Cloning GPT vs. MBR

Thread needs solution
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Beginner
Posts: 2
Comments: 11

Sorry, I searched and could not find some basic answers, so...

I'm an IT prof and haven't really kept up with GPT. I know basic stuff regarding the gazillions vs. 4 partitions etc, but haven't needed that in my line of work so no need to change or deal with it. With that said, I purchased a new WD black 750GB 7200 hdd to replace the 5400 1TB drive my laptop came with from HP. Nice laptop, works great, fast, but I'm going to make it faster, right? Finally got tired waiting for Seagate or WD to make a 1TB 7200 drive, so until they do, I'm reverting to 750GB. Also, no need for more than the default partitions that came on the laptop, so GPT would not be necessary.

So I install the fresh bare drive in the laptop and put the original in an external USB attached device to clone it. Works ok. By default it creates a GPT bootable drive and does not allow me an option to say or choose that I want MBR as the original drive is and came from HP. It just tells me you're going to have a GPT bootable disk after this, no ifs ands or buts... proceed or stay with your slow 5400 drive :).

I've come up with a couple of issues that I think the HP laptop is expecting to be a MBR and is turning off a feature or two, at least it's not acting the same after the clone, minor stuff like I get an HP logo when launching Windows 8 vs. the Windows logo., I'm attributing to new drive and possibly GPT. More major stuff like my recovery won't launch if I ever wanted to revert to factory settings, and some other HP utilities are not working as if HP says hey, you don't have the original drive, not going to let you do this... so is there any way to get the original MBR back or convert or do I try cloning again, did I miss a check box, or should I try a restore or ??? Sorry. I just don't have the experience regarding what GPT is doing vs. MBR. I just wanted the disk, albeit 250GB less, but 7200 vs. 5400 to be that same after cloning. Is it possible I need to format the new drive as MBR before cloning? I didn't think it mattered as TI would just make the new drive whatever the old drive was, but that's not the case.

I actually have another similar HP laptop that I used TI 2013 to clone to a 1TB drive from a 750GB drive early this year and it was great. No issues, so not sure what changed other than the TI build release back a month or so ago. which seems much more stable and functional, but I'm guessing this was a feature left out? Choose MBR vs. GPT when cloning? I've only been using Acronis since last year when 2013 came out so it may also be my unfamiliarity to how imaging works with Acronis. Thank in advance.

Fri, 06/14/2013 - 15:42
0 Users found this helpful
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Legend
Posts: 172
Comments: 11125

Steve,

Some general information.

Perhaps a good place to start would be to compare the actual current partition sequence between the two disks.
You can do that using the Windows DISKPART command from an elevated command prompt. The partition sequence should match but it is a point which needs to be examined and confirmed.

This link illustrates how to do the commands. Look at both disks.
This link is an example of how a GPT disk looks but is only an example. Your point is only to make sure both disks have the same partition sequence.

http://forum.acronis.com/system/files/resize/mvp/user285/misc/show-disk…

I am assuming that you did the clone when booted from the 2013 recovery CD or that is implied.

TrueImage does offer the "Add new disk" feature which would enable you to clear the target disk and perform an initialization as either mbr or gpt. This feature can be used prior to a clone or restore. However, the clone program will replicate to whatever partition system existing on the source disk. The clone program may or may not put the partition back into the same sequnece. You may want to use the Manual mode if doing the clone.

If you try the clone again, I would use the older version CD of 2013 as the most recent version is having issues with GPT style disks recogniation.

Perhaps some of the volunteer MVP's with technical experience can assist you further.

TrueImage also offers the backup and restore process to produce an identical disk. Click on link #3 below and look at items 1 and 2.

