Keeping the cache SSD disabled is a wise choice. I always try to avoid technology that is going to make my life difficult.

I hear you there Steve.  I would recommend you continue on that path.  Just wanted to add some understanding of this approach used by some manufacturers in some older devices.  With the advent of PCIe NVMe M.2 devices the use of SSD drive caching is all but forgotten.

It must have been a cheaper way, in 2012, for Samsung to speed up a s-l-o-w 5400 500mb drive. It was partially successful but the Samsung SSD makes the laptop "fly". It seems to have backed up perfectly using Acronis.

Thanks again for all of your help and time.

Glad to hear it.  If you're feeling froggy (should be minimal risk, but still some risk none-the-less - if things are working and you don't need it, then just leave it alone).  But if you really want to give it a sot, you should be able to format the 28Gb drive and use it as spare storage or for something other than a caching drive now.  Not really losing much by leaving "as is", but if it has any value/use, you should be able to format it and just use it like a regular drive now that the OS is installed and running in a non RAID setup - was the setting changed to AHCI as welll, or left as RAID, but without actually linking the drives together in RAID?

If you want to format it, use and elevated command propt (right click and run as admin).

Diskpart   <enter>

list disk     <enter>

Note:  dentify the disk # which should be able to easily find based off of the total size - let's assume it is disk 1 with the following command, but make sure you use the correct # if it is listed as something else on your particular system !!

Selet disk 1   <enter>  you should see a message "Disk 1 is now the selected disk"

clean       <enter>  

After that, go to computer magement >>> disk manager and initialize the 28Gb disk, format it as GPT or MBR - your call (shouldn't really matter unless you plan on making multiple partitions, then definitely use GPT - I'd use GPT anyway).  Select the file systm (NTFS) , give it a volume name and assign a drive letter.  Should be it.

Thanks again. My son has the laptop back and wants me to leave well alone. It's running so well now that I don't think it's worth risking disturbing it. During the process of this I remember thinking, in some despair, that this is like stepping back to the bad old days of Win3.1 / Xp and such like, fiddling and twiddling constantly. Win 10 is such a great OS that issues just don;t occur - except with Acronis occasionally!

I found this thread recently while researching how to best use Acronis True Image to convert an existing installation of Windows 10 from legacy boot with MBR partitions to UEFI boot with GPT partitions. This is slightly different from the original topic, but related. Thanks to Mustang for doing the research on this and posting his results. I have now successfully done this on all of the PCs in the house. I wanted to share some of my experiences for anyone else who wants to do the same thing and also because a few things have changed in the time since Mustang's original post.

As Joey notes in reply #37, the Microsoft guidelines for partitioning a disk for Windows 10 were changed recently. See this article by Justin Hall (referenced in Joey's post) https://msdn.microsoft.com/windows/hardware/commercialize/manufacture/d….

The two major differences between the new layout guidelines and the layout used by Mustang in reply #1 are:

1. For GPT Data disks, the Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR) is to be the first partition on the disk. Windows Disk Management will create this partition automatically if you use it to partition and format a GPT data disk. For GPT System disks, the first partition on the disk is to be the EFI System partition, so the MSR must go elsewhere. It is supposed to be located just before the Windows partition. For the new recommended layout then, the MSR should be partition #2 and the Windows 10 partition should be partition #3. Also, starting with Windows 10 the recommended size of the Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR) has been reduced from 128 MB to 16 MB.  

2. The recommended location for the Recovery partition (RE Tools) is just after the Windows partition. This is so that Windows can resize the RE Tools partition, if needed by future updates, to contain a larger recovery image by taking space from the adjacent Windows partition. On the new recommended layout, the RE Tools partition should be partition #4 and any other partitions, like OEM factory restore partitions, should start at partition #5.

