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  1. Member
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    There is 1 question I have about using Acronis True Image WD Edition with external usb drives. The Western Digital My Book external usb drive I have shows up as drive E when booted to the bootable CD which means any partition on the internal drive with drive letter E and beyond will show up as 1 drive letter past where it actually is when booting the computer without the usb drive attached. If an operating system is installed on drive E, it will show up as drive F when booted to the recovery media. If an image of that partition is created and later restored, will the restored image boot properly, or will this create an incorrect drive letter issue.?
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  2. http://forum.acronis.com/forum/4196#comment-5187
    Acronis recommends that when cloning a system disk, the procedure be done when booted from the TI Rescue CD. Do not perform from within windows.

    Open Windows Disk Management and look at a graphical view of your disk. Check to see if you have any hidden or diagnostic partitions. If yes, then write down the size of these partitions. When cloning or restoring, you will want to retain the same partition size for these type partitions.

    One of the nice things about TrueImage is that you can practice many of the functions without actual performing them. It is practice up to the Summary screen where you choose either the Proceed or Cancel option. Pressing the cancel stops the practice whereas pressing the Proceed button initiates the procedures you chose.

    When cloning, you will increase your changes of success if you perform what is commonly called a "Reverse Clone". That is, with the computer powered off, etc:

    1. Remove the source or hard drive being cloned and place it in an alternate location--such as external drive.

    2. Install the new target disk in same position as original. Same position/same settings. (Format or partitioning not required.)

    3. Boot from the Rescue CD and perform several trial runs until you feel comfortable with the procedure.

    4. Choose the manual cloning option so you can control the partition sizes. Remember, any hidden or diagnostic should be kept at their original sizes and same partition sequence.

    5. Upon completion of cloning. Shutdown and disconnect the original drive--wherever it is located. During first boot following the cloning, only the new clone should be attached. Later after the clone has proved to be functional, you can consider connecting the original as an additional drive.

    6. For some brands of laptops such as the Thinkpad and Lenova, the reverse clone works best. For desktops, sometimes you can successfully clone from desktop to an alternate location and then relocate the clone into its internal boot position. Even for the desktop, a reverse clone seems to offer fewer obstacles. Again, first boot must always have only the clone attached.
    Through hard experience, I found this is the only way to successfully clone a system disk.
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    That's fine for cloning, but I'm asking about making and restoring partition images. If there's an instance of failure of the current drive, there will be nothing from which to clone. Having a backup image to restore to a new drive is the only way to recover a system in case of hard drive failure.
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  4. aBigMeanie aedipuss's Avatar
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    i think you're on the wrong track. an image of a "partition" isn't bootable it doesn't include things like the mbr. you need an image of the entire drive. you can't just copy files to a drive and get it to boot.
    --
    "a lot of people are better dead" - prisoner KSC2-303
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  5. Right, you simply swap in the clone and reboot. No messing about with recovery software. On the other hand, cloning does require a target disk at least as large as the source, and takes up the whole disk.
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    Originally Posted by aedipuss View Post
    i think you're on the wrong track. an image of a "partition" isn't bootable it doesn't include things like the mbr. you need an image of the entire drive. you can't just copy files to a drive and get it to boot.
    When the image of a partition is restored, it is absolutely bootable as long as mbr, etc. are on another partition of the same drive; I've done it dozens of times. Now in this instance the mbr and other boot files are on the first partition of the drive which is also restored to the new drive when a drive is replaced. FYI this is a WinXP/Win10 dual boot system.

    raffriff42 there will be no possibility of making a clone if the drive being replaced isn't working.
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  7. Clone, image, do whatever you prefer. I use both.