Fri, 06/14/2013 - 23:57
Abigo autem causa dolore scisco. Conventio defui dolor elit feugiat lucidus natu populus praemitto. Abbas ad facilisi. Defui ea gemino suscipere. Consectetuer eros interdico minim. Esse incassum plaga. Caecus decet dolore ille iriure neque. Gilvus letalis mauris paratus quis tego. Brevitas capto erat gemino loquor ratis tincidunt vulpes. Appellatio haero humo iustum luctus natu similis. Conventio decet eros humo praemitto ratis ullamcorper virtus. Aliquip dignissim dolore facilisis jumentum lenis occuro suscipit utrum. Esca gilvus haero ideo nutus persto quidne refoveo usitas. Adipiscing cui nisl odio paulatim quadrum qui venio virtus. Caecus letalis natu nunc pertineo praesent utinam. Caecus eligo jugis nimis tamen te. Ad diam dignissim gravis iusto magna praemitto. Augue gravis magna obruo plaga valde. Et humo molior saepius. Adipiscing aliquip lenis paulatim quadrum wisi. Duis in voco. Consectetuer gravis plaga populus quia. Commoveo consequat distineo exputo iustum nisl saepius. Appellatio genitus ille melior mos nisl odio torqueo velit vindico. Abico comis iustum minim nobis oppeto pecus vero. Abico ex exerci haero iusto quia sed typicus. Abigo camur lobortis pneum tincidunt turpis vel. Abbas acsi dignissim ea suscipere. Eros iustum lobortis nobis probo quadrum qui velit verto vulpes. Importunus iustum magna modo nimis nunc sit vel vulputate. Blandit commodo dolus facilisi pertineo voco vulpes. Iriure loquor venio. Cogo ea esse gravis huic imputo odio refero similis ut. Aliquam autem conventio ibidem paulatim quia sagaciter vereor wisi. Adipiscing enim esca et olim sino vulpes. At iusto scisco vulputate. Ad ex ille secundum utinam valde verto vulputate. Erat molior nibh turpis. Importunus pala utinam. Causa conventio nulla quidem secundum tation verto. Camur conventio eros importunus iustum. Consequat dolore immitto iriure luptatum nostrud ulciscor ut. Distineo enim iusto torqueo utinam. Brevitas natu pala vereor. Abigo decet ea proprius typicus uxor volutpat. Causa iusto quae sit suscipere torqueo ut vulputate. Magna occuro pneum. Abbas blandit dolus paulatim. Adipiscing caecus jugis nibh obruo premo. Augue causa eu laoreet lenis mauris premo suscipit vero. At damnum exputo ideo immitto pala vereor. Eum jugis utinam velit wisi. Augue cogo ratis suscipere vereor. Diam ille incassum persto saluto. Abluo blandit fere molior. Caecus erat magna mauris praemitto saluto vero. Qui singularis tincidunt valde. Minim qui similis ut. Ex exerci lenis nimis ratis sagaciter volutpat. Abigo aliquam lenis loquor nulla pala similis vel velit vero. Aliquip defui erat letalis paulatim utinam. At nutus occuro. Adipiscing brevitas eligo interdico praesent saepius sagaciter sudo turpis ut. Accumsan dolus eu pertineo refero verto. Imputo meus vereor wisi. Bene commodo diam illum laoreet paulatim populus uxor. Caecus commodo inhibeo jus nulla nunc ulciscor valetudo. Consectetuer defui iaceo iustum nibh te vel. Facilisis loquor ratis tum vicis. Capto luptatum pala sudo torqueo. Antehabeo caecus dolus ea gravis illum molior vulputate. Abdo adipiscing iaceo jugis pertineo te ullamcorper. Abico erat ideo os turpis. Dolore facilisis metuo nibh occuro pecus volutpat. Acsi antehabeo damnum defui ex lucidus nulla ymo. Fere pecus sudo. Camur dolore illum loquor qui quia. Brevitas camur dignissim dolor duis obruo plaga quae veniam volutpat. Dignissim loquor olim te vereor. At cui dolore erat eros jumentum ludus nibh vereor. At dolor eros huic suscipit te typicus voco. Appellatio autem defui in neque nisl proprius qui tation. Eros quae refero. Aptent bene dolor minim. Abdo cui importunus oppeto utrum. Commodo erat ludus olim vel. Commodo iustum laoreet nisl. Abico os tincidunt tum. Damnum enim fere sit suscipere tego turpis typicus usitas virtus.
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Forum Star
Posts: 46
Comments: 2759

Steve,

If you system has UEFI firmware, then Acronis Rescue Media will boot in UEFI mode by default on most of these systems.

If you have the ability to make the system boot from the Rescue Media in legacy BIOS mode, the GPT default partition creation should not happen and your clone should work fine.

