I'm trying to clone the hdd using Acronis True Image Home.
Follwing Acronis recommendation I have installed the existing hdd in an external drive tray connected via USB. Now the laptop will not boot. Suggestions would be appreciated.
thanks
Mike

So you put the new hard drive in and the old drive in a USB case, and now it won't boot?

That is correct. Existing HDD in a USB case, new Hitachi inside the laptop. The laptop will not boot.

regards

Mike

Am I missing something here? Of course it won't boot, you need Acronis on external CD drive or USB stick to boot from, then carry on with the clone.

(Sorry, didn't mean to sound rude.)

Done it, been there

Good Luck

My understanding, both from successful clones in the past, and from Acronis instructions, is that I should install the new drive in the PC, the existing drive in an external tray, change the startup config, then boot windows from the externat drive. Then start Acronis and proceed with the cloning.

Also done it, been there......

No you don't boot windows from the external drive. You do as you've done, put original drive into external dock and new drive into computer. Then you just boot F12 to choose to boot from the other CD or USB drive with Acronis on, then follow instructions in Acronis to clone drive. I'm no expert but done this on most of my X type Thinkpads, (see below), try this and it will work

Have fun

You might want to try clonezilla - easy to use and free FOSS

Now solved - ignore the Acronis instructions, install new drive in external tray, clone the drive, install the new drive in the laptop then fix a boot problem using Windows7 install disk.

What is the boot problem you say you had to fix, and how did you fix it?

...any chance it was like my problem at:

viewtopic.php?f=43&t=105439

?