Acronis True Image WD Edition cloned drive partitions not the same "used space" as source drive?

[Fred26]

Source drive (500gb Hitachi) had 2 primary partitions, First partition is 241gb (141gb used) bootable OS (Windows 7 64bit). Second partition is 223gb (208.2gb used) Storage partition (media).

After True Image, both destination partitions are primary partitions, but First Partition is only using 135gb (6gb less than source), and second partition is only using 198gb (10.2gb less than source).

I was under the impression that a disk image should be an exact copy. I am currently still using the source (Hitachi) hard drive because the destination hard drives first partition (Windows) does not show as a bootable partition in Windows Explorer.

My questions are am i actually missing data or did Acronis write the data more efficiently (less wasted space) on the new drive? Shouldn't the cloned OS partition show as bootable in Windows Explorer?

The reason I upgraded HD's is the Hitachi began crashing with Windows reporting a S.M.A.R.T. failure.

Thank you for your help, Fred

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

I bet that if you go into disk management on original disk you will find 3 partitions
The first only about 100MB which contains the boot loader for Windows (Vista or latter Windows)

Did you clone the hard disk or clone visible partitions

Again to see what partition is active (default boot partition ) you need to be in disk management
(Control panel Administrative tools computer management disk management)

There is probably an option to expand partitions to fill the new destination drive if it is bigger than the source drive.

Regards

Mike Barnes

 

[Fred26]

Hi

I bet that if you go into disk management on original disk you will find 3 partitions
The first only about 100MB which contains the boot loader for Windows (Vista or latter Windows)

Did you clone the hard disk or clone visible partitions

Again to see what partition is active (default boot partition ) you need to be in disk management
(Control panel Administrative tools computer management disk management)

There is probably an option to expand partitions to fill the new destination drive if it is bigger than the source drive.

Regards

Mike Barnes

There is an option to expand partitions to fill the destination drive (Automatic), I did not select it. I chose custom, allowing me to decide the partition sizes (only two showed up), then made a third of the unallocated space after Acronis completed using disk management.

I would really prefer to customize the sizes of the partitions if possible.

I just looked again in disk management and only see two partitions on the source drive. Is there a way to unhide partitions in disk management?


Thank you for your help Mike

 

[Ijack]

Acronis Disk Image normally does an intelligent copy rather than a sector-by-sector copy. For example, it will not bother to copy the Windows swap file as this would be meaningless. There is no problem with the fact that the copies seem to use less space than the originals; Windows will automatically recreate swap files, temporary files, etc.

I believe that you can force a sector-by-sector copy if you really want to, but I think this would only be necessary if you wanted an exact clone for forensic purposes.

 

[Fred26]

Acronis Disk Image normally does an intelligent copy rather than a sector-by-sector copy. For example, it will not bother to copy the Windows swap file as this would be meaningless. There is no problem with the fact that the copies seem to use less space than the originals; Windows will automatically recreate swap files, temporary files, etc.

I believe that you can force a sector-by-sector copy if you really want to, but I think this would only be necessary if you wanted an exact clone for forensic purposes.

Thank you for the information Ijack.

I attempted to boot from the clone, was able to "log on" to Windows after 5 minutes of "setting up your desktop" but upon completion, the screen was the generic blue/green background and only had "your copy of windows is not genuine" in the bottom right corner. I could however bring up the task manager, and move the mouse pointer, but nothing else. no icons, no task bar, no start menu. attempting windows key +r(run), windows key +e(explorer) did nothing.

I am wondering if a sector by sector would allow me to properly boot from the destination drive, apparently the OS partition can sometimes contain the Master boot record according to Microsoft, as apposed to a separate boot partition.

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

The MBR contains the disk serial number as allocated by the initial windows setup (not the hard disk manufacturers serial number)

if this was not copied windows , ms office and some av programs object and need to be re activated

It may be worth trying a sector by sector disk cloning

Then boot up if this works re partition the hard disk

But if old hard disk had 512byte sectors and new hard disk has 4096 byte sectors ( advanced disk format) then the partitions need to be aligned before re sizing the partitions


Regards

Mike Barnes

 

[Fred26]

Hi

The MBR contains the disk serial number as allocated by the initial windows setup (not the hard disk manufacturers serial number)

if this was not copied windows , ms office and some av programs object and need to be re activated

It may be worth trying a sector by sector disk cloning

Then boot up if this works re partition the hard disk

But if old hard disk had 512byte sectors and new hard disk has 4096 byte sectors ( advanced disk format) then the partitions need to be aligned before re sizing the partitions


Regards

Mike Barnes

Understood, sector by sector cloning in process. I will report back with success hopefully. I will have to align the partitions as well, Hitachi has 512 sectors WD has 4096.