Help needed, partitions?
I just installed a new ssd and acronis and was about to clone one of my OS drives to the ssd when I got the message about the ssd containing partitions. What the hell? I have 5 harddrives, the ssd is my 6th. Why does windows make another "useful partition" on that newly installed drive? I assume that partition is necessary somehow, and yet my computer has been running for over a year without that new partition.
Any advice on this? This is very frustrating...
- Accedi per poter commentare
Thanks for the reply Grover. Yes, I'm 100% sure I chose the correct drives assuming source disc is the one I want to clone from and destination disc is the one the files are moved to.
Here's how my HDs are set up if it helps.
HDD 1: OS 1 W7 64 Home premium
HDD 2: OS 2 W7 64 Professional (this is the one I want to clone from: source disc)
HDD 3: Contains 100 mb of system reserved space.
HDD 4
HDD 5
SSD: This is the one I want to clone to (destination disc). It apparently has 79 mb used space. By opening disk manager however, it does not detect any partitions. Acronis on the other hand brought up the useful partition warning. I don't understand why those files are there...
I assumed I could simply install the new drive, clone the OS2 drive and be done with it. Acronis warns me of partitions on the ssd yet there are no partitions on it according to the disc manager.
I don't understand what you mean though with disconnecting drives. If windows only sees the ssd disc, it can't start, since it's empty (except for those secret 79 mb of nonsense). Would it really be trouble if windows detected both the source and the cloned disc at start up?
I do not want to reinstall windows unless I absolutely have to.
- Accedi per poter commentare
A quick thought here, would it matter which OS I'm on when I'm doing the cloning? Right now I'm trying to clone OS 2 when I'm on OS 1.
- Accedi per poter commentare
When the ssd was first attached, it was initialized and the 79mb was reserved space for informtion the disk needs. This is normal. It wil be wiped away by the clone or restore and the same new space will be reapplied. This needs space to maintain its index of data--this is unavoidable.
If your computer sees both disks, it could render both non-bootable or either non-bootable. I strongly urge you disconnect the other drives as I have suggested. Consider it as an insurance. You will much more time correcting a problem as compared to preventing one.
Again, the recommended procedure is boot from the CD and do procedure. Your success rate is better when done from the CD. Good luck.
- Accedi per poter commentare
Ah, I see. I re-read what you wrote and I'm not sure what you mean exactly. Do you mean that I should:
1. Create a true image cd.
2. Shut down the computer.
3. Disconnect all drives but the ssd.
4. Move the ssd sata to the same one as the OS.
5. Boot from CD and run the clone from there.
But I need to the leave the OS hdd to be cloned connected though right?
Would it be harmful if the computer has access to both drives simultaneously? I was hoping to have 3 OSs to choose from in BIOS on startup.
- Accedi per poter commentare
Resoded,
1. Create a true image cd.
2. Shut down the computer.
3. Disconnect all drives but the ssd.
4. Move the ssd sata mb connector to the same one as the OS.
4a. Attach the source as either usb or as a different internal.
5. Boot from CD and run the clone from there.
6. After cloning, Shutdown and reboot with only the ssd connected.
What I am trying to do is to keep you from losing what you have by having Windows get confused.
Whether your computer hardware will allow multi-boot of 3, I do not know. Highly probable you will need a boot director of some type of boot assistance. That i am not familiar with and cannot comment.
Once you have booted on the new disk and all is working, then you can attach the other dosk connectors and test if your bios will enable your multi boot to function by selecting a different disk as you boot disk.
I personally do not like to use the clone procedure and prefer the backup and restore process as stated by MVP Tuttle at this link.
http://forum.acronis.com/forum/40869#comment-128042
- Accedi per poter commentare