Sleep mode interrupted cloning, now what?
I was trying to clone my old 750GB HDD to a new 2TB HDD using Acronis True Image 11 Home on my Windows Vista. I did it using the loaded program, rather than the bootable CD. The process began normally enough, but when it was only about 40% finished cloning the drive (during step 3) the computer dropped into sleep/standby mode. I attempted to wake it up by pressing the space bar, but that did not work. (It made a horrible screeching noise, but otherwise remained dark.) Eventually, I restarted the computer entirely. It proceeded to boot up normally -- everything appeared to be fine.
However, the cloning process seems to have been only half-completed... and it has affected my original source disk in some way too.
Currently, my system will only operate if both disks (old and new) are attached. It cannot/will not boot from either disk by itself. Yet, it does not acknowledge the extra 2TB of space of the new disk as present -- only the 40GB recovery partition of it achieved from the initial steps before the cloning process was interrupted. Also, when I attempted to unplug/remove either of the drives, the computer failed to boot. That is, if I unplug/remove the new disk to operate on solely the one old disk just as it used to before the attempted cloning, my computer is convinced a needed disk is missing and fails to boot. Same thing if I try it the other way round by unplugging the original disk and only plugging in the new drive.
My system is working and does appear generally alright, so I am okay for now. But I would like to know how I can either get the computer to acknowledge the additional 2TB of space so I can use it, or to reset the system so I can attempt the cloning process again (from the bootable CD!) like I had originally planned. I am admittedly afraid to try just re-cloning as is in case any data is erased that my system needs to operate, since it won't boot up with either disk by itself.
Please help if you can, thank you!
Really? Wow, that's great news! I honestly wasn't expecting a solution to show up so quickly, so thanks very much, Pat L, you may have made my New Years better already. :)
As for the installations disks, I have everything. Operating system, drivers & utilities, all the programs... what do I need to do?
If you can boot the system, use ATI to produce an Acronis bootable recovery CD if you don't have one. Then boot the computer on that CD and verify that it can see your drives OK. While you are there, right click the comptuer icon on your desktop, choose manager, storage, disk management. Make the window big enough to see your old disk. Print a screen shot of that window for future reference.
I would prefer we go down the disk and partition backup route, rather than the clone. Must safer for your source disk.
From the CD, create a disk and partition backup of your old disk. Make sure to include all partitions on that disk (check the box at the disk level in the what to backup dialog box).
Store that backup on a USB disk.
Shutdown your comptuer and exchange the disks.
Boot the computer on the recovery CD again. Recover each partition at at time in the same order they were laid out before. Your screenshot printout will be handy:
- do not resize any partition except the C:\system partition or any other partition you created,
- mark the right partition active,
- do not change the drive letters,
- no need to reboot between each individual partition restore.
Reboot the computer on the new disk. If it doesn't boot:
- boot the computer on the Windows installation DVD,
- choose install, repair computer, repait computer startup. This might take a couple of passes, with a reboot in between.
That should do it.
I forgot to add that the last restore is the MBR+Track0 and the disk signature.
Alright, let me just see if I understand this correctly before I get to doing anything wrong...
Just to be sure, I need to make a bootable recovery CD, which is easy enough. Then I make a backup of just the original HDD and its partitions using the bootable recovery CD. (Does this mean my original disk is fine right now even though it won't boot by itself anymore, or will it be backing up whatever is wrong as well?) Then, after having saved the backup externally on a USB stick, pull the old HDD entirely and boot from the recovery CD on only the new HDD. Then use the backup USB to "restore" it without actually touching or changing anything. And if it works, it should then reboot and start Windows as normal with just the new HDD and all the extra space allocated and available in the (hopefully proportionally larger) partitions?
So basically I'm still cloning the drive without actually cloning it? And all my data should be fine and copied across without loss, yes? Unless something goes catastrophically wrong, in which case I have the Windows Installation DVD to repair and restart from scratch. Did I get that all right?
Okay, well... that sounds a little harder than I think I can handle this late tonight, so I'll probably leave it for now and try to fix it later when I've the time to worry over it properly. Thank you very much for the help though! I am really hoping it works as 'easily' as you make it sound!
Thank you, and Happy New Year!
Alright, let me just see if I understand this correctly before I get to doing anything wrong...
Just to be sure, I need to make a bootable recovery CD, which is easy enough. Then I make a backup of just the original HDD and its partitions using the bootable recovery CD. (Does this mean my original disk is fine right now even though it won't boot by itself anymore, or will it be backing up whatever is wrong as well?)
Your disk is probably fine.
Then, after having saved the backup externally on a USB stick, pull the old HDD entirely and boot from the recovery CD on only the new HDD. Then use the backup USB to "restore" it without actually touching or changing anything.
Restore one partition at a time in the same order they were before. When you do this, ATI will propose a layout and you can resize each partition. Do not resize any partition except the C:\system partition to take advantage of your bigger disk. Or, leave some unallocated space if you want to create a nother partition later in Windows.
And if it works, it should then reboot and start Windows as normal with just the new HDD and all the extra space allocated
You might have to use the Windows installation DVD to repair the startup.
and available in the (hopefully proportionally larger) partitions?
You will have manually specified how to (not) resize the partitions. Much better than letting ATI scale everything.
So basically I'm still cloning the drive without actually cloning it? And all my data should be fine and copied across without loss, yes?
Correct.
Unless something goes catastrophically wrong, in which case I have the Windows Installation DVD to repair
You will probably ahve to use the Windows installation DVD
and restart from scratch.
not from scratch. You will just have to use the DVD to repair the startup settings/files (not reinstall Windows!)