Server Clone Not Booting (HALP!)

I had an issue with a client's server drive this past week. We did a clone over USB using an interface adapter to a new drive with Acronis True Image. The cloned drive would not boot in the server. The BIOS showed the proper drive ID associated with the new drive. The system will get to the point where it accesses the drive's boot information and the HDD light blinks once and nothing happens, no more activity and a blank screen. I tried both SATA ports and still nothing. The original drive boots just fine. Both drives are Western Digital 500GB although different models.

I placed this cloned drive in 2 other non-server machines and the drive booted up without even a BSOD straight into the OS. Any ideas on why the server would not boot to the clone?

That is strange... Maybe restore factory defaults in BIOS?

That was my next option, but I can't try it until I go back out there. Hopefully I can get a few suggestions to try when I'm there since it is a big inconvenience to take down their server.

RAID?

Nope, no RAID. Just the OS drive with a data partition and a second data drive.

You might not be using RAID, but does the server know that?

If you're using a SATA port designated as RAID, the raid controller is going to look for an array, not just a disk that isn't associated with the array it wants.

I've seen this on several HP servers when ordered with no OS.

I'm not too familiar with RAID configuration. I have only setup or repaired RAID a few times. The drive that was swapped was not in a RAID and I am using the same port. I assume the RAID is disabled since we are not using it. Do I need to run the RAID utility and make sure it sees the drive? If you are correct in your theory, how would I resolve the issue.

Whats the BIOS detecting under HDD detection? Sata or IDE SCHE etc?

also is there another SATA port available, so that you can clone from *inside* the machine rather than use the USB converter?

The only other possibility could the firmware on the drive be different and causing issues with the server's bios/detection etc..

The drive is showing up in the BIOS as SATA A with the proper drive ID. I believe that the SATA is set to SATA ATA (as opposed to AHCI). I could try to clone it via the internal connection but since the clone boots fully on a desktop box, I don't think the clone is bad. The firmware is a possibility, but it is detecting in BIOS and is the same manufacturer that was in the server and Dell installs in all their machines. I will try some of these things when I get back out there. Thanks for the tips. Any other ideas?

Just curious, since you've said its a dell ... and server.. is it a power edge? do you recall the model? Maybe some lookups specific to that model might find something.

Too bad you don't have a dell hardware raid controller somewhere.. many moons ago, when the company I worked for had a dell contract.. we cloned by putting master drive into a server, letting the controller do a broken mirror sync ... and then manually break the mirror moving the newly cloned to drive to the next needed server .... 25 drives in an hour ... redhat, thankfully, so it was just a change of hostname and ip and all was good (not like windows where you'd have to newsid the box, etc).
:)