Cloning Hard Drive with Acronis

[DWSpiro]

This is gonna be one of those dumb questions because I know I'm doing something very simple wrong. I have an X61s with 80gb SATA and was upgrading to a 320GB. I've tried a few times to clone the drive using Acronis and each time, I can see it's been done successfully since the files are on the drive, but when the drive is in the X61s, it simply hangs up on boot. My hunch is its something with the MBR - either it should or should not be included in the clone.

I should add that I'm doing this by taking both the old and new drives out and connecting them to my desktop system - so the X61s is not being used as part of this procedure.....

I've also tried wiping the drive, initializing it, making both partitions, and then restoring each partition from an image. Same thing - files are there but not booting.

ARGH!
David

[epu]

Hahahaha. I've been trying to do this very same thing since last night buddy. Take a look: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=59423

I posted this very same topic literally 24 hours ago and still have no luck doing this. Maybe we can figure this one out if we all put our heads together.

[DWSpiro]

I might have stumbled onto a fix....running out for a couple hours, but will try it when I get home and let you know...

[mgo]

This is gonna be one of those dumb questions because I know I'm doing something very simple wrong. I have an X61s with 80gb SATA and was upgrading to a 320GB. I've tried a few times to clone the drive using Acronis and each time, I can see it's been done successfully since the files are on the drive, but when the drive is in the X61s, it simply hangs up on boot. My hunch is its something with the MBR - either it should or should not be included in the clone.

I should add that I'm doing this by taking both the old and new drives out and connecting them to my desktop system - so the X61s is not being used as part of this procedure.....

I've also tried wiping the drive, initializing it, making both partitions, and then restoring each partition from an image. Same thing - files are there but not booting.

ARGH!
David

I have used the Vista or XP install disk/DVD to format the drive before trying to lay down the image. Windows seems fussy as heck about the boot files, I guess.

Once that drive has been set up the "Windows way" it will accept repeated images from then on.

[DWSpiro]

Kinda what I was told to try. The MBR needs to be configured while IN THE MACHINE. So, doing all the cloning outside doesn't necessarily give it the correct settings from the BIOS. It is possible that the MBR can be fixed after the fact - perhaps with fdisk or something similiar. But it might be more work than I'm willing to do....

[billp117]

Sounds like a possible bad drive.

Bill

[Aspromonte]

I had the same prob. After the boot with the acronis disk, try to use the old hd as external disk and clone it in the new drive that you have mounted in the pc.

[jasperjugan]

what I could suggest is to use imagex (free imaging tool from Microsoft)

[epu]

Did you try to make a recovery CD using the Acronis program and cloning the drive that way? It sounds like you had the same exact problem that I had a few days prior to yourself. They suggested I use the program to make a recovery CD that would allow you to make the clone OUTSIDE of windows, and that's the key component. Something about doing it windows screws with the appropriate BIOS setting (if that's how I understand it).

[pgoelz]

Instead of cloning, try making a backup image (*.tib) then restoring that to the new drive minus the MBR (Acronis will create a new generic MBR).

Or try restoring the MBR with FDISK /mbr from boot floppy or FIXMBR from the Windows disk. This might only work if you use an old Win98 floppy because that version rewrites the partition table.

I don't fully understand the issue, but from what I have read, Windows is looking for your old C: drive and recognizes it by looking for a signature made from from its MBR and partition information. If you dropped that system onto a new hard drive with a different partition table (because it is now bigger) Windows doesn't recognize the partition as the C: partition. If you re-write the MBR and partition table, Windows will recognize the new C: drive. Or something like that.

Just a guess.... I recently did exactly what you are trying to do. I used Acronis TI 11 to restore an image of my 40GB X41 drive to a new 60BG drive. Because I was also jettisoning the factory restore partition, I omitted the MBR and Acronis created a new one. It booted the new HD just fine.

Paul