cannot clone O/S hard disk using Acronus TrueImage

[plopooer]

I cannot clone my O/S hard disk (1) as Acronus TrueImage reports errors.
TrueImage has trashed both backup destination hard disks (2 and 3) attempting to clone from hard disk (1); these disks now just appear as empty "Recovery" partitions in Windows explorer; so I have lost both old backups trying make a new backup. 🙁

It reports: "Acronis True Image failed to move your data because your new hard drive does not have enough free space to complete the operation. The reasons follow":
"1. Some of your partitions contain errors. We recommend you reboot your operating system and correct these errors"
"2. Your new hard disk is much smaller than the old one. Make sure have selected the correct old hard disk. If you have chosen the "As is" option on the previous page , go back and try to select another option"

1. I cannot run "chkdsk /f" (or C:, properties, tools, checknow... file and sectors) to fix errors as it reboots and reports "Autochk cannot run due to an error caused by a recently installed software package". I have no idea what software package it is talking about. I thought it might be Kaspersky but I installed that many months ago and have cloned the drive a few times successfully since then. Some users have reported this problem when using AVG and temporarily uninstalled it to get chkdsk to work.

1. I cannot run "sfc / scannow" to fix Windows 7 system files as it reports "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them." i.e. CBS.log: "tcpmon.ini"; source file in store is also corrupted.

2. backup disk (3) (298GB formatted) is not smaller than source disk (1) (270GB used) so this is being mis-reported by TrueImage, unless it needs an extra 28GB or so for the cloning process!?

I've tried other TrueImage versions without any luck:
Acronis True Image WD Edition
Seagate DiscWizard

Apart from TrueImage, chkdsk and sfc not working; my computer is not showing any signs of problems or errors messages. Given the above problems, please can you suggest how I can:
1. clone my O/S hard disk so that I have a backup before I try anything else
2. repair my O/S hard disk by overcoming the chkdsk and sfc problems above

Thanks for your help

 

[MC_K7]

Or maybe consider a simpler solution: install a clean version of Windows.

Especially with all the time wasted on trying to fix this, it might be the way to go.

 

[Erk1209]

Do you have a Windows installation disc? If so, my first move in your situation would be to boot off of it, enter command prompt, and run chkdsk from there. If for some reason that still does not work, I would boot a live Linux distro and copy all the files I needed to another hard drive/flash drive and then perform a clean installation. Re-installing programs can be annoying, but at least your personal data will be safe. Also, you'll be getting a fresh start with those presumably moderately corrupt partitions.

Good luck!

 

[plopooer]

Or maybe consider a simpler solution: install a clean version of Windows.

Especially with all the time wasted on trying to fix this, it might be the way to go.

Yes I did consider that option, but I have a lot of applications installed that have taken me many hours over many months to configure and get working properly; hence the reason I make complete clones of my hard disk so that I can quickly boot up from a backup disk without any hassle.

 

[plopooer]

Do you have a Windows installation disc? If so, my first move in your situation would be to boot off of it, enter command prompt, and run chkdsk from there. If for some reason that still does not work, I would boot a live Linux distro and copy all the files I needed to another hard drive/flash drive and then perform a clean installation. Re-installing programs can be annoying, but at least your personal data will be safe. Also, you'll be getting a fresh start with those presumably moderately corrupt partitions.

Good luck!

Yes thanks for the suggestion. I would prefer to get an exact backup done first just in case the chkdsk / repair process does work but then makes a mess of things and all is lost forever. I would be happy with a backup even if it had the same corruption errors because it would save me hours of re-installation time and I'd have all the data (documents etc) to copy back.

 

[plopooer]

can anybody suggest a good reliable clone program, i.e. one that boots from CD instead of running in Windows, that is happy to copy partitions containing errors (a raw byte by byte copy)? it seems that TrueImage does not really clone 100% otherwise it would just ignore errors and produce a like-for-like copy warts and all.

