5/28/2014
Starise
 As an interim solution until I build a new computer I needed to replace my C drive. My old C was a 250gb which I have almost filled up and I'm replacing it with  1tb drive. I have Acronis 2013 which I had planned to use to make the switch. Since this isn't something I commonly do I wanted to ask about the safest and most effective way to use Acronis. Specifically-
 
Will I be required to upgrade to Acronis 2014?
The software asks if I want incremental or total backup. I have been choosing incremental, but I recently erased the backup drive and i only have one incremental backup on it now. Should I make a total backup instead?
The software asks if I want to make my back up bootable. I'm assuming that this means my computer would boot off off the backup drive instead of using my new drive. Is this correct?
 
If the above question is yes, then Acronis allows me to make a bootable CD. I'm guessing the procedure for copying to a new drive goes something like this: I make a bootable CD in Acronis and tell my bios to boot from CD first and ignore booting from any of my other drives. After I install the new drive, I boot my computer and it boots from the CD I made and hopefully asks me for my backup file or sees the file automatically since it will be hooked up by usb. If all goes well, the backup file is found and loaded on the new drive.....did I miss anything?
 
5/28/2014
Mesh
Interestingly Starise, I also was doing a similar thing last evening (trying to make a recovery disk of my C: drive (in case of a failure)), and having the same questions as you. I also have Acronis 2013 and it wasn't quite clear on how to go through this process.
 
I was planning on youtubing it as well.... 
5/28/2014
rtucker55
Not sure if I'm reading you correctly but it sounds like Starise wants to actually replace his C: system drive in which case you would want to CLONE the c: drive. It's been awhile since I last did this but I used the Acronis boot CD to do it. I don't have access to the material right now but, as I remember, that process was under a tools menu or somewhere different from the normal Acronis CD boot-up screen. Best to look up 'clone' drive in the Acronis manual.
 
I do know that I had to remove my existing C: drive and physically install the NEW C: drive in the same place as the old one. Then I put the original C: drive in another physical slot. From there I had to boot with the Acronis CD and go through the clone process.
 
Also, even though it was a clone there were a few vendors that had used the system drive to register some of my  software and I had to go back and re-auth those software packages. Wasn't a big deal at the time.
 
 
Mesh, if you just want to make an image of the C: system drive in order to restore to the same C: drive just as a backup that is pretty easy to do from the Acronis boot CD and if you have any specific questions I would be happy to try and help you out.
 
If you're wanting to clone another C: drive to put on the shelf I can't help with that as I've not had any luck with that one. Jim R. could provide more help there.
 
 
 
5/28/2014
Cactus Music
One thing that happened to me was for some strange reason when I did this, half my OS install somehow ended up on my Data drive. I didn't pay attention to the sata connections on the MOBO and the data drive was in 01 and the new OS drive in 04. So watch out for that one. I think the OS wants the lower number. So from now on I'll disconnect the DATA drives before doing the clone. As it is, I removed the data drive to upgrade to a bigger one and the computer would not boot?? So until I re do the whole works it I'm stuck with that data drive. 
As a result I get the Windows is not genuine notice, even though it actually is. But it runs perfectly fine and I am not in the mood to deal with more down time to fuss with a computer. 
 
5/29/2014
Mesh
rtucker55
Not sure if I'm reading you correctly but it sounds like Starise wants to actually replace his C: system drive in which case you would want to CLONE the c: drive. It's been awhile since I last did this but I used the Acronis boot CD to do it. I don't have access to the material right now but, as I remember, that process was under a tools menu or somewhere different from the normal Acronis CD boot-up screen. Best to look up 'clone' drive in the Acronis manual.
 
I do know that I had to remove my existing C: drive and physically install the NEW C: drive in the same place as the old one. Then I put the original C: drive in another physical slot. From there I had to boot with the Acronis CD and go through the clone process.
 
Also, even though it was a clone there were a few vendors that had used the system drive to register some of my  software and I had to go back and re-auth those software packages. Wasn't a big deal at the time.
 
 
Mesh, if you just want to make an image of the C: system drive in order to restore to the same C: drive just as a backup that is pretty easy to do from the Acronis boot CD and if you have any specific questions I would be happy to try and help you out.
 
If you're wanting to clone another C: drive to put on the shelf I can't help with that as I've not had any luck with that one. Jim R. could provide more help there.
 
 
 


Thanks Rtucker55!!
I'll take a stab at it tonight and I truly appreciate the offer to help........which I'll probably need.....
5/29/2014
Starise
Thanks guys for the info.
 
I have two other data drives in my computer and my image drive is usb external. I was hoping that maybe I could do this without messing with my data drives, which it sounds like I may need to unplug. 
 
In the case of C drive failure the image on my external should be my safety net right? Since my external drive is usb I'm still hoping maybe I can make it work through usb, but from what Ive read so far maybe not..
 
 I hope I can avoid  re licensing issues...if I run into that I might as well just make a clean reload. Hopefully I can pull it off one way of the other. If I need to physically unplug my other drives and put the new drive in , that isn't the worst thing in the world.
5/29/2014
Kalle Rantaaho
I cloned my three internal drives with an external HDD dock which wasn't expensive and included the software for the task. Job done in an hour, and the dock is useful anyway, because I can use the old HDDs whenever i want, if necessary. And any other HDDs, of course.
5/29/2014
Grem
When you make a bootable disc with Acronis, it will boot you into an OS that will allow you access to your drives to find the backup you want to restore. IOW, the bootable cd is not your backup image.

Depending on your Mb, it may not be able to see a USB drive from the bootable CD OS. So I'd your backup image is in a USB external drive, you want to consider this in you backup scheme.

Acronis is a great program. Take time to read the manual and understand what you want to do before you need to do it. You will be glad in the end.
5/29/2014
rtucker55
When I did the clone it was on a laptop that has two internal drives, I did unplug the data drive just as a failsafe as the Acronus boot CD does not use the same drive letters but it does show the correct volume names. I did connect the New System drive to where the old one was prior to the clone process and connected the Old System drive to a usb port using a sata to usb adaptor.
 
I'm not sure if you can use an image from one drive to clone a physically New system drive but I don't think I was able to. At the time I wanted to be able to have another drive on the shelf in case of physical drive failure. I wish Jim R. could chime in here because he would be able to answer that question without question...
 
I do remember having to re-auth a few software packages and I do believe the Spectrasonics stuff was one vendor but it was painless.
 
Give the clone process a shot and if it doesn't work, or something fails, you can always do a clean install. Just in case I would also make a backup or copies of any important files from your existing drive before starting the process.
 
Kind regards,
Rick
5/30/2014
slartabartfast
Acronis clone operation is designed to make a real time copy between two drives connected by ATA or SATA at the same time in the same computer.  It does not allow copying of a single partition-- whole drive only. If you clone to the USB drive, that drive will not boot Windows. If you need to make a copy of a drive using an external USB as the intermediate host, you would need to do a disk image to the USB drive then restore the image to a new drive from the USB drive. To do that you will need to make a TrueImage bootable CD. Boot from that CD and make sure it can see your USB drive, then make an image of your current boot drive to the USB drive, then replace the current boot drive, boot from the TrueImage CD and restore the saved image from the boot drive to the new drive.
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