Can't boot from clone
I am wanting to boot from a clone I made onto an external SATA hard drive plugged into a USB port, but have been unable to. The clone was ostensibly successful, since I can view its contents in Windows Explorer. I also created an Acronis bootable media CD from a download that the Acronis chat guy sent me.
One Acronis agent said I would need the bootable CD to boot from my clone, the other said I wouldn't. I have tried both ways, with no success. I've tried to change the BIOS setting to have USB or Removable Drive as the 1st boot option, but that didn't help. Everytime I try the boot from the clone, it says "hard drive failure" (naturally since I've disconnected the internal master drive), but it won't subsequently recognize the clone. When I've included the bootable CD as I'm booting (with or without the clone drive connected upon booting), besides the drive failure message, it says "Acronis Loader starting" then "Acronis Loader failure."
Any clarity on this would be appreciated. I have a basic understanding of the concepts, but may need help on the detail level.
Hi Pat,
thanks for your reply. Since I'm going to be changing my topic to image backup, I"m going to create a new post.
Gregg.
Follow this link and view the screenshot. It will show you how to create the backup you need. After you have the backup,
it can be used to create a new disk---if needed.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/28614#comment-88797
I think it's always better to use Backup and Recovery, rather than Clone.
Clone is a single-purpose function, designed to exactly replicate a disk to a replacement disk. That's it.
A full disk Backup allows so much more. It, with Recovery function, will allow you to replicate a disk to a replacement disk, but also allows you to extract backups of specific files at a point in time, to recover files to disks other than the original or replacement disk, to explore the backup images and read files, etc.
I never use Clone, as it's just too limited. I use Backup and Recovery, even when performing the function for which Clone was designed.
Thanks, Grover. I was just going to call Acronis, get my money back, and try to find another product, but will give your screenshot method a go. I am frustrated that I cannot talk to an Acronis agent directly, and the 3 agents I've done chatting with don't seem to have a thorough understanding of the product and have given me conflicting advice. I still can't get my computer to load the Acronis bootable recovery disk when I boot, even after changing the boot order in BIOS to the CD ROM. I get an Acronis Loader failure message.
Anyways, I will try your method.
I read through Grover's screenshots, and think I understand the mechanics of that. This covers the backup part.
I need help in creating a practical plan to be able to restore the entire contents of my hard drive (including OS) in the event of it failing. Ideally, I would be able to use an external drive for this backup (because drive would only be plugged in/get wear when I was doing the actually backing up- I had both internal drives fail simultaneously last year), and would be able to boot using it, at least until I bought a replacement internal hard drive, then transfer it over. Maybe this is impossible given the technology. If so, then could you please suggest an alternative, given the hardware I currently have, or suggesting another purchase that would make this possible.
Here's what I currently have:
-750 GB master drive
-500 GB extra internal drive (which I hoped to use for redundant file/folder backup)
-750 GB external drive
I also need help trying to verify my Acronis bootable recovery disk (see above post), since I haven't been able to.
Thanks, Tuttle, for this extra info.