The Crucial MX100 SSD comes standard with a license key for Acronis True Image HD 2014. This article shows, step by step, how to install and activate your copy of the software.

If you are looking for a guide to cloning with Acronis True Image HD 2014, Matt_theCru has posted a video of the cloning process on The CRU blog.

If you are looking for a guide on how to clone with the version of Acronis True Image HD that was included in the Easy Install kits, the one that boots from a CD, we do have a written guide as well as a video for that software as well.

1. Go to www.acronis.com/en-us/promo/tihd-download

2. Choose a language from the presented options.

 
3. Download and run the .exe file.

4. Click Install.

 
5. Review and accept the license agreement to continue.

6. Acronis will ask if you'd like to participate in the Acronis Customer Experience Program. Your participation in this is voluntary, and can be refused without affecting your ability to use the software. Crucial and Micron Consumer Products Group are in no way affiliated with this program.

7. Select an install destination, click 'Next' and verify your selections are exactly how you would like them, then click 'Proceed'.

8. After installation finished, you can immediately start the application, or click "Finish" to close the installer if you'd prefer to resume this process later by running the software from where you installed it.

9. On the product key screen, click the link in the lower right corner "I have only short key".

10. If you don't already have one, you must create an Acronis account with your name and e-mail address, and enter the 16-digit product key you received.

11. Acronis will e-mail you a confirmation link to finalize your account creation (this step does not apply if you used an existing Acronis account).

12. Your 64-character product activation key will be displayed once registration is complete. A copy of it will also be sent to your Acronis account's e-mail address for your records. Copy and paste it back into the Acronis 2014 splash screen text box to continue with the activation.

13. Once activated, the program will immediately move into the "Get Started" screen of the Acronis True Image  HD 2014 suite, ready for use.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking for more information on Crucial SSDs? Learn more here!

Looking for Customer Service? Contact Crucial Support for your region.

There are a number of third party programs that can be used to clone your Mac Hard drive to a Crucial SSD.  Did you know you can clone using Disk Utility that comes free with all Mac systems? Below are the steps to take to perform the clone using Disk Utility. If you prefer to watch a video of the process instead, please go to the video How to clone Mac OS X using Disk Utility on The Cru blog.

Note that this process cannot be used to clone a Windows partition if you are running bootcamp. If you are looking for assistance with that process, The Cru has another video for you: How to copy and restore the Boot Camp partition in Mac

Before starting the cloning process inDisk Utility, your new SSD needs to be initialized, partitioned, and formatted. See this guide for directions on how to initialize an SSD.

Note that if you have encrypted your drive with FileVault you will not be able to carry out step 5 of this guide. To be able to resize the partition you will need to turn off FileVault and let the drive fully decrypt. After the clone has completed and your new SSD is installed and booting, you can turn FileVault back on again.

1.    Connect your  new Crucial SSD to the system
    a.    This can be done using the SATA to USB cable included with the Laptop install kit, an external enclosure, or internally if you have an extra bay

2.    From within your operating system, open Disk Utility

3.    Select your original HDD from the device list in Disk Utility

4.    Select the partition tab

5.    Resize your Mac Partition to the same size or less than your new SSD (Example:  If your original drive is 512GB, and your SSD is 256GB, you will need to resize your original partition to 256GB)
    a.    Drag the bottom of the white box on the partition tab up until it is the desired size, and click apply
    b.    If your new SSD is the same size or larger than your original drive, you do not need to resize

6.    Shut down your Mac, and then boot the recovery partition (Lion or later) or OS installation CD (Snow Leopard and older)
    a.    On boot hold the option key to access the boot manager
    b.    Select “Recovery-10.x” or installation CD

7.    Choose your language

8.    Select Disk Utility

9.    Select the startup disk from the device list in Disk Utility

10.    Select the Restore tab

11.    Click and drag the startup disk volume (the line item under the entry for the physical source disk) to the Source field if it doesn’t auto populate

12.    Click and drag the destination disk volume (the line under the entry for the physical SSD) to the Destination field

13.    Select Erase Destination check box if the option is provided (in 10.8.2 this is performed automatically)

14.    Click the Restore button

After the clone process is finished, next you will want to ensure that your clone was successful.  Here are the steps to take:

1.    Reboot your Mac

2.    Once your screen goes black, hold down the option key

3.    In the boot manager, select the cloned disk

4.    If the clone was successful, your system will boot normally
    a.    Replace your original drive with the SSD internally, and enjoy the speed

5.    If the clone was not successful, simply reboot your computer as normal to boot to your original drive.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking for more information on Crucial SSDs?  Learn more here!

Looking for Customer Service? Contact Crucial Support for your region.

If you want to watch a video on how to clone with the CD version of Acronis True Image HD, a video of the cloning process has been posted on The Cru blog.

If you are looking for a guide on how to install and activate Acronis True Image HD 2014, we have written directions in another article, and  Matt_theCru has posted a video of that cloning process on The CRU blog as well.

