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Acronis Tru Image clone/backup restore will not create a reliable bootable drive on Windows 10

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Hi, I have Acronis True Image 2019 installed on a current Windows 10 Pro (version 1909) with an ASUS A97 MoBo w/AMI UEFI. I have been running with a Kingston 240 GB SSD boot drive. Recently the system would not reboot (like during a auto-windows update), not recognizing the SSD until I powered off. It still works fine after that, but worried, so purchased new SSD (Samsung 860 EVO 500 gb). I tried four options to clone to another drive:

1. I started by using the ATI Clone Disk utility. The process ran fine, but when rebooting to that new disk, it was not bootable. I could see it in the UEFI with Windows Manager on it, but wouldn't boot. I removed the Kingston.

2. Performed a full disk restore of current backup to the Samsung SSD. Same results as #1.

3. I tried to use the Acronis Universal Restore with the Samsung installed (but Kingston removed). During the startup, I got a blue screen saying the PC needed to be restored, and did not go further.

4. I had an older 1 TB Seagate HDD and performed another ATI Clone Disk. After reboot, it was recognized! But then the system would not shutdown. I then hard powered-off and restarted. Now I get a Windows PC needs to be repaired blue screen.

How to properly clone Windows 10 Pro? Can the secure boot UEFI option provide trouble here? (Paranoid to turn it off to check...) I have reviewed several forum posts from others, but I cannot see anything obvious to try... Mnay of the older posts say to use the Universal Restore, but that did not even boot up for me.

 

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Kevin, welcome to these public User Forums.

Both cloning and / or using Backup & Recovery, are able to create a working bootable Windows system on completion provided some basic rules are followed.

  1. Check the Windows BIOS boot mode being used by Windows 10 by running 'msinfo32' - does it show UEFI or Legacy?
  2. Make a full disk backup of the source disk drive (stored on an external backup drive) - do this regardless of using clone or backup / recovery!
  3. If using cloning, never attempt to boot into Windows with both source / target drives connected.  Remove the source drive and replace it with the target drive, in the same place / using same connectors as the source had.
  4. If using Backup / Recovery, shutdown, swap over the source / target drives as for 3. and set the original drive aside (disconnected).  Boot from the Acronis rescue media using the same BIOS boot mode identified in 1. then Recover the disk backup.

See  KB 59877: Acronis True Image: how to distinguish between UEFI and Legacy BIOS boot modes of Acronis Bootable Media

Note that the Windows BCD entries are configured for the SATA port that the working drive was using, hence why the new drive should use the same port.

Secure boot should not cause any issues here, especially if you are using the Simple version of the Acronis rescue media which uses Windows PE.

Acronis Universal Restore should not be needed for just changing a disk drive, this is intended for migrating an installed Windows OS to a new / different computer.  Again, this is not needed as often with Windows 10 because of the better handling of hardware changes in the OS.

Hello Steve, 

Thank you very much for the help. One mistake I made with original post was that I did try the Acronis Rescue Media (sorry it was not the Universal Restore; I got the feature name wrong).

Here is feedback to your advice...

  1. Check the Windows BIOS boot mode being used by Windows 10 by running 'msinfo32' - does it show UEFI or Legacy?
    [Kevin] - UEFI
  2. Make a full disk backup of the source disk drive (stored on an external backup drive) - do this regardless of using clone or backup / recovery!
    [Kevin] - Yes, I am doing this to a completely independent USB External HDD
  3. If using cloning, never attempt to boot into Windows with both source / target drives connected.  Remove the source drive and replace it with the target drive, in the same place / using same connectors as the source had.
    [Kevin] - Yes, I did this before, and tried again. No-go
  4. If using Backup / Recovery, shutdown, swap over the source / target drives as for 3. and set the original drive aside (disconnected).  Boot from the Acronis rescue media using the same BIOS boot mode identified in 1. then Recover the disk backup.
    [Kevin] - I have made the rescue media on two different USB drives. Windows wpeinit is starting fine, but the trueimage_starter.exe hangs and does not show any UI.

Clearly the system is booting from UEFI. I performed another clone and this time I chose manual and repartitioned the destination drive with partitions proportional to original smaller drive. But either way (clone or restore) the rescue media does not start (I think it should be independent, right?). Also when building the rescue media again, I chose the advanced mode to ensure I got the WinPE. But I do not see anything that indicates UEFI is critical. Why is that an issue? My system seems to boot through that mode always, but is there something special that's obvious to configure for UEFI in the Acronis part of the process? When teh rescue media boots, I see the Acronis clock icon running, then it disappears and nothing more happens (no UI and just seems hung).

Is it acceptable to use a USB->sata adapter for the target when performing the clone operation? (or even the restore for that matter)?

Any other ideas?

Thanks, kevin

[Kevin] - I have made the rescue media on two different USB drives. Windows wpeinit is starting fine, but the trueimage_starter.exe hangs and does not show any UI.

Kevin, does your computer have more than one graphics adapter?  If yes, try either using the second one to connect your display or else disable the normal default adapter.

There have been problems reported previously for systems with dual adapters!

Hi Steve,

I have only one graphics card.

I managed to solve it by going against some advice... By accident, I rebooted after cloning the drive and the cloned drive was still attached to another SATA port (both drives still attached). (FYI, I gave up on USB because I could not find-out whether cloning a boot drive via USB adapter was OK).

The system booted, and I assumed at first it was just the old drive, but when I brought up Disk Management to check, I realized it was booting from new drive (and could see old drive still there). I shutdown and tried to move the new drive to the old drive's SATA port (removing old drive), and had same failure/non-booting. I then moved it back to where it worked, and everything seems fine. The weird thing is the old drive still boot fine from the old port, so not sure why this is the case.

All my ports are normally consumed (and had removed data drives during this process), so I had to move some things around from port standpoint, but now everything is working and booting from new drive. 

thanks for the help.

kevin

 

Kevin, I suspect that the reason your solution works is because the BCD that was updated by the clone process is actually on the original drive due to cloning between 2 internal drives.

The drive fails to boot because removing the original drive also removes the BCD store to tell it how to do so.