To summarize the new layout:
Partition 1, EFI System partition, 100 MB minimum
Partition 2, Microsoft Reserved partition, 16 MB
Partition 3, Windows partition, size 20 GB minimum (64-bit) or 16 GB minimum (32-bit)
Partition 4, RE Tools (recovery) partition, 300 MB minimum + free space for VSS (see Justin's article)

From Justin's article I also learned that Diskpart can be scripted to automate creation of the partition layout and formatting on a disk. I hadn't been aware of this capability, so I tried it. It's really slick. The script that I used to set up my disks is attached. You can boot your PC into Windows RE (I used MustangPE, of course) and enter the following into a command prompt window:

diskpart /s <path to script file>; for example, diskpart /s E:\create-partitions.txt

The script executes very quickly, so in a few moments your disk is partitioned, formatted, and ready to go.

Not completely trusting ATI to get the partition layout correct all by itself, I did the following to convert an existing BIOS/MBR installation of Windows 10 to UEFI/GPT:

1. Enter SETUP and switch the PC to UEFI mode with Secure Boot enabled.

2. Boot to Windows RE or Mustang PE in UEFI mode.

3. Partition the disk using the diskpart script.

4. Restart the PC and boot to a Windows installation DVD to start installing Windows 10. The installer will set up the boot entries in the EFI system partition and put the recovery environment in the RE Tools partition. Stop the installer after the second reboot. At this point, Windows is mostly installed but not configured for user accounts, activation, etc.

5. Reboot to Win RE or Mustang PE. Use True Image to restore only the Windows partition from a backup of an MBR disk to the Windows partition on the GPT disk.

Done!

Thanks Mark. Nice job.

The only thing I would add is that systems that have been upgraded to Windows 10 from an earlier version of Windows will most likely have two Recovery partitions. The original Recovery partition will usually be retained in the first position and the new Windows 10 Recovery partition will be after the Windows partition.

Thanks Mustang,

The original post helped me to clone my laptop disk and retain the functionality of the OEM system restore partition (Windows 8.1). I kept some detailed notes and I eventually created a post directed at new Acronis users

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/123231

I gave credit where credit was due.

DelawareValley05

You're welcome. I'm glad to hear this helped you. Thanks for your detailed post. I'm sure it will help others.

I am now sorry I ever bought an Acronis product.

I faithfully made backups of my system. The disk failed.

How do I restore my  backup if I need detailed information about a Windows installation that does not exist anymore?

I tried booting the Acronis recovery CD. I was exposed to questions that few computer users (and probably, few

Acronis users) couuld answer. I tried my best, varying the selections (not selecting MBR caused the recovery to

fail, as the computer would not boot).

How do I recover my backups? Or, as I fear, I'm screwed?

Ralph, please see the ATIH 2016 User Guide: Recovering your system to a new disk under bootable media as the starting point for your recovery.

I assume here that you have already removed the failed disk and have replaced this with a new drive of the same or larger size.

I also assume that since you have already tried booting the Acronis recovery CD that you can get into the main Acronis application, so you should be able to start at step 4. in the above user guide chapter.

When you get to step 10. of the guide, for choosing what to recover, the key here is to check whether you see a selection similar to the image shown in the guide, or whether you see an EFI partition in the list of partitions.

If you do see an EFI partition, then you have a UEFI system which could have GPT formatted drives or NTFS formatted.  The importance of this is in the way you boot the Rescue Media - this should match how your Windows will boot, so if Windows uses UEFI to boot, so should the Rescue Media.  

If you don't see an EFI partition then your system / rescue media should be booted in Legacy / BIOS mode.

You may need to go into your BIOS settings to check what modes it supports.

If all this sounds too much for you to handle, then please contact Acronis Support directly per the link in my signature for 'How to get Technical Support...'  as Recovery issues are supported and someone should be able to guide you through the recovery steps.  Start an online Chat session with Support for this.

This may be a long reply. First, I am using the Seagate DiscWizard software written by Acronis. It seems to follow your comments, but there are differences.

I was able to boot using the rescue CD I prepared using the Seagate Disc Wizard, and complete steps 4-6 as given in the ATIH 2016 User Guide. Step 7 asks if I have a hidden partition. Since the Seagate software does not have a Details option, I cannot determine this. I went on anyway and was able to complete steps 8 and 9 (your comment on "partition disk letters" made no sense, as I did not see any letter except C).