The hardware requirements of Acronis True Image HD correspond to the minimum requirements for the operating system installed on the computer to be used for running Acronis True Image HD. In addition Acronis True Image HD requires the following hardware:

• CD/DVDROM
• Mouse or other pointing device (recommended)
• Second SSD or HDD to clone to

Acronis True Image HD has been tested on the following operating systems:

• Windows XP SP3
• Windows XP x64 Edition SP2
• Windows Vista SP2 (all editions)
• Windows 7 (all editions)
• Windows 8 and 8.1 (Acronis version 0713 only)

Supported file systems:

• FAT16/32
• NTFS
• Ext2/Ext3*
• ReiserFS*

* The Ext2/Ext3, and ReiserFS file systems are supported only for disk or partition backup/recovery operations. You cannot use Acronis True Image HD for file-level operations with these file systems (file backup, recovery, search, as well as image mounting and file recovering from images), as well as for backups to disks or partitions with these file systems.

1. Connect your new SSD to the system using the SATA to USB cable that comes with the Laptop Install Kit, or the SATA cable that comes with our Desktop Install Kit
   
   
2.  Put the CD that came with your Desktop or Laptop install kit into your CD/DVDROM, and reboot your computer.  If your system does not boot to the CD, you will want to check your BIOS boot sequence and change to put the CD/DVDROM before your hard drive in the boot order. In order to boot Acronis instead of Windows, your CD/DVDROM needs to be the first device in the boot order.
   
   Note that attempting to access the CD from within Windows will not work! The CD will appear blank. You must boot from the CD in order to use the software.
   
   
3. Choose your language.  Use the slider bar next to the language options to view more options.
   
   
   
   
4. After the program loads, click on "Clone Disk".
   
   
   
   
5. Select your clone mode.  Most users will use automatic.
   
   
   
   
6. Select your "source disk" and "destination disk".
   
   
   
   
7. Click the "Proceed" button.
   
   
   
   
8. Once complete, click the "OK" and close window "X" buttons, and your computer will reboot.

9.  Remove the Acronis disk, and change your SSD to be your boot drive.  You will either need to remove your original drive, or change your boot sequence to boot to the SSD first

The Cru is an elite group of Crucial.com team members with extensive technical knowledge in four key areas: Hardware, Crashes, Anti-virus, and Macs. Visit their blog to learn more about DRAM, SSDs, and computers in general!

------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking for more information on Crucial SSDs?  Learn more here!

Looking for Customer Service? Contact Crucial Support for your region.

To find out which firmware revision your SSD is running, follow these steps in OSX:

1. Click on the Apple menu
2. Select "About This Mac", then "More Info..."
3. Select "System Report..."
4. In the Contents list, click on "Hardware" to expand the category
5. Click on Serial-ATA (near the end of the Hardware category)

The drive attributes will be displayed on the pane on the right.  You will see the name of the drive i.e. Crucial CTXXXXXXX, the drive capacity etc.  The firmware version will show in the 'Revision' field.

If you want to know how to update the firmware to the latest revision, we have posted a guide here.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking for more information on Crucial SSDs?  Learn more here!

Looking for Customer Service? Contact Crucial Support for your region.

Let us first of all clarify what SMART data actually is. The acronym SMART stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology, and that is exactly what the technology is.  A SMART enabled storage drive monitors itself and collects data, and this data can be read and interpreted with the help of utilities capable of reporting the SMART data to the user. While this seems pretty straight-forward, there are a few things you need to be aware of as you interpret your SSD’s SMART data.

The first thing is that a lot of utilities for reporting SMART data were designed for HDDs, and because they are, they tend not to report SSD data correctly. The SMART attributes of an SSD are not organized in the same way the attributes of an HDD are, primarily because most of them don’t apply to a drive that is lacking any kind of moving parts.

This means that although the SMART data reported by an SSD will be correct and valid for the SSD, the attributes may not be correctly identified, which for obvious reasons leads to confusion. For example, when the “Power-on Hours Count” attribute reports a number to the utility, an incompatible utility may incorrectly label that number “Program Fail Count” or “Reported Uncorrectable Errors”. When that happens, a perfectly good SSD is incorrectly reported as a failing drive to the customer attempting to read the SMART data, all because he or she is not aware that they are using a utility that isn’t compatible with their SSD. It is in other words very important to use a utility that can correctly read the SMART layout of your SSD.

The second thing to remember is that SMART data is not a diagnostic tool. In fact, SMART data by itself is not an indicator of the general health and status of an SSD. Standard troubleshooting practices are far more reliable when it comes to determining the health status and reliability of an SSD, than any SMART data read-out.

Incorrectly reported or interpreted SMART data inevitably leads to incorrect conclusions which, if you’re unlucky, can lead to an RMA of a perfectly functional drive.  Interpreted correctly on the other hand, the SMART data from your SSD can in some cases be a useful tool in troubleshooting your SSD. The important thing is to remember that those cases are fairly rare. SMART is one tool among many, and as with all tools, it works best when it is used the way it was intended.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking for more information on Crucial SSDs?  Learn more here!

Looking for Customer Service? Contact Crucial Support for your region.