ATIH2013 - Cloning, is it running?
It's been quite a while since I've cloned a disk with Acronis, so I can't remember if this is SOP. Running Win7 Home Premium, I'm trying to clone my 3TB media drive (OS and acronis are on a separate SSD). The HD does have a small SSD as a cache drive (Intel RAID SRT) that I forgot to disable drive caching before starting the clone to an external 3TB drive hooked up via eSATA. I set up the clone thru Acronis, and pushed the Proceed button for it to restart and start the clone. The system shutdown, and restarted with the standard POST beep. Now there is nothing on screen, but the drive activity light on the computer and the external drive are both on, but neither is really making any read/write noises. It's been this way for a few hours now, but knowing that ~2TB of data will take a while to copy, I'm not sure if the cloning is actually happening, or if the system is just hung up. I'm terrified to hit the reset button for fear of losing data on the original drive. SRT was set for the safer of the 2 options (less chance of data loss).
I seem to remember that there was some sort of Acronis screen from it's own boot OS when I cloned last time, so I assume the cloning is not happening. Should I be brave an hit the reset button? My guess is that the Intel SRT RAID array borked Acronis, but I'm terrified of restarting. Any reassurance from anyone? And yes, next time I'll turn off SRT first.
Thanks
Thank you for the response and I appreciate the feedback. Now that we've established that I'm a dumbass, any advice from anyone else on the current situation? The system did shut down from Windows to boot into the ATIH OS to perform the clone. As an update, there are occasional burst of disk noise from both the in-system HD and the external drive, but the screen is still black (technically a blank "no signal" response) and that could just be the drives' firmwares running maintenance. So here's the question, in such a state, any theories on what would happen if the reset button were to be pushed? From my understanding, Intel disk caching is, indeed, a RAID array, but the primary drive isn't really affected if the cache drive were to suddenly fail (ala RAID 0). If Acronis itself is borked from the SRT array, what happens if a restart happens?
Now that we've established that I'm a dumbass
I said no such thing.
any advice from anyone else on the current situation?
Wow. You choose to ignore my advice, so now you want different advice. Strange.
I think this came across wrong. I do appreciate your response. However, it did not include any specific advice regarding the current situation (apparently frozen system, but possibly not - to hit reset or not, that is the question). I can not wind the clock back and restart into the Acronis Bootable OS (again, the system appears frozen). I read your sig and understand the meaning of it, and so the appeal in my second post was perhaps aimed at Acronis personnel, since you yourself admit to not being familiar with RAID/Drive caching. Thanks agian for your time, Tuttle.
At this point if your system remains frozen, you likely have no choice other than to use Reset or the power button.
Heed what I said about using the ATI bootable Rescue Media and backup vs. cloning. There is no meaningful benefit to cloning over backup and restore.
An update: Thankfully a reset went straight back to Windows with no deleterious effects. Tuttle, for various reasons, a full cloning was needed rather than a backup. After turning off drive caching (Intel Smart Response), ATIH Cloning is working as intended, started from the Windows Utility. Everything is dandy now with all the drives doing what they are supposed to do. I realize using the bootable rescue media is probably the safer option, but I guess I was feeling adventurous. It would seem silly of Acronis to include something in its software that has a high likelihood of destroying systems if used as intended.
Long story short for anyone interested, disable Drive Caching before starting any low level activity with Acronis.
It would seem silly of Acronis to include something in its software that has a high likelihood of destroying systems if used as intended.
I wouldn't say it has a "high likelihood". It's just safer to use the Rescue Media and to backup rather than clone. As we deal with many user issues here, it's prudent to recommend the safer options.