Step 10: here the acronyms started piling up (I'm pretty good with computers, having programmed IBM 360 and PDP-11/70 systems, as well as used Commodofres, Macs and Windows (95,98,XP, 7,8.1,10) systems. With partitions, I have reached my limits). So, when I am asked to change the settings of my hidden partition, I feel that I am lost. All I see is a 148.9 GB partition, which is almost all of the new160 GB drive I am recovering to. So, I select this, set the size of the partition to 148.9 GB and move to step 11. I do not see "EFI" anywhere - only "NTFS" in the drive descriptions. I understand that I should have an NTFS drive, as it is less than 2 GB.

How do I boot in "Legacy / BIOS" mode? I checked my BIOS (Dell Optiplex 780) - there is no setting to control booting other than boot order. I assume since I do not see EFI partitions, then I am booting in "Legacy / BIOS" mode?

By the way - I tried contacting support for an issue regarding Acronis software on my other computer and was pushed back to email (which has still not replied). Thanks for responding so quickly to my request for help. I think you are my last hope.

What I don't understand is why all of this can't be programmed into the backup. All this information should be accessible when I am running the backup in Windows. Why isn't it just automated, where all I have to do is specify the backup to be recovered and the target disk? This is an obvious place for Acronis to improve (or for a competitor).

Ralph, thank you for the extra information - I am not familiar with Seagate DiskWizard and have never used it, so my comments are based solely on my knowledge of the Acronis True Image products which SD is based upon.

Please see the attached copy of a Seagate DiskWizard user guide that I was able to find which may be able to guide you more precisely.

Assuming that you are using Windows Vista, 7, 8 or 10, then you will have a hidden Microsoft System Reserved partition which holds the Windows Boot Configuration Data Store (BCD) that is essential for being able to boot your computer successfully into the Windows OS.

See page 53 of the SD user guide, section: 9.2.2 Recovering a disc with a hidden partition which has the steps you need to follow.

Please also see KB document: 2201: Support for OEM Versions of Acronis Products

I guess my system is now toast. The backup I have gives no "hidden" partitiion in the details, just the same 100 MB "System Reserved" parttition followed by a 148.9 MB partition I saw without going into the details I used that data for the recovery, but step #11 shows only these parttitions as a grayed out segment and the backup hard drive - no other options. I doubt Seagate can help as they did not write the Wizard software and I get "ping-ponged". 

Thanks anyway for your help. Now I know there is really no option from Acronis to back up any hard drive for recovery after it fails - unless you have a few years experience working with disk partitions.

Hi Ralph,

I believe in reading your posts that you have a backup file or files possibly that you have made of your PC's hard drive.  These backup file(s) which you created were saved to where?

You say that you can see 2 partitions, a 100 MB System Reserve partition and a 148.9 MB partition which I think you meant to write 148.9 GB.  Given that the Dell Optiplex 780 is several years old and the number of partitions you see and their names I suspect that you have a Legacy Bios based machine.  This means that since you can boot to the rescue media you should be able to recover the backup file(s) that you created.  Was your machine orignally a Windows 7 install?  If yes is it still a Windows 7 install or have you upgraded to something else?

I am going to assume based on what you have said so far that you have a Windows 7 installation (or did have) on the machine. 

Your last statement needs some clarification, it sounds like you are stating that Acronis offers no option to back up a hard drive after such hard drive fails.  You are correct in that assumption.  This would also be correct for any disk back up imaging software on the market.  The available products can only backup hard drives that are still in working order, just so you know.

Your comment about the 2 partitions of the backup being greyed out and the backup hard drive I find confusing as to me the backup hard drive is the drive that should contain the backup file.  Are you meaning that you can see the 2 partitions, which are greyed out, and the drive that you wish to recover the backup file to?

If your original hard disk has failed as you say then that disk is non usable.  Therefore you would be attempting recovery of a backup file to a new disk.  If this is correct is the new disk the same capacity as the one which failed?  Is the new disk installed in the PC in place of the failed drive?  Is the new disk you are wishing to recover to a Seagate brand drive?  If this new drive is not a Seagate brand drive then I suspect this is the reason why your 2 partitions you see are greyed out.  This would be a limitation placed in the DiskWizard software to prevent the use of the software on other than Seagate brand drives.

