Acronis True Image Home v11 and SSD(s) Question

[robert213]

How well does Acronis True Image Home 11...

1) clone traditional (e.g. Hitachi Travelstar 7200) HD with fresh Windows install to SSD?

2) clone SSD with fresh Windows install to traditional HD?

3) clone SSD with fresh Windows install to another SSD?

[Bánh mì]

Which did you opt for? Results?

[robert213]

Which did you opt for? Results?

My significant other inherited an Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 1.60GHz Q 720 machine that her daughter simply threw away in the trash. She complained that the bottom of the machine was too hot to use as a laptop.

I put a Samsung 840 (not PRO) SSD in it and installed Win 7 Home 64-bit from the Recovery DVD(s) this weekend. Now, I finally see first hand why everyone is excited about SSD(s).

Not only does it run faster, but it runs cooler as well (The fan is running at low speed, instead of high speed).

This week, I am planning to install the Samsung Optimization Utility.

I haven't found the time to experiment with Acronis True Image Home, as I am currently shopping for another T61.

[robert213]

For those like me, who have been waiting for the prices to come down on SSD(s), I recently installed a Samsung 840 (NOT 840 PRO) with a fresh Windows 7 Home Premium x64 install...

Additional info:
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 Q 720 running at 1.60GHz

Win 7 Experience Index: 5.9 (before)
Win 7 Experience Index: 6.5 (after)

Samsung SSD Magician Tool enables you...
-- to disable Windows 7 "Super Fetch"
-- to disable Windows 7 "Defragmentation"
-- to disable Windows 7 "Indexing Service"

I don't know how to enable "AHCI mode". It is not listed in the machine's BIOS setup.

Regarding the "too hot to touch" issue with the bottom of the machine...
-- the bottom of the machine is cool to the touch
-- Before, the fan always ran at high speed. After, the fan runs at low speed only when CPU is in use.

----------------------------
Samsung Magician Benchmark
1. Sequential Read: 267 MB/sec
2. Sequential Write: 130 MB/sec
3. Random Read: 49144 IOPS
4. Random Write: 32994 IOPS

[robert213]

http://kb.acronis.com/content/2699

Description
The following Acronis products have full support of Solid State Drives (SSD):

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5
Acronis Backup & Recovery 11
Acronis True Image Home 2011
Acronis True Image Home 2012
True Image 2013 by Acronis
Acronis Disk Director 11
Acronis Snap Deploy 4

All other Acronis products support Solid State Drives (SSD) with limitations:

You can perform all the same operations with SSDs as with regular hard disk drives;
In older Acronis products there is no technology to detect whether a drive is SSD or not and to set the default (optimal) offset for an SSD. In other words when you restore an image to an SSD drive, it will get the default 63 sectors offset instead of 64kb (or a multiple of 64kb) offset recommended for SSD drives even if this offset was in place when the image had been created. This may result in a drop of performance on certain models of SSD drives after the restore.

The Samsung 840 SSD includes an install CD containing Magician (Optimization) Tool, and Data Migration Utility.

I may try this Data Migration Utility (or purchase True Image 2013 by Acronis) tomorrow.

[robert213]

The Samsung 840 SSD includes an install CD containing their Data Migration Utility.

My thoughts on the Data Migration Utility that is included with Samsung 840 (not PRO) SSD.

I installed and ran Samsung DMU on my T30.

The title bar says Samsung Data Migration - v.1.1. "Powered by Clonix Co., LTD" is displayed in the lower left hand corner.

My goal is to create a cloned image of a HDD which has a fresh Windows 7 install from my T61. I plan to place HDD with Win 7 in an USB enclosure and connect that enclosure to the USB 2.0 PC Card in my T30. I plan to place the SSD into the SATA adapter in my T30's UltraBay 2000 bay. I am expecting Samsung DMU to use USB enclosure as "source" drive and the use UltraBay as "target" drive -- as I have done many times in the past using Acronis True Image 11 Home.

