Re: Acronis and new disk

Dear Anna,

I quote part of an answer from an Acronis response to a question I ask about cloning:
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Dear Jeff,

1. If one schedules clone disk operation in Windows, Acronis True Image 10.0 Home reboots machine into special, so-called Windows Native Mode - a mode with Windows kernel and necessary drivers running. Some software (usually antivirus) in several configurations may cause malfunctioning of this operation. That is why we recommended you to use Acronis Bootable Rescue Media.

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I recently (within the last week) received email from Acronis with the above. In fact the first response to my question agreed with what you have posted - could start clone from windows and it would be performed on reboot. When I repeated the advise and asked a derivative question, the advise changed as quoted above. Not having read the Acronis source code or actually run any controlled tests on the product, I cannot say what is actually correct. However, if the reboot is (1) to a Windows kernel that shares files used by the full OS and (2) changes those files during operation, then I believe that it is possible that the shadow copy mechanism will capture inconsistent file sets unless all files are captured while the OS is frozen (as far as I know it does not work that way). In any event, it is surely safer and not much more difficult to use the "recovery" CD and avoid the possibility of problems. Even if it turns out to not be necessary after all. The issue is that a problem in the clone might not show up immediately, e.g., some essential process is scheduled to run once a month. If that process is broken, it will be an average of two weeks before you find out. By that time, you have no way to attribute the problem to the clone as opposed to a recent *** up.

-- Jeff Barnett


Anna wrote:
George:
We have found (as apparently you've found) that at times there are problems with using the disk copying/disk cloning programs such as the MaxBlast program you mention offered by the hard drive manufacturers. Most of the time they do the job for which they're intended but at other times...

Anyway since you have the ATI 9 program you might as well use it.

Here are step-by-step instructions for using that program. It would obviously be best if you would simply use the Acronis program to clone the contents of your 40 GB HDD to your new 120 GB HDD rather than creating a disk image at this initial stage. Later when you use the Acronis program for routine backup purposes you can consider creating disk images rather than disk clones. The instructions that follow detail both approaches.

And you need not use the Acronis "recovery" CD (what Acronis calls the "Bootable Rescue Media") to effect this disk cloning operation as one respondent suggested. There's no reason why you can't simply access the Acronis program and proceed from there. You should, of course, create the BRM as the following instructions indicate - but this bootable CD is basically used for recovery purposes.
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