Will await your reply

Pictures are worth a thousand words.  Take some cell phone pics of what your backup image paritions look like when presented to you during the recovery process.  The take some pics of what it shows your hard drive partitions looking like as they are now after the restore, but in an unbootable state.

Perhaps you have tried (unintentionally) to convert an MBR/legacy OS install to a UEFI one or vice-versa.  If that is not the case, but the system is unbootable, you might be able to repair the bootloader if there is a problem with it.   Pictures will help provide an idea of what has actually occured though.  

My backup files are stored on an external USB drive (500 GB).

I bought the Optiplex 780 on Ebay as a Windows 7 machine (probably a business computer).

I’ve kept it up to date, but have resisted going to Windows 10.

What I meant was that Acronis strongly implies that, if you make a full image backup of your working system, you will be able to easily recover that backup to a new hard drive if your original hard drive catastrophically fails. This does not seem to be true in my limited experience with the recovery software developed by Acronis for Seagate.

The graying out is confusing to me, so I am providing a series of photos showing each screen shot as I progress through the “recovery” as requested by Bobbo_3COX1. I did not try to convert my MBR/legacy OS (I took a screen shot of my BIOS, which does not seem to show a UEFI system).

Keep in mind I have gone through this process many times. When I saw the grayed out selection at first, I ignored it and went on. That time I got an error (no Boot Record found). I wonder if all of the partition settings I have done over and over has messed up the drive. Once I tried to create partitions on the new drive before the recovery process using the Tools & Utilities option. All this did is give me an error saying to use the Windows disk to repair the system (I don’t have a Windows disk).

The grayed out section contains the 2 partitions I created (148.9 GB and 100 MB) on the new hard drive. The other drive displayed is the USB backup drive. This section seems to want me to recover to the USB drive?

The new disk is a the same size as the old disk (160 GB). It is installed in place of the old disk (both SATA). Both are Seagate drives.

http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/007714en?language=en_US&key=ka03A000000y1TvQAI&kb=n&wwwlocale=en-us

Seagate has a nice guide for performing a recovery with the DiskWizard bootable media.  It even emphasizes the importance of checking the box for the complete disk instead of the boxes for each partition so that the only selection you have to make is the target disk.

Thanks Joey!  

Ralph, I've not used the Seagate, WD or other re-branded versions of ACronis software either - just FYI, these are modified versions of the software that these manufactureres modify themselves.  Often times, they also limit the capability based upon the typ of disk being used (for instance, the recovery may only be possible if recovering to the same type of drive the software came with .... you couldn't restore say to a Samsung SSD with the Seagate version).

Also, with the full version of ACronis, it is capable fo booting both legacy and UEFI mode.  How you boot the recovery media, impacts the disk layout during recovery.  In your case, your original image is legacy/MBR... when booting your recovery media though, does the iniitial menu look ike this one

09_legacy_boot_acronis_menu_example.jpg

or this one

11_uefi_boot_acronis_menu_example.jpg

You want to make sure that you boot your recovery media in the same mode as the OS backup was originally taken.  Booting in the opposite method, will convert the parition type and may make the restore unbootable. 

I really doubt that Seagate made any changes to the sofwtare.

I took a photo of the boot menu. It looks like the legacy one, as it seems I do not have UEFI.

Joey had a point - the software did not ask whether I was recovering a disk of just data.

When I selected a Disk and Partition Recovery, there were different screens shown and the

recovery began as if it would complete - until an error occurred (error was not defined).

I repeated this and it failed again. I went back to an older backup and it acted as I showed

in my photos, not as was specified in the "How to Recover an Image Backup Using the Bootable

Media CD with DiscWizard v18" in Joey's link.

Why can't I recover any of my backups?

Ralph,

It's 100% that Seagate modifies the media - Acronis doesn't support these versions as a result and it is the responsibility of the hardware provider to support the modified version they provide with the software.  I'm building a VM to check it out, but the installer clearly shows it's OEM and that the author is Seagate (screenshot attached).  