Reading documentation...
Operating System - Windows XP SP2 and above
RAM - 1GB

So far, so good. Uh oh...
Limitations
1. This software supports only the Windows operating systems listed above.
2. Only the Samsung SSDs listed above are supported by this software. OEM storage devices provided through a computer manufacturer or supplied through another channel are not supported.
3. This software will run only if the operating system is installed on the source disk. It will not function on disks that lack an operating system installation.
4. If the amount of data stored on the source disk exceeds the capacity of the target disk, cloning will not proceed. The source disk (e.g. “C:” drive) must consist of at least 20% free space. If more than 80% of the source disk is filled with data, the cloning process cannot proceed normally. Secondary partitions require at least 5 GB of free space.
5. On systems with three (3) drives or more (e.g. “C:”, “D:”, and “E:” drives) with the operating system installed on the “C:” drive, only the first two consecutive drives will be cloned (“C:” and “D:” drives). The “System” partition that is created during Windows installation is automatically replicated.
6. OEM recovery partitions, generated at the factory by computer manufacturers, cannot be replicated.
7. A difference of a few GB of data capacity between the source and target disks is normal after cloning. The software does not copy the files Windows automatically generates to manage virtual memory (page file, hibernation file, etc.).
8. This software cannot clone encrypted disks. In order to clone an encrypted disk, you must first remove the password from the disk.
9. If you have instant PC recovery software installed on your system, this software may not function properly.

Problem #1
Samsung DMU has chosen to use my T30's C: and D: drive partitions as its "source" drive. It does NOT give me the option to use my USB HDD enclosure.

Problem #2
Samsung DMU will only clone two drive partitions. The HDD containing my fresh Windows 7 install has three partitions: System Reserved, Windows 7 Ult (C:), and User Storage (E:)

I am heading over to Fry's Electronics to purchase True Image 2013 by Acronis.

[robert213]

I am heading over to Fry's Electronics to purchase True Image 2013 by Acronis.

My thoughts on the True Image 2013 by Acronis...

I installed TI 2013 by Acronis on my T61 running Windows 7 Ult 32-bit.

To disable "Starting Acronis Loader..." message and following splash-screen:
Run "msconfig" under Command Prompt
1. Services
Check "Acronis Scheduler 2 Service"
Un-Check "Acronis Nonstop Backup Service"
Un-Check "Aconis Sync Agent Service"
2. Startup
Un-Check "Acronis True Image"
Check "Acronis Tib Mounter"
Check "Acronis Scheduler Helper"
[Apply][OK], Shutdown Windows, and power-up machine


Start Acronis True Image 2013 from Windows desktop (while connected to the internet)
Click on "blue ?" and Click on [Activate]
Click on "grey gear" and [Integrate True Image into Windows...]
Un-check Acronis console in Windows Control Panel
un-check The Acronis Recovery tab in the Properties window
un-check Shortcut menu commands

Shutdown Windows, and power-up machine

Start Acronis True Image 2013 from Windows desktop (while under administrative account)

[Tools and Utilities][Clone disk]
The user dialogue panels are very similar to Acronis TI 11 Home (from 2007)
Source Disk: Hitachi Travelstar 7200 HD in my T61's main bay.
Target Disk: Samsung 840 SSD in my T61's UltraSlim bay.
I manually re-allocated space between partitions.
-- System Reserved, Primary, Active
-- Windows 7 Ult (C:), Primary
-- User Storage (E:), Primary

Everything will proceeded as expected in Acronis TI 11 Home, until Windows restarts.
With Acronis TI 11 home, I receive a "text based" user interface, which provides status of progress.
With Acronis TI 2013, I briefly received a DOS-like black screen, which unexpectly became a plain blue-screen-of-death-like screen with a mouse pointer.
I anxiously waited three minutes, until a nice GUI-like panel appeared, which provided status of progress.
It provided the mandatory option "Shut down the computer when 'operation' is completed"

Machine will shut-down automatically
Remove SSD from UltraBay.
Place SSD in machine's main bay.

My machine worked fine with both Hitachi Travelstar 7200 HD and again with new Samsung 840 SSD.

-----------------------------
My Results...

My T61 is Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7300 @ 2.00 GHz, with 2GB RAM, and Hitachi Travelstar 7200 rpm HD

Windows Experience Index, 7200rpm HD: 3.0 SSD: 3.0 Samsung Optimization Utility: 3.0

Samsung Magician Benchmark
1. Sequential Read: 125 MB/sec
2. Sequential Write: 104 MB/sec
3. Random Read: 5586 IOPS
4. Random Write: 13105 IOPS

You decide whether Acronis TI 2013 provided satisfactory results.