You can clone basic disks from Acronis Bootable Media, or from your operating system
This article applies to:
- Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server
- Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Server for Windows (Standalone)
- Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server - Small Business Server Edition
- Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Workstation
- Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Workstation (Standalone)
- Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server - Virtual Edition
Introduction
Using Acronis Disk Director Lite, which is a part of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, you can clone basic disks.
It is recommended not to format the source hard disk after cloning until you are sure that the cloned target disk boots fine.
It does not matter how many partitions you have on the source or on the target drive.
Solution
Cloning from Acronis Bootable Media
- Boot from Acronis Bootable Media and select Acronis Backup & Recovery 10:
- Click Run management console:
- Select Disk management:
- Right click on any disk and select Clone basic disk:
- Select the source disk and click Next:
- Select the target disk and click Next:
- Select to clone the disk As is or with proportional resizing. Check the Copy NT signature box or leave it unchecked (applies only to Windows):
- With the As is cloning, the partitions on the target disk will be of the exact same size as the were on the source disk. If there is any free space left on the target disk after cloning, it will be unallocated.
- With the proportional resizing cloning, the cloned partitions will be automatically resized to fit the space of the target drive. Proportional resizing works both for smaller and larger target disks.
- With the Copy NT signature option enabled, you will have the signature from the source disk copied to the target disk. (!) With this option enabled, you will need to unplug one of the disks from the machine after cloning and before the first startup, otherwise the target disk will be unbootable. You cannot have two disks with the same NT signature on one machine.
- With the Copy NT signature option disabled, you will keep the existing signature of the target disk.
(!) Two disks with the same NT signature cannot work under one operating system. If there are two disks with the same NT signature, at the startup the operating system will run from the first disk, discover the same signature on the second one, automatically generate a new unique NT signature and assign it to the second disk. As a result, all the volumes on the second disk will lose their letters, all paths will be invalid on the disk, and programs will not find their files. The operating system on the second disk will be unbootable.
- Click Finish to close the wizard, then press Commit operations to start the cloning.
- Run Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 if you have a standalone edition, or run Acronis Management Console, and connect to a remote or local Agent if you have an advanced edition;
- Click Navigation -> Disk management:
- Right click on any disk and select Clone basic disk:
- Select the source disk and click Next:
- Select the target disk and click Next:
- Select to clone the disk As is or with proportional resizing. Check the Copy NT signature box or leave it unchecked (applies only to Windows):
- With the As is cloning, the partitions on the target disk will be of the exact same size as the were on the source disk. If there is any free space left on the target disk after cloning, it will be unallocated.
- With the proportional resizing cloning, the cloned partitions will be automatically resized to fit the space of the target drive. Proportional resizing works both for smaller and larger target disks.
- With the Copy NT signature option enabled, you will have the signature from the source disk copied to the target disk. (!) With this option enabled, you will need to unplug one of the disks from the machine after cloning and before the first startup, otherwise the target disk will be unbootable. You cannot have two disks with the same NT signature on one machine.
- With the Copy NT signature option disabled, you will keep the existing signature of the target disk.
(!) Two disks with the same NT signature cannot work under one operating system. If there are two disks with the same NT signature, at the startup the operating system will run from the first disk, discover the same signature on the second one, automatically generate a new unique NT signature and assign it to the second disk. As a result, all the volumes on the second disk will lose their letters, all paths will be invalid on the disk, and programs will not find their files. The operating system on the second disk will be unbootable.
- Click Finish to close the wizard. Press Commit operations to start the cloning.
More information
See also: