[Deathhawk]

Hi all,

I just built myself a new machine and everything is running perfect.

As it was a new build, i had to contact microsoft for a new activation key to install vista on my new hard drive as the previous one was then deemed invalid due to a hardware change..(i dont agree with that as it means everytime i change hardware and reformat i may have to contact m/s)

I want to clone my entire vista hdd as a backup and have always used xxclone with xp which was so easy to use but its not compatible with vista so tried acronis 10.

I cloned it and it said successful but when i tried to boot from it it said i have made a hardware change,failed to boot and that i had to do a repair install....is this because vista only recognises the original drive?

Can anyone recommend any vista compatible cloning software that is able to do a complete clone to a spare hdd and make it bootable as in xxclone?

Thanks for any help

[ballpark570]

How did you make the clone with acronis 10?

Did you just click on the Aconis icon or something from within
an open windows session and elect to do a disc clone?

I did that the first time I used Acronis 10 with Vista and it
seemed to clone all good and well until I tried to restart the
computer with the newly cloned drive. It didn't work.

I contacted Acronis support

What I found was that in order to do a disc clone with
Acronis 10 and Vista I had to make a boot disc first using the Acronis software
and then turn off the computer and restart it with that boot disc
in the optical drive and let it boot from that.

From there I was taken to an Acronis menu that let me
chose to make a disc clone,,, which I did.

After doing it that way I was able to boot from the
cloned Vista drive without trouble

I formerly used Casper XP to clone my XP drives and I could do that
from within an open windows session from start to finish. So easy a caveman could do it

This isn't the case with Acronis 10 and Vista.....

[Rich-M]

Reading what ballpark wrote I think there are a few wrong words, at least I hope so.
Whenever you install Acronis or any other Imaging software, it is always highly important to use the program to create a "Rescue Disk" which is what I think is meant by "boot disk" but that terminology is really wrong here. Restores are intended to be made best from Rescue Environment, which has always been true with Drive Image or Ghost now as well as Acronis or any decent program, because there is nothing to interfere with that. While Acronis has some versions that will do a restore within Windows in real time, I have never found them to work right and often the start of a restore in Windows gets jammed up in the reboot mechanism so I really don't care which Os you are in, the preferred method is to restore using the Rescue Disk and if you think about it if your hard drive dies, which is the main reason we image drives with such programs, how would you restore system without having a Rescue Disk anyway.
Acronis 10 Home is the only Acronis version out that works completely with Vista and I am certain more is on the way real soon, so bear in mind it may not be perfect with Vista also, but what is?

[Deathhawk]

Thank you for all that very in depth info...im wondering whether i wasted my money on acronis as i presumed it would work in a similar fashion as xxclone. All i had to do with that program was basically click "clone" and it was away......this acronis seems a lot more troublesome with the rescue discs etc

I will try the method later and see how it goes...ive never used this type of image software before-i think xxclone spoilt me!!

[ballpark570]

Yes Rich, you are correct.

It is not boot disk but rather a rescue disk you have to make in order to properly clone your drive with Acronis

The Acronis user interface leads you to believe that you can do it during an open window session but this is not the case.

if you try that, it looks like everything is going good during the clone process but trying to boot from the newly cloned drive results in no joy.

Once he makes that rescue disk and boots from it he will be able to make a good Vista clone without any problem.

[ballpark570]

Casper XP disk clone software was a thing of beauty that required no rescue media and was the best 50 bucks I ever spent on software period.

It was simple and fast and uncomplicated.

I wish I had not spent my money on Acronis because Casper now has a working version for Vista.

Acronis is ok but it is too heavily laden with extras that the average user like myself will never use.

I don't like to have to load a disk and reboot to do a clone. With Casper XP it was a simple job of point and click then walk away for 15 minutes........

how good is that

[Noyb]

Have you tried making a new drive with Acronis then recovering from a Vista backup Image.
This should be the same as Cloning and it's worked for me in Vista.
Should be able to put it on as many drives as you want.
Are you using the new version of Acronis v10 build 4942 ??

I use Casper Also .. But it costs more than Acronis and does a lot less less.
You even have to pay extra to get a boot disc.
Just got Casper 4.0 ... But haven't tried it yet.

[JohnWill]

FWIW, I have done an image backup of my Vista Ultimate machine and restored it successfully. I don't often use clone, but the latest Acronis True Image Workstation version seems fully compatible with Vista.

[Rich-M]

Originally Posted by JohnWill

FWIW, I have done an image backup of my Vista Ultimate machine and restored it successfully. I don't often use clone, but the latest Acronis True Image Workstation version seems fully compatible with Vista.

John,
As far as I know, 9.1 is the newest of that version..10.0 only exists in Home version. 9.1 is compatible and will work except for one thing I noticed and that is with 9.1 versions, you cannot read and/or copy out a folder or file (mount image) as that will not work. You can create image file and restore etc..everything else works. only 10 will allow exploring and copying an image file.

[JohnWill]

Originally Posted by Rich-M

John,
As far as I know, 9.1 is the newest of that version..10.0 only exists in Home version. 9.1 is compatible and will work except for one thing I noticed and that is with 9.1 versions, you cannot read and/or copy out a folder or file (mount image) as that will not work. You can create image file and restore etc..everything else works. only 10 will allow exploring and copying an image file.

Gotta disagree with you here. I just mounted an image backup on my Vista Home Premium laptop with Acronis True Image Workstation, build 3887. It mounted just fine, and I was able to browse it just like a disk.

[Rich-M]

OK thanks...I have to see what version build I am using and see if there is an update as I tried it on 2 pc's though actually now that I look, it was on Enterprise Server version, not Workstation but it still could be an update I am missing.

[JohnWill]

I have truthfully never loaded the Server version, though I'm probably going to use it for the Windows Home Server beta that I'm running.