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What to exclude section

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Hi

I have a 1 TB HDD which is divided into two partitions, I would like only to transfer one partition with the OS on it to a new SSD so it will be my bootable drive. Should I use the backup method or the clone method? if cloning is the case, in the part of "what to exclude", the folders I check will be excluded in the ssd or included, the terminology of this section is very confusing.

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Ron,

Cloning only works on entire disks.  You cannot clone a single partition so the backup and restore method is what youu need to use.

The exclude list are folders that you do not want to be a part of the backup job.  Anything in that list will not be in the final backup file created by the task.

To make a disk bootable it is necessary that Windows hidden partitions also be included in the backup.  When you create the backup job select all partitions shown except the one that you do not wish to transfer.

It is recommended that you use the Recovery Media to recover your backup to a new drive.  You must create this media yourself using the Media Creation tool you can find in the tools section of the application.  I would recommend creating that media on a USB thumb drive as those tend to work better than a CD/DVD.

It would be of benefit to you to read through the documentation for more detail and a better understanding of the process.

Thanks,

What if I deleted the content of the partition that I wanted to exclude, then, could I use the cloning mode? I'm having a 1TB HDD divided to two partitions of 500GB, one is with the OS, the other has now no content, I would like to clone it to a 500GB SSD and for it to be my main drive. is it ok now to use the cloning method?

Ron, if your second partition is now cleared / empty, then I would suggest using Windows Disk Management to remove it before attempting to clone the 1TB drive to the smaller 500GB SSD.  The reason being that Acronis will try to resize both partitions to fit in the smaller space.  Removing the second partition and either leaving the space as unallocated or expanding the OS partition to use that free space would enable the clone to work and the resizing would still give all the space needed to the OS partition.

I would still strongly recommend making an entire disk backup of your current 1TB HDD drive before continuing with the clone actions, plus as advised above, please do the clone from the Acronis bootable Rescue Media and not started from within Windows.

See KB document: 56634: Acronis True Image: Cloning Disks for more details and a video tutorial on the clone process.

Thanks

So let me see if got this clear.

First, beckup whole system drive on another HDD (not the SSD I want to clone to), then, make a bootable rescue media on a CD/USB and then run the cloning process from there?

Sorry for the trouble, I want to get it right.

Thank you.

Ron, yes, that is correct. Having the backup will give you a means to recover your system should you hit any serious issues.

Booting from the Acronis rescue media is the safest method of proceeding as it doesn't require any changes to your normal Windows Boot Loader configuration - you just need to make a temporary change to your BIOS to allow your system to boot from CD/DVD or from a USB stick with the rescue media - or use any options provided to select the boot device such as the F12 key on Dell systems.

When cloning, the recommended method is to remove your current HDD drive and replace it with the new SSD (connected to the same port / controller as the removed drive), then connect the HDD via an external USB to SATA adapter or disk enclosure / caddy.

Next, boot into the Acronis Rescue Media and select the source drive (now the external HDD) and the target drive (the new SSD) then go ahead with the clone operation, allowing Acronis to resize the partition(s) as needed to accomodate the difference in drive sizes.

When the clone is complete, shutdown the computer and remove / eject the rescue media and disconnect the external HDD drive before attempting to boot into Windows from the cloned SSD drive.  This is important as you now will have two drives that are essentially identical in content and that have the same disk signature - if you try to boot with this scenario it can cause problems with Windows.

Well i've done it all and windows not coming up, i'm getting "BOOTMGR is missing"

The HDD is not connected and the SSD is connected instead.

Please help.

Ron:

Your original post mentioned two partitions. What was on the other partition?

Can you remove the SSD, reattach the 1 TB HDD, and post a screen shot from Windows Disk Management showing the partition layout on the original disk?

I've reattached the HDD instead of the SDD but still getting the same error: BOOTMGR is missing.

Is the HDD the only disk connected to your PC? Or, are there other disks? If there is more than one disk attached, check your BIOS settings to be sure that the PC is trying to boot from the 1 TB HDD.

If there is only one disk attached, then its disk signature must have changed. You can fix this with a Windows repair disk or an installation DVD.

it is first in line on hard disk boot priority, the channel is marked as slave but still first.

OK, but are there other disks attached?

Yes, I would try this next.

I suspect that your disk signature got changed during the cloning procedure. Do you have a Windows repair disk or an installation DVD?

If not, from a working Windows 7 or 8 or 10 PC, open the Control Panel (not the "modern" app Settings) and type "backup" in the search box. Choose "Create a system repair disk", which will create a bootable CD. Boot your PC from the CD with only the 1 TB HDD attached and try the Automatic Repair choice. This should fix the BCD and allow the PC to boot from the 1 TB disk.

If successful, remove the 1 TB disk and connect only the SSD. Boot from the repair CD and do the same.

 

Thank you Mark! Life saver! it worked!

One last thing, is there a way for me to delete the 1TB internally?

I take it that you can also boot from the SSD now. If so, go ahead and reattach the other disks. If their drive letters have changed, use Disk Management to change them to whatever you prefer. Type "partition" in the Windows Start/Search box and select "Create and format hard disk partitions" from the search results to access Disk Management.

On the 1 TB disk you can delete all of the partitions, create one spanning the whole disk, and format it. That will wipe out the former installation of Windows.

It won't cause boot problem if I'll reattach it for the proccess of formating it? 

Another thing is that on the HDD the "system reserved partition was hidden and when i'm booting from SSD it's shown like a regular partition is there a way of changing that?

Ron:

Now that you are successfully booting from the SSD you can safely reattach the HDD. If both disks happen to have the same disk signature, Windows will change the signature of the HDD to prevent conflicts.

You can hide the System Reserved Partition by using Windows Disk Management. Simply remove its drive letter.

My pleasure; you're welcome!