As for not recovering, I"m not really sure.  You might want to run chkdsk /f /r on your destination drive to make sure it doesn't have any bad sectors.   You should try to validate the backup in Acronis as well and see if the validation taks succeeds or not.  If you have a different drive to test with, you could try restoring to it to see it it continues to fail or not - if it is successful, that might suggest an issue with the drive you're trying to restore to.  If it also fails, it might suggest an issue with either the versoin of the Acronis media being used, or with the actual backup itself.

What does the version show on the bootable media?  I'm guessing it's an older 2015 that is less than the last available version released by Acronis before 2016 - almost everyone who posts issues with these versions in the forum is some older version that is at least a couple years old. 

I have not had a chance to test the media yet - I will burn a CD and have a flash drive created.  It is indeed quite different than acronis.  The total install of C:\program files (x86)\Seagate is 150mb whereas my full Acronis folder on C:\program files (x86)\Acronis is about 450Mb.  Seagate has their name all over the product with their own license and as suspected, requires a seagate disc to even be usable.  I just want to point out that this is a very different product than full blown Acronis and Seagate has indeed made their own changes to what I assume is an older version of a base Acronis version.  

You can try a different method. Boot from the original Dell restore disk that came with the computer. Restore the computer. This will put the computer back to the way it originally came from the factory. See if you get a bootable working Windows 7 system. Then boot from the Seagate recovery disk and restore only the C: partition from your backup.

I just want to reply to all who helped me. I have been able to recover an older backup of my system using the Seagate DiscWizard.

Joey's comment led me to check the the box for the complete disk on the screen that comes up first. Before, I had selected "Recover", wyhich then led me down the path I have taken that failed to recover anything. I wonder if Acronis' recovery process is similarly vague?

Anyway, using this process at first gave me an error with my backup. Possibly it was corrupted. I went to an older backup and it worked.

However - the process was DIFFERENT - an additional screen was shown asking me to select a backup location that was in addition to what was shown on the instructions.

Because of this, I'm not sure I will be able to rely on this for the future. Maybe I'll check out the Acronis 2016 manual to see if i can understand what to do and then buy that. I just wonder why I can't just create an image backup and restore it without all this "partition" stuff.

Ralph, glad to hear that you have been able to recover your system despite it being somewhat of an ordeal in doing so.

Unfortunately, partitions are very much a part of all modern operating systems, both Windows and Linux systems.  

If you are considering buying ATIH 2016, then I would suggest looking instead at the 2017 version as this comes by default with a minimum of 1 years support instead of the 30 days for 2016.  The main benefit of the full Acronis program over the Seagate version is that it supports all makes of disk drives and not just Seagate ones, plus it has more functionality.

Funny you mentioned this. I tried to install ATH 2016 on my Win 10 machine, but could not uninstall the Seagate Discwizard (ATH 2016 does not like the DiscWizard, I guess).

I feel the same will happen on the Win 7 machine, so I'm stuck with DiscWizard.

Ralph,

See the posts in the link below for uninstalling DiskWizard.

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/124767

Thanks a lot for such simple and effective resolution! I've lost at least 3 days trying to recover image w/ Windows 10 GPT on new SSD and now I got it! Had to read a lot of official forum threads and could not find any information that could help. Finally I found it with your help. Appreciate it so much. 

[Alaini]

Thanks a lot for such simple and effective resolution! I've lost at least 3 days trying to recover image w/ Windows 10 GPT on new SSD and now I got it! Had to read a lot of official forum threads and could not find any information that could help. Finally I found it with your help. Appreciate it so much. 

Andrey,

Thanks for the feedback. I'm glad it helped you.

1 Intro

Here’s the deal. Took Lauren’s Yoga 2 and set it up the way I wanted. Unfortunately, it had a bad touch pad. Had onsite service come in to replace touch pad. In the process, he bricked the Yoga 2. After quite a hassle Lenovo send me a Yoga 900, 16G ram, 512G NVMe SSD. Thought it would be a simple matter to to use TIH 2015. to restore the Yoga 2 to the Yoga 900. Boy was I wrong. To make a long story longer I can't get my Yoga 900 to boot with the Yoga 2 image restore. Below is much of what I've tried. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how to get this to work?

