Cloning or Imaging to a smaller HDD on new Win 8 computer??
I recently bought an HP Win 8 desktop with a 1.5TB HDD. My plan is to install a 500 GB HDD for my OSes and have the large drive for documents, pics, etc. I'm just not sure if I can clone the larger drive to the smaller one or if I should be using a backup and restore method. I also have a 2TB external drive that I can use as middle man (so to speak) if it would be an easier way to go. Sometimes my brain is so clear about how to go about it but most times I'm befuddled. Also I need to transfer my documents partition on my old computer to the large drive on the new computer but I have ATI 2010 on the older PC. Is ATI 2013 backward compatible to backups made by 2010?
I would appreciate some advice on how to proceed. I'm anxious to start playing on my new faster computer but want to get all my ducks in a row and get things right first. Thanks.
I am trying to understand this too. In my case the BIOS is UEFI. I have seen the Hotfix note (38965) about secure boot.
Is it the case that cloning with UEFI and Secure Boot is temporarily an issue so that it is better to use back and restore until the Hotfix is superseded with an update.
Not quite. My recommendation to use the backup and restore is a typical one, not linked to the UEFI/secure boot temporary issue.
Pat is correct.
Backup and Restore is safer and more flexible than Clone. I always prefer that user do Backup and Restore is rather than Clone.
Thank you both Pat K and Tuttle this helps.
Also does this do a full transfer of the GUID etc., so that Windows comes up activated and fully functional or is it like restore across disparate hardware which requires a Microsoft intervention to complete.
Or does the outcome depend on the UEFI bios setting; that is if fall back to compatibility is permitted.
When you restore the full disk, you will see the option to restore the disk signature. Check this.
Make sure you don't reboot with the original disk left in the system!
I totally screwed up. I followed your list to the letter... or so I thought... after I re-read it when the new drive wouldn't boot and Windows 8 happily started up from the larger drive, I saw the all important "Remove the 1.5TB disk" at the end of item three. I went back in the tower, disconnected the 1.5TB drive and tried again. No go... Then I went in the tower hooked up the large drive again and did another backup in case that was the problem even though I had validated the first backup... I then disconnected the 1.5TB drive and tried to restore again.
As happened the first time I get a screen with a pixelated image followed by Starting Acronis UEFI Loader..., Select an item by using the keyboard which was followed by 1)True Image, 2) Acronis System Report or c) [sic] Continue booting options. The attached pic was what came on the screen.
The only discs I have are the DVDs I created from the Recovery Image D partition on the original 1.5TB drive. Help!!!
The good thing is that you still have your working 1.5 TB disk. Sometimes people try to clone, make a mistake and do damage to their original disk.
As happened the first time I get a screen with a pixelated image followed by Starting Acronis UEFI Loader..., Select an item by using the keyboard which was followed by 1)True Image, 2) Acronis System Report or c) [sic] Continue booting options. The attached pic was what came on the screen.
To clarify, you are restoring from the recovery CD, then you remove the Acronis recovery CD, then you reboot and the Starting Acronis UEFI loader is starting? This would be weird...
Anyway, from the look of it, it looks like the system is looking for some critical information on the restored disk. This could come from the fact that you didn't include the entire disk in the backup, or you didn't restore the entire disk, or you didn't restore the disk signature.
First, when you backup, you need to select the entire disk (the box at the disk level when you use the recovery CD, or switch to disk mode to select the disk when backing up from windows). All partitions need to be in the backup.
Second, make sure you restore the entire disk, by selecting the box at the disk level.
Third, at the end of the restore wizard from the recovery disk, there is an option to restore the disk signature. Make sure you select it.
Ok first of all, you're correct, when I initially wrote the my previous post, I had not removed the Acronis disc but upon discovering my foolishness, I did so and the machine tried to boot but then went to the Recovery Screen seen in the attachment. I did not edit my post properly in my haste to upload it. Forgive me, that was quite confusing.
Yes, it seems to be asking for info it cannot find. That leads me to believe that I'm doing something wrong in either the backup or recovery stages. I made sure that I backed up the entire disk which included the recovery image partition (D:) I did it sector by sector but didn't include sectors without data. Was that correct? That brings me to the recovery. I'll admit I'm really not sure that I'm doing that correctly. There are options that I'm really not sure I'm selecting correctly. Should I, for instance, be choosing sector by sector or Acronis Universal method of recovery? Moving on, your third item was not finished.