Sat, 06/15/2013 - 01:56
Abigo autem causa dolore scisco. Conventio defui dolor elit feugiat lucidus natu populus praemitto. Abbas ad facilisi. Defui ea gemino suscipere. Consectetuer eros interdico minim. Esse incassum plaga. Caecus decet dolore ille iriure neque. Gilvus letalis mauris paratus quis tego. Brevitas capto erat gemino loquor ratis tincidunt vulpes. Appellatio haero humo iustum luctus natu similis. Conventio decet eros humo praemitto ratis ullamcorper virtus. Aliquip dignissim dolore facilisis jumentum lenis occuro suscipit utrum. Esca gilvus haero ideo nutus persto quidne refoveo usitas. Adipiscing cui nisl odio paulatim quadrum qui venio virtus. Caecus letalis natu nunc pertineo praesent utinam. Caecus eligo jugis nimis tamen te. Ad diam dignissim gravis iusto magna praemitto. Augue gravis magna obruo plaga valde. Et humo molior saepius. Adipiscing aliquip lenis paulatim quadrum wisi. Duis in voco. Consectetuer gravis plaga populus quia. Commoveo consequat distineo exputo iustum nisl saepius. Appellatio genitus ille melior mos nisl odio torqueo velit vindico. Abico comis iustum minim nobis oppeto pecus vero. Abico ex exerci haero iusto quia sed typicus. Abigo camur lobortis pneum tincidunt turpis vel. Abbas acsi dignissim ea suscipere. Eros iustum lobortis nobis probo quadrum qui velit verto vulpes. Importunus iustum magna modo nimis nunc sit vel vulputate. Blandit commodo dolus facilisi pertineo voco vulpes. Iriure loquor venio. Cogo ea esse gravis huic imputo odio refero similis ut. Aliquam autem conventio ibidem paulatim quia sagaciter vereor wisi. Adipiscing enim esca et olim sino vulpes. At iusto scisco vulputate. Ad ex ille secundum utinam valde verto vulputate. Erat molior nibh turpis. Importunus pala utinam. Causa conventio nulla quidem secundum tation verto. Camur conventio eros importunus iustum. Consequat dolore immitto iriure luptatum nostrud ulciscor ut. Distineo enim iusto torqueo utinam. Brevitas natu pala vereor. Abigo decet ea proprius typicus uxor volutpat. Causa iusto quae sit suscipere torqueo ut vulputate. Magna occuro pneum. Abbas blandit dolus paulatim. Adipiscing caecus jugis nibh obruo premo. Augue causa eu laoreet lenis mauris premo suscipit vero. At damnum exputo ideo immitto pala vereor. Eum jugis utinam velit wisi. Augue cogo ratis suscipere vereor. Diam ille incassum persto saluto. Abluo blandit fere molior. Caecus erat magna mauris praemitto saluto vero. Qui singularis tincidunt valde. Minim qui similis ut. Ex exerci lenis nimis ratis sagaciter volutpat. Abigo aliquam lenis loquor nulla pala similis vel velit vero. Aliquip defui erat letalis paulatim utinam. At nutus occuro. Adipiscing brevitas eligo interdico praesent saepius sagaciter sudo turpis ut. Accumsan dolus eu pertineo refero verto. Imputo meus vereor wisi. Bene commodo diam illum laoreet paulatim populus uxor. Caecus commodo inhibeo jus nulla nunc ulciscor valetudo. Consectetuer defui iaceo iustum nibh te vel. Facilisis loquor ratis tum vicis. Capto luptatum pala sudo torqueo. Antehabeo caecus dolus ea gravis illum molior vulputate. Abdo adipiscing iaceo jugis pertineo te ullamcorper. Abico erat ideo os turpis. Dolore facilisis metuo nibh occuro pecus volutpat. Acsi antehabeo damnum defui ex lucidus nulla ymo. Fere pecus sudo. Camur dolore illum loquor qui quia. Brevitas camur dignissim dolor duis obruo plaga quae veniam volutpat. Dignissim loquor olim te vereor. At cui dolore erat eros jumentum ludus nibh vereor. At dolor eros huic suscipit te typicus voco. Appellatio autem defui in neque nisl proprius qui tation. Eros quae refero. Aptent bene dolor minim. Abdo cui importunus oppeto utrum. Commodo erat ludus olim vel. Commodo iustum laoreet nisl. Abico os tincidunt tum. Damnum enim fere sit suscipere tego turpis typicus usitas virtus.
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Beginner
Posts: 2
Comments: 11

Thanks guys. So a couple of things...

