WD Acronis True Image clone won't boot

WD Software & Mobile Apps WD Software
1

Under windows XP SP3, I cloned my 1TB basic disk to a brand new 2TB disk. They are both SATA. I used the automatic options. The new partitions were expanded proportionately. The cloning, per se, seems to have gone fine. The system, as directed by the Acronis windows app, rebooted into the Acronis Loader, cloned the disk, and then shut down.

I then disconnected my source disk and tried to boot (i.e. off the new cloned disk) but it failed with the (bios?) message “Reboot and Select proper Boot device”. I then reconnected the original (source) disk and it successfully rebooted (i.e. booted off the original/source drive) and I can access the files on the new (aka target, aka clone) partitions (i.e. the new/target disk seems to fine, with all the files and partitions etc, but just not bootable).

The control management’s Control Management shows the cloned disk with the appropriate (expanded) partitions.

The source drive’s boot partition is listed a Disk1, Basic, NTFS, Healthy, System at Location 0
The (new) target drive’s boot partition is listed a Disk0, Basic, NTFS, Healthy, Active, at Location 1

2

There aren’t to many people using Acronis here you might find more help on the Acronis forums. I suspect it has something to do with a boot file that is missing or possibly on a hidden partition. There are two schools of thought on cloning and imaging this explains a bit   http://forum.acronis.com/forum/3355 see post 11 by Grover. 

Joe

3

I solved it. It was a BIOS issue. Apparently, unlike other BIOSs I’ve encountered, this particular computer’s BIOS doesn’t automatically allow/try a new HD for booting (even if it’s the only HD attached) and so since the original HD had been disconnected and there were no other boot drives and it ignored the new HD, it “concluded” that there was nothing to boot off of. I discovered this while checking the BIOS boot settings (out of last resort desperation really) and found that the BIOS listed the new HD as detected but not in the boot sequence. As soon as I changed that it all worked.