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Cloning boot SSD to another external SSD for backup with a RAID 5 used only for data

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Cloning several of my computers, desktops and laptops. Problem cloning a desktop with a SSD boot drive and a RAID 5 used for data storage. Boot disk contains OS (Windows 8.1) and installed programs only. On a desktop with a RAID, it worked perfectly. But on the desktop with the RAID, Acronis home Image 2016 fails to clone. The problem is given that a device failed to start. The boot disk remains locked and the computer can not be restarted. The install DVD has to be used to unlick the boot drive so you can restart the computer. Up to this time, I have not lost any data on the  boot drive, I have tried to clone the disk three times unlicking it each time. I have paid particular attention to the settings before and after each event. Has it come to the point that I have to disable or remove the RAID to get this to work.

I find out that cloning a drive is a lot easier than replacing the OS and programs in case of a disk failure.

Any heop or solution is welcomed. The desktops in question have simular components but are not exact. The RAID is the one big difference.

Thank you,

Richard

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EDIT:  I just realized you are having problems cloning your OS to a single drive and the RAID is strictly data.  I'll leave the rest in as it may be useful down the road, but ideally, you just need to do the following:

Instead of using the clone feature, take a full image backup of your existing OS using the "Disks and Partitions" option.  Select the top level of the disk so that it backups up everything on it.  Save the backup to another location such as an external disk.  This will give you a backup to restore from at any time as well, where cloning will not.  You will them push the entire image back to your main OS drive.  Select the full disk (all paritions) and push the entire thing back to the new OS drive.  After the push is complete, it should boot up just fine.  

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ORIGINAL REPLY:

I don't believe that you will be able to use the "clone" function of Acronis for copying an OS to a RAID setup.  The reason being, that Clone uses the default Linux boot environment, and it often does not have the proper RAID controllers necessary.  I've never personally used the Clone feature myself either though.

My recommendation:

1) Take a full image backup of your existing OS using the "Disks and Partitions" option.  Select the top level of the disk so that it backups up everything on it.  Save the backup to another location such as an external disk.  This will give you a backup to restore from at any time as well, where cloning will not.

2) Since you're using a RAID setup, again, the default Linux bootable recovery media, will most likely not be adequate as I suspect it will not have your RAID controller drivers.  I would instead advise for you to create your bootable media as WinPE.  Since you are using Windows 8, use the WinPE 5.0 download link in my signature.  Boot to the bootable WinPE recovery media and then push your image that was previously taken (on a different drive such as an external USB) to your RAID setup.  If the WinPE does not see your disks in the RAID setup, you may still yet need to inject the proper RAID drivers into the WinPE.  If so, please see these posts for information about that - it's a bit more in depth as these are Windows tools, but if you follow the instructions, it's completely do-able.  

Win PE recommended reading from Acronis Forum:

Creating a custom WinPE ISO with your drivers

1st link                   2 link                      

 

FAQ about backup, recovery and cloning

  • Could you tell me how to clone: in Windows or after booting from the rescue media? Even when you start cloning in Windows, the computer will reboot into the Linux environment the same as when booting from the rescue media. Because of this, it is better to clone under rescue media. For example, there may be a case when your hard disk drives are detected in Windows and not detected in Linux. If this is the case, the cloning operation will fail after reboot. When booting from the rescue media, you can make sure that Acronis True Image 2016 detects both the source and target disks before starting the cloning operation.
  • Can I clone or back up and recover a dual boot machine? Yes, this is possible in most cases. If your systems are installed in separate partitions of the same physical hard disk drive, cloning or recovery usually proceeds without any problems. If the systems are on different physical hard disk drives, there may be some problems with bootability after recovery.
  • Does Acronis True Image 2016 support RAID? - Acronis True Image 2016 supports hardware RAID arrays of all popular types. Support of software RAID configurations on dynamic disks is also provided. Acronis Bootable Rescue Media supports most of the popular hardware RAID controllers. If the standard Acronis rescue media does not "see" the RAID as a single volume, the media does not have the appropriate drivers. In this case you can try to create WinPE-based rescue media. This media may provide the necessary drivers.