Acronis 2014 clone hdd

trackrat

trackrat

trackrat

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I have purchased a 250GB SSD for the wife's laptop.
I have Acronis 2014 installed on the laptop, which is running Windows 8.1.
Is it better to do the clone using acronis in Windows or the acronis boot disk.
Is one method better than the other.
 
if it was me I would do a clean install, backup anything needed and then re install 8.1.

get the ISO from Microsoft tool and it even creates a USB stick for you as well.
 
I can't comment on Acronis but i used Easeus Backup (free) to clone from my 2TB HDD to my 120gb SSD on my pc and then just changed over the drives and it booted right up! :)
 
It's fine doing it in Windows. In fact in the past it's much quicker - for some reason (less optimised drivers I assume) the Linux-based boot images take nearly twice as long.
 
You should probably do a clean install, but in the past I've used the free acronis software bundled with a crucial ssd to clone my old hdd. It seemed to work fine and I was able to boot up successfully. Just make sure that functions such as TRIM are turned on afterwards.
 
There's absolutely no need to do a clean install for merely a SSD, unless it's a bloated install that's been around for a while and you'll be squeezed for space (a Disk Clean-up is normally enough). If using Win 7 I think it's a good idea to check that the OS has detected the change to an SSD, but that's not needed in 8.


KIA said:
Boot disk. Windows is always happier after a clean shut down.
Click to expand...

That's not been the case since at least XP (where work arounds still worked as I remember). Vista upwards have inbuilt controls to allow on-the-fly backups that work just as well in a live situation (it was with the introduction of Windows's own backup tools). Other backup solutions are able to use those hooks too.

As for Windows 8/8.1, it doesn't even do a "clean shut down" by default anyway. It uses hybrid shut down and start ups to aid boot speed.
 
Could I use Acronis (that came free with my MX100 SSD) to transfer a 256GB IDE HDD (including Vista on the first of 4 partitions) to one of my spare Western Digital 320GB SATA HDD and then use Disk management to allocate the surplus ~50GB to the C (Vista install) partition?

... My better half has made a right mess of her 256GB HDD, she has <5% free space of the C drive and it is causing major slowdown to HDD reads/writes, making my old Opteron 165/ Asrock Dual SATA2 system seem way worse than it really is! :p
 
this_is_gav said:
That's not been the case since at least XP (where work arounds still worked as I remember). Vista upwards have inbuilt controls to allow on-the-fly backups that work just as well in a live situation (it was with the introduction of Windows's own backup tools). Other backup solutions are able to use those hooks too.

As for Windows 8/8.1, it doesn't even do a "clean shut down" by default anyway. It uses hybrid shut down and start ups to aid boot speed.
Click to expand...

It's still the case.

Have a look at event viewer after restoring from a live image. It'll contain messages about improper shut down of operating system, failed to close databases and files, etc.

Most people will be able to get away with restoring from a live image, but there's still a difference between the two.
 
KIA said:
It's still the case.

Have a look at event viewer after restoring from a live image. It'll contain messages about improper shut down of operating system, failed to close databases and files, etc.

Most people will be able to get away with restoring from a live image, but there's still a difference between the two.
Click to expand...

This is how Windows servers have been backed up for years, databases and all, all the way back to NT4 (and perhaps earlier - that was my first experience). I've never had any issues restoring from either an Acronis (work servers and workstations) or Macrium (home) image.

I've got a work laptop here for the holidays, so I'm going to try that using Macrium while I'm watching the F1 and see if there are any serious issues logged in event viewer.
 
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Took rather less time than anticipated. Just a load of domain, GPO and time server errors - not a shock seeing as the server is 17 miles away. Other than that, just the non-clean shut-down KIA mentioned.
 
Not so simple as it seems.
Acronis 2104 does not support GPT, does that mean I have to change the new Crucial SSD to MBR?.
I tried it in Windows and using the acronis boot disk and both failed.
On looking at the online Acronis video it says you cannot clone to GPT disks.

I have already wasted an afternoon on this, any advice welcome.
 
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this_is_gav said:
Have you tried the free version of Macrium? If that doesn't work with GPT, perhaps the trial version?
Click to expand...

I tried one last time with the recovery boot disk and this time it completed successfully, swapped the hard drives over and it works.
The increase in boot time is spectacular, down from well over a minute to 12 seconds.
 
Acronis will work fine, from the windows app create an Acronis bootable CD and clone from within the Acronis OS interface after booting off it.

2012 onwards supports HDD to SSD migration, just newer versions word it as such. I've migrated many machines this way and never had any issues.

Make sure to run a WEI after first boot up with the SSD so Windows can sort itself out with the correct settings when it detects the SSD during WEI scoring.
 
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