Target disk greyed out, despite empty. Target drive smaller but data would fit, Ghost will clone.
This is the Acronis True Image 2015 v6055 boot disc.
I have an issue whereby I can clone data from a 750 GB drive to a 1 TB drive or larger, but I can't clone the drive to a drive less than 750 GB, neither manual or automatic, despite the fact that the data itself is less than 100 GB. Or in other words, I can't get 100 GB of data to clone to a 250 GB drive since the target is greyed out.
Is there an option to force a clone? Norton Ghost 11.5 will clone it but unfortunately since it's an old product it can't handle UEFI partitions properly and as such it wouldn't be bootable.
The original source disk had bad sectors, it was then cloned to a new 'source disk'.
The issue is entirely related to cloning from a disk to a smaller size than the source. I can't go from 750 GB to 600 GB or 250 GB, despite the fact that the data is less than 200 GB. However I can clone to 1TB, 2TB, etc. It seems to be some kind of size detection issue. I'm not sure if the sector size situation applies.
I'll have to use an alternative package... Thanks for your suggestions, I'll update with the package that worked in the event it aids anyone else.
The bad sectors are definitely your problem. That condition makes True Image unable to calculate a sufficient size for cloning to a smaller disk. Therefore, being unable to calculate whether or not the clone would have sufficient room on the target disk that disk is greyed out as a result.
Wouldn't this be corrected when cloning from a healthy drive to a healthy drive? ... which is entirely what I'm doing
Yes. I note that you state that you cloned the original source disk with the bad sectors to a new disk. Since the clone operation is a bit for bit copy of the source to the target and given that the source is corrupted causing True Image to not be able to determine correct capacity requirements then it is likely that even though you are using 2 new disks your source cloned disk contains the sector corruption of the original drive even though there is nothing physically wrong with the new cloned drive.
It is recommended that if you have a disk that contains bad sectors that an attempt to correct this issue occur prior to backup or clone of the disk. This is normally done using chkdsk /r command from an admin command prompt and/or manufacturer diagnostic utilities for the drive in question.
I recommend that you run chkdsk /r on the original disk and attempt to correct the bad sector issue then if successful to perform the clone again. It is also recommended that you create a full disk mode backup image before cloning so as to have a way to recover your system in the event that something goes wrong with the clone attempt.
I would also add that it may take multiple passes of CHKDSK X: /R on ALL partitions before the total corrections are made. (x is the drive letter being checked.)
Rather than go through rigamarole with True Image, I was successfully able to clone this drive as preferred with alternative products - Norton Ghost 11.5 (older product) with -FDSP switch to preserve the disk signature and as an additional test I tried HDClone 5 from Moray Software. No issues with both.
Thanks for the suggestions anyhow.