 

[Erk1209]

can anybody suggest a good reliable clone program, i.e. one that boots from CD instead of running in Windows, that is happy to copy partitions containing errors (a raw byte by byte copy)? it seems that TrueImage does not really clone 100% otherwise it would just ignore errors and produce a like-for-like copy warts and all.

I do hear where you're coming from. Perhaps before doing anything use a Linux disc or a tool like mini XP/7 to copy your most important files. Then, if the worst happens, at least you're not totally screwed.

Acronis discs are bootable and I do believe will copy a disk sector by sector. You could also use the Linux utility dd to do a byte by byte from your live Linux disc. However, bear in mind that a clone like that could easily take days.

If this was me, I would run chkdsk from command prompt on my Windows disc and try to boot off my Acronis disc and try the clone again. If it still returns the errors I think at that point I would be happy that I had my files backed up and start over fresh with a clean installation of Windows. Unfortunately at some point I'd just have to cut my losses and get on with things!

Another option would be to use bootable Seatools or a similar tool to test the hard drive for physical problems. There's always the possibility that the drive itself is failing and as a result is throwing up false file system errors.

I hope this helps!

 

[plopooer]

can anybody suggest a good reliable clone program, i.e. one that boots from CD instead of running in Windows, that is happy to copy partitions containing errors (a raw byte by byte copy)? it seems that TrueImage does not really clone 100% otherwise it would just ignore errors and produce a like-for-like copy warts and all.

I do hear where you're coming from. Perhaps before doing anything use a Linux disc or a tool like mini XP/7 to copy your most important files. Then, if the worst happens, at least you're not totally screwed.

Acronis discs are bootable and I do believe will copy a disk sector by sector. You could also use the Linux utility dd to do a byte by byte from your live Linux disc. However, bear in mind that a clone like that could easily take days.

If this was me, I would run chkdsk from command prompt on my Windows disc and try to boot off my Acronis disc and try the clone again. If it still returns the errors I think at that point I would be happy that I had my files backed up and start over fresh with a clean installation of Windows. Unfortunately at some point I'd just have to cut my losses and get on with things!

Another option would be to use bootable Seatools or a similar tool to test the hard drive for physical problems. There's always the possibility that the drive itself is failing and as a result is throwing up false file system errors.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for your help.

As my new 500GB hard disk arrived in the post today I installed it and decided to try that out first.

1. CLONED OK! I booted with the TrueImage 11 CD and Disk Clone Wizard successfully cloned disk (1) to new disk (4) - with no errors this time! although it did take 2 hours to copy over 266GB which is about twice as long as normal. So at least I should have a complete backup now before I start experimenting with fixes and repairs...

2. TESTED OK! I booted with the SeaTools CD and ran the "Long Test" which took about 90 minutes to complete; it passed with no errors found and no repairs needed.

3. FILE SYSTEM CHECK!? 🙁 I booted with the Windows DVD (as I don't seem to have the Windows Recovery Environment triggered by F8 key before the Windows loading screen appears); I started to panic when it went into Windows setup, language options, install. I quit out too early as I was expecting to see Advanced Boot options way before Windows setup screen appeared. Then I found my original Alienware Dell System Recovery (Dell Data Safe) disks that I made when I first got the computer. Perhaps I should be booting with that DVD instead of the Windows DVD?

4. CHKDSK CANNOT RUN! 🙁 I haven't got chkdsk to work yet. I disconnected from the internet and did a "pause protection" in Kaspersky (as some people reported that antivirus software packages can prevent chkdsk from running). I didn't want to uninstall Kasersky but maybe I should try that next? Anyway, "pause protection" didn't work for me as the scheduled check (chkdsk C: /f /r) is still reporting "Autochk cannot run due to an error caused by a recently installed software package". I searched other forums (e.g. microsoft support) for how to get passed this problem.

How do I get my trashed backup HDDs back working again (e.g. just for incremental backups in .tib archive format) - the two HDDs don't appear in Windows explorer since TrueImage trashed them with the earlier clone failures.

Again, many thanks for your help!
😀