I khow this is the TIH 2016 area but this seemed like the right place. Let me know if I should move this post somewhre else.

2 Procedure

1. Full Backup of Yoga 2 using Acronis 2015. Fortunately, I did this just before technician bricked it.  What I needed to do but didn’t know was that for GPT disks you need to know exact partition configuration using command prompt diskpart function or MiniTool partition wizard and write it down because you need to manually partition new disk to this configuration before doing a partition by partition restore to new hardware using universal boot or restored system won’t boot.
2. Create Mustang PE with Acrconis 2015 and Universal Restore
   1. Did using 71918 Guide to building a 64 bit UEFI Secure Boot WinPE 5.0 CD see  Figure 1:7198 Guide to building 64 bit UEFI Mustang WinPE
   2. Except downloaded and used Windows 10 or 10.1?ADK
   3. Used Rufus to make a bootable USB drive from Mustang created .iso
   4. First problem was Mustang PE booted but did not see Yoga 900 SSD drive
   5. Problem was finding the drive in .inf form. Finally found it on the Intel support website. https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/25165/Intel-Rapid-Storage-Technology-Intel-RST-RAID-Driver?product=55005
   6. Used Mustang's procedure, 100770: Guide to Add Drivers to WinPE Recovery Media to add Samsung NVME driver  to WinPE. 
   7. Attempt restoring complete disk and adding drivers with Universal Boot on Mustang USB PE failed to boot. Tried to add drivers using devcon.exe but that approach didn’t work for me.
   8. Key info in 6 is that you need to partition the new disk of system to restore to the same way as the disk you are portioning. In my case, I’m screwed because I didn’t do that when I made the final backup from the Yoga 2. Now I will have to back up Debs Yoga, restore Craig’s last Yoga 2 back up to Debs Yoga. This was done and Craig’s Yoga 2 backup installed, booted, ran correctly. Next I determined the partitions on the disk using diskpart and MiniTool Partition Wizard (for comparison). Then use this info to partition Yoga 900 disk. Here is disk partitions for Craig Yoga2 before bricking. Note MiniTool and diskpart results agree.

Craig Yoga 2 Disk Partitions from below back restored to debs yoga 2.

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393]

(c) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.14393.0

Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.

On computer: CRAIGYOGA2

DISKPART> list disk

  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt

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

  Disk 0    Online          238 GB      0 B        *

  Disk 1    Online          500 MB      0 B

  Disk 2    Online         1397 GB  1024 KB

DISKPART> sel disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list part

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset

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

  Partition 1    Recovery           450 MB  1024 KB

  Partition 2    System             100 MB   451 MB

  Partition 3    Reserved            16 MB   551 MB

  Partition 4    Primary            237 GB   567 MB

DISKPART>

8. Boot using Mustange PE for Windows 10 and then create these partitions on Yoga900 using CreatePartitionsCraigYoga2.txt

.

Use the DiskPart /s F:\CreatePartitions.txt command, where F is the letter of the USB flash drive, to partition the drives.

rem == CreatePartitionsCraigYoga2.txt ==

rem == These commands are used with DiskPart to

rem    create four partitions

rem    for a UEFI/GPT-based PC.

rem    This config specific to CraigYoga2 before it died

rem    Adjust the partition sizes to fill the drive

rem    as necessary. Dec 29, 2016

select disk 0

clean

convert gpt

rem === 1. Recovery tools partition ================

create partition primary size=450

format quick fs=ntfs label="Recovery tools"

assign letter="R"

set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"

gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001

rem == 2. System partition =========================

rem "orig" create partition efi size=100

create partition primary size=100

rem    ** NOTE: For Advanced Format 4Kn drives,

rem               change this value to size = 260 **

format quick fs=fat32 label="EFISystem"

assign letter="S"

rem == 3. Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition =======

rem "orig" create partition msr size=16

create partition msr size=16

rem == 4. Windows partition ========================

rem ==    a. Create the Windows partition ==========

create partition primary