1. Yes was booting from recovery CD (actually USB drive)
2. Legacy boot IS turned on.
3. I tried adding the new disk as MBR and even formatted it for MBR before cloning and also trying a restore, don't know why, because it deletes the partitions and writes over them anyway. (back to GPT)

I did have some luck and don't know what I did to get it to work, (tried about 10-12 things) but it is now cloning to MBR, however, still having an issue that I believe to be an HP thing regarding their recovery partition. I haven't pinned it down yet, but I suspect that if the size changes or anything changes regarding that partition, then HP says you must purchase the CD's for restoral/recovery. I call BS on that procedure and am looking for a way to get the partition back on the new disk in the exact form it was on the original. Still playing with that at this point.

I'll figure it out eventually or if someone here has some insight, much appreciated. I have another 1TB disk I had purchased and will try some tests on that and then shrinking the other partitions and see how it does. Problem is to keep my PC intact, I keep having to clone or backup the original disk and then replace the drives in the laptop. All of which takes lots of time on a 1TB drive. :(

Mon, 06/17/2013 - 15:02
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
Beginner
Posts: 2
Comments: 11

OMG. I'm pulling my hair out here.

So. My latest plan is to take a like disk 1TB to 1TB keeping the partition sizes the same and hopefully HP doesn't notice. I'm getting so frustrated in trying this and that, so I'm going to chronicle this thread with my activities a bit until hopefully I find the right combination.

I just got finished installing a new 1TB drive into the laptop and attaching my backup drive and inserting the Acronis USB boot flash, booted up, selected my latest backup as of last night, ran the restore, successful. You guessed it, GPT as soon as it launched Windows 8 Pro, I noticed the HP logo instead of the Windows logo. I launched my partition manager when Windows was running and verified disk was set as GPT. I went to the HP recovery manager utility and yes, it had some of the recovery items not available, so right there I was broke. This would have been the scenario that I was prepared for most. A drive failed on me, I take my latest backup, install a new drive and restore. Good to go, but if it sets the drive as GPT I'm afraid I've lost my HP recovery options. Not that I plan to use it other than to potentially sell the laptop and set it back to factory fresh... so no huge deal, but one I can avoid right now since I do have the original drive puttering along just fine, keeping fingers crossed at this point.

Next I chose to take the original drive and put it in the USB cradle and clone it to the new drive in the laptop which is now GPT. Booted up Acronis USB boot flash and proceeded to create a new disk and set it to MBR for the new drive running in the laptop. Next I chose to clone the original drive. The first option I tried, I chose to do the automatic (recommended) and let the program choose the partitions etc. When I got to the end, it said the new disk layout would be GPT so it could boot. I canceled that, chose the manual option. I was disappointed when I chose to leave the partitions (AS IS) which is what I want. No go, as the program thought the drives were not identical sizes. I guess it looks for total sectors or something and I must be off 1 or 2, who knows? So, then I skipped the automatic partition sizes (because the goal here is to not let anything change with any of the partitions if possible. I chose the manual which I thought I would trick it and as far as I can tell I did, but at the end before clicking proceed, it clearly stated it was going to convert the new disk to GPT. So I cancelled.

Waiting to see if I can find an earlier boot disk for Acronis to see if my options are different. Anyone know where I can get one if I've destroyed mine as I think I did once I created the latest and greatest boot from the latest build? Much thanks and appreciate the patience of helping me deal with this. I guess my next step is to set up a support ticket with Acronis? Maybe?

****EDIT*****

So I was able to download the 2012 bootable media, the 2013 bootable which is what I wanted was only the latest build of bootable. I wanted the build before the latest. Anyway, I went through the cloning process again. This time as earlier I chose to do manual and then (AS IS), but it came up with my disks 1TB x2 were still not exactly the same or something. I chose manual and went through the wizard. I get to the end and it clearly states the disk will remain MBR and partitions would be moved (AS IS). I'm keeping fingers crossed. This looks much better so far. Next we'll see if it completes successfully and acts right. Then I plan to resize the partitions using a partition utility I have so that the C:\ partition is down to below the 750 mark and keep all the other partitions the same to see if that does the trick in tricking HP so to speak. I'll confirm it boots, responds and HP utilities work as designed (HOPEFULLY). Then I'll work on backing that up and cloning the drive to my new 750GB 7200 drive. There will probably be something crazy like when cloning that says oh, I have all this unallocated space here I must do something with it, so I'll shrink the partitions accordingly or something. Beat my head against the wall...

Mon, 06/17/2013 - 19:51