labels that some vendors put on computer cases are an attempt by them to avoid any liability for any faults that occur. I have certainly broken a good number of them when needing to install additional cards or memory etc without ever needing to go back to the vendor for any support. Some other manufacturers take a more educated approach and only warrant the actual hardware as supplied and installed, but not any other hardware you may add in yourself.
That sounds like a plan for getting one of the dual docks, you can also get these that can do a hardware clone between the two dock bays without needing a PC to drive this.
Hadn't thought of that. I was thinking of the single bay one, but I think you mean the dual dock.
I have a pure USB dual dock that can do this which has been very useful.
Not sure how many clones I need. :-)
I have always thought that those 'warranty void if removed/opened' sticky labels that some vendors put on computer cases are an attempt by them to avoid any liability for any faults that occur.
Even though it's a "refurb", it looks like a brand new machine. All the original stickers on the case, protective clear plastic that needed to be pulled off. Got me to wondering if they had some unsold units that they were selling as "refurbed"? It IS a 2012 model though.
I have certainly broken a good number of them when needing to install additional cards or memory etc without ever needing to go back to the vendor for any support. Some other manufacturers take a more educated approach and only warrant the actual hardware as supplied and installed, but not any other hardware you may add in yourself.
Yeah, and while I understand their point of view, I'm wondering how much faster this thing would run, if I increased the RAM from 8GB and maybe added a SSD instead of the 7200 RPM HDD.