No need to select sector by sector for the backup or for the restore. No need to select the Universal Restore. This is only needed when you restore to another motherboard.
Typically, a recovery partition wouldn't have a drive letter, and you mention it with the letter D:.
Could you please post a screen shot of the windows disk management console when the 1.5 TB disk is in there (right click on the computer icon on your desktop, choose manage, storage, disk management. Then in the menu, choose view > top > list disks. Screenshoot this.)
Kathleen
The recovery photo you are showing is a Microsoft Windows Boot Manager generic failure.
It is NOT an Acronis error message.
@Pat
Ok, here is the screen shot of the disk list in disk management. Please note I added the Win 8 appellation before both the (C:) and the (D:) but not the actual C and D [on the bottom half] so that I wouldn't get confused between partitions once this all works. ;-)
I'm going to backup the 1.5TB once again to make sure it's not the backup that's the problem.
One question when I do the recovery and it asks for where I want the recovery and I click on Disk 0, it starts asking for partition settings for each partition of the Disk 1 backup, do I just skip that? I'm asking because when I was entering all that by the time I got to the C: partition with the OS on it, it would not allow me to enter a location. I think my biggest problem is that I'm coming across so many options that I must be ticking one that I shouldn't. I had seen your answer to John I believe that mentioned the disk signature so I do know to tick that... it's just a matter of finding it but I will...
@John
Thanks for mentioning that. I think I knew it on some level because of the error code although I didn't really put a name to it, but I was actually only including it as an explanation of what was showing after trying to boot from the "recovered" disk.
YIPPEE!! I'm happy to say I'm writing this from my newly "recovered" 500GB HDD!!
I can't thank you enough, Pat L, for all your expertise and hanging in there with me throughout this. I really, really appreciate it!
One last question and a non-Acronis one at that: Is it safe to compress the Win 8 Recovery Image partition? I keep getting bubble alerts about Low Disk Space.
Kathleen,
If you have a spare drive where you can keep an image, you could always either make a complete disk image or just an image of the recovery partition of your drive. Once you have this 'master' image of your system and have checked that it isn't corrupted, you can now just delete the recovery partition and using Windows Disk Management reclaim the space into the 'C' partition. This is what I often do with my laptops.
Kathleen,
I am glad that you recovery worked out.
In the screenshot you posted, you noted that your smaller disk is an MBR disk and your bigger disk is a GPT disk. It is better to format the small disk as a GPT disk before the restore. YOu can use the recovery CD to do that and choose "add new disk" before doing the restore.
When you restore from the recovery CD, you should basically only do:
- click on the home button,
- recover disk and partitions,
- navigate to your backup,
- select the box at the disk level in the (what to restore) selection
- select the destination (a box at the disk level as well)
- restore the disk signature,
- that's all. No need to change settings for anything.
If you restore only a partition, it is another story. Best to restore entire disks, unless really inconvenient.
I wouldn't change the name or drive letters of any hidden partition (like the recovery partition). If it was not hidden, then OK.
I would not compress the recovery partition either. Best to leave it on the disk. If you run out of space on your C:\partition considering adding another disk to the system and move your content there. You can in fact add the 1.5TB disk back after you have successfully booted from the smaller disk and delete the windows directory, programs etc. on that disk.
@Colin
Thanks, you've given me an idea that I'm going to run past Pat! Read on...
@Pat L
Regarding the recovery process, I realized at the conclusion I had previously neglected to follow one of my tenets which is Keep It Simple, Stupid! LOL!!
Regarding the MBR/GPT thing. I just checked the latest Disk List and there is no longer a Partition type column. I wondered if it was possible that MBR was undone by the recovery process as it had to over mount the data that was on the drive from the previous attempt. I had to OK the erasure of the data when starting the last process. And while I know what MBR is, I'm afraid I don't know what GPT is but for the sake of not making that mistake again, I would appreciate you explaining why it would have been better for me to have formatted the smaller disk that way. Should I do it over?
And lastly the Recovery Image partition... I have intended all along to use the 1.5TB drive in the system for my Document, Photos, Music, and Videos... I had intended to erase the Win 8 OS from it but couldn't I keep the Win 8 Recovery Image partition on it? Instead of keeping the partition on the 500GB drive?
You once again have my gratitude for all your help.
Kathleen