    If an operating system is installed on drive E, it will show up as drive F when booted to the recovery media.
    I'm not sure what you are trying to do, but you can manually rearrange drive letters, either before cloning/imaging (with Windows Disk Management) or after, during the recovery process (with DiskPart or other tool)
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    What I want to do is create a backup image of my Win10 partition which is on partition 6 of Disk0 and have the correct drive letter for that partition remain when the image is restored without having to manually reassign drive letters. I used Seagate Discwizard v11 on Bart PE CD for years, and it assigned drive letter X for the drive for the program that it loads into RAM, and all logical drive letters appear exactly as they do when booted to Windows averting the need to manually change drive letters after image restoration. I'm surprised Acronis didn't assign a much later drive letter for the recovery media because that would completely avoid these kinds of problems.
    Last edited by bevills1; 27th Jun 2017 at 11:02.
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  9. Originally Posted by raffriff42 View Post
    http://forum.acronis.com/forum/4196#comment-5187
    1. Remove the source or hard drive being cloned and place it in an alternate location--such as external drive.
    Through hard experience, I found this is the only way to successfully clone a system disk.
    Holy hard drives, Batman! Acronis TI is a piece of crap. Get a decent clone program that comes with a true Pre-Install Environment. There. FIFY.
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    Searches I did found nothing relating to drive letter changes using Acronis True Image WD Edition, but I did find results about this for Macrium Reflect Free, and reply #4 at https://www.sevenforums.com/backup-restore/274580-macrium-clone-drive-letters.html indicates drive letters will appear correctly when booted to Windows after an image is restored.. Although that thread relates to cloning, I assume the same should apply for backup/restore of images. I suppose the only way I'll know for sure about Acronis True Image WD Edition is to try ti to see what happens.

    BTW Acronis TI is no piece of crap in my experience. I used Seagate Discwizard v11 (also a limited version of Acronis TI) for nearly 10 years which worked wonderfully with never a problem of any kind. I only stopped using Discwizard because it gradually became too slow. In tests I did I find Acronis True Image WD Edition not only easier to use but faster to create and restore images than Macrium Reflect Free, EaseUS Todo Backup and other popular imaging programs.
    Last edited by bevills1; 27th Jun 2017 at 13:04.
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    Test was done to create and restore image by booting to the Acronis True Image WD Edition CD with the Western Digital My Book usb drive connected which is shown as drive E. The Win10 partition was shown as 1 drive letter later than where Win10 was originally installed. The backup image was created and then restored with no problem. The restored partition booted normally, and all drive letters were assigned the original drive letters that Windows created when the drive was initially partitioned.

    The different drive letters appearing when booted to the Acronis True Image WD Edition boot media when an external usb drive is connected makes no difference, and this is another positive attribute of the program. The more I use the program the more I like and trust its reliability. I look forward to years of good performance with this program just like I had with Seagate Discwizard v11, and Acronis True Image WD Edition beats the performance of other programs I've tested.
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  12. Hi bevills1,
    I don't know that this will help.
    I have two different paid versions of Acronis TI.
    Both have worked well for me. I bought the newer version for Windows 7 .
    I think the older one would have worked but it s' specs were just up to XP.
    I believe I have a version of Acronis True Image WD Edition downloaded somewhere but I've never used it.
    I have some WD drives so downloading it was no problem.

    My desktops have two OS's each one with Windows 7HP & Vista.
    One with Windows 7HP & XP Pro .
    I have the os's installed on separate HDs & chose to boot the OS I want from the BIOS boot menu so they are not dual boot.
    Acronis works for these both to backup & restore. I always check the MBR to be restored when I do a restore.

    On my laptop I have a dual boot to Windows 7 64-bit & XP .
    I don't remember ever restoring the XP as it is seldom used.
    I have restored the Windows 7 a couple of times & it worked well.
    I also selected the MBR when I did this.
    The dual boot continues to work correctly even after restoring just the Windows 7 partition.

    One of the reasons I posted was to show you the boot.ini I use.
    Code:
     [boot loader]
    timeout=15
    default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS
    
    [operating systems]
    multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on E:\" /fastdetect
    I believe the difference when booting from the Acronis with the CD is the CD drive is added to the letters list.
    Then the USB drive E: adds another letter . So as far as the list of drives or partitions is concerned they are correctly lettered for this configuration.
    When you reboot after the Restore the letters will correct when detected because the boot CD & USB drive will be detected from inside the Windows OS.
    Windows will letter those as it normally does.
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    I thought I might have a drive letter issue when image is restored, but the tests done in my reply #11 confirms there is no problem. Interestingly I have another external usb drive that shows up as the last drive letter when booted to the boot media, leaving all internal drive letters to appear the same as when booted to Windows.
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