Acronis isn't working as I planned

Okies so after the other thread I made, I decided to use A.T.I (Acronis True Image) to make my HDD clones at work. However, it doesn't seem to be working as I intended....

See what I wanna do is basically make bootable clones or disc images or whatever(let's call it "stuff" for now ) and store many of them in a single big HDD. Then, I wanna use that big HDD and the "stuff" in it to be able to deploy new machines without the hassle of reinstalling Windows and whatnot(i.e. I do not want to restore nor simply clone a same machine, I literally want to use clones to save time during machine set up). Obviously I'd deploy the "stuff" onto an HDD going into a machine that I know the hardware of to avoid driver issues and whatnot. I alos have enough Windows keys to deal with the multiple activations.

I read on the Acronis forum that you can't store more than one clone on an HDD because it does 1-to-1 clones so that means that when I'd clone the big HDD onto a new drive, it'd clone everything, not just one partition. It was stated that I needed to make disc images onto the big HDD and then restore those images onto new HDDs but I've tried that twice already and the restored disc is not bootable.

Does anyone have any advice? Am I using Acronis wrong or is there another program that can do what I'd like?

 

what version of Acronis True Image are you using i use to have version 9.0 but the boot restore disk stopped working with newer notebooks, compatabilty with newer bios i think , Acronis said that in 2010 the problem was fixed.

EDIT : I started using the free Paragon backup and recovery 10, it is not as simple as Arconis but it works.


http://www.paragon-software.com/home/db-express/download.html

 

You were given correct advice, the approach you gave above should work, in principle. Now, what are the specifics of this image transfer? In particular, are you trying to boot the cloned drive on the exact same hardware as the original?

 

Tinder, I don't think you really read what the OP was asking. His is not just a simple cloning request.

Forever,

You're going about it all wrong because you are thinking about this the wrong way. Since you did not mention the OS, it's difficult to go into specifics, but the terminology you are really interested in is Windows Deployment, rather than Cloning.

The technology has changed somewhat from XP to Win7, but the process is basically to

a) create a system with everything configured
b) image and prepare image for deployment
c) install image on an RIS server (remote installation server)
d) boot workstation computers, with boot to PXE as first choice
e) initiate installation

There are different ways to go about this--microsoft server (depending on version) will have this built in, but third party apps like norton ghost for corporations and acronis snap deploy are alternatives.

Without knowing more about your equipment, resources and goals it's difficult to be more detailed.

 

Oh sorry, I should've specified more.

Umm basically, I want to deploy many different OSes, but mostly Windows as OSX is covered. I didn't want to resort to a server because the company is re-working its infrastructure so I was hoping for a solution where I would still be able to manually apply certain settings.

I was hoping I could do like in OSX where I can simply make copies of the bootable partitions on a single huge HDD and then simply copy over said partitions onto a new HDD and they'd be bootable, but I know it doesn't work that way for Windows hence me asking for an alternative.

If it interests you we have multiple versions of Windows Server, notably 2003, 2003 R2, 2008 and 2008 R2.

 

My question was more--what version of windows, but...

Again, giving you a walk through of the process is probably outside the realm of a forum like this.

This is a basic step by step as it applies to windows 7 using a network deployment...even though you don't want to go that way, it would be far easier than a disk-based solution.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd349348(WS.10).aspx

I know this is not going to answer all your questions, but read through it to get a handle on what we are talking about, and then ask questions. Right now we're not even talking the same language, so if you get a basic understanding of what we're talking about it won't see so wierd.

You can do it disk-based but it requires more time and resources.

 

Ah okies thanks, I'll take a look at that when I have time ^_^

I'd prefer a disc based solution, we're really clogged up with servers atm and we don't have that many machines that we'd need another dedicated installation server.

 

Process is basically the same--you create a disc image with an answer file and walk around loading them by disk swapping.

The key to making all this work, though, is that you are not cloning--after the image is created, you strip out all the things that make it unique to one machine and windows runs a mini-setup upon installation to create those uniqie attributes that make the machine workable on a network.

 

Wow, this sounds complicated. Good luck Mimi.

 

Try reinstalling Acronis True Image again, and clone the disk. I just purchased one this week and it didn't have any problem. Try to search some online tutorial to address your concern.

 

Is your Acronis the trial version or the full purchased version?

 

It's the free WD edition. I was testing it out to see if it could do what I wanted it to before purchasing a full license.

 

Just a heads up, the WD free edition requires the destination drive to be a WD drive, not either drive as some posts may lead you to believe.

 

I know, it's written in the disclaimer

 

Nope. I believe Phil had use it to clone from WD to Hitachi drive.

 

You need one WD somewhere for the program to start up. After that it's a free for all.

 

You may want to consider getting the Univeral Restore option also, it will let you image your workstation to another workstation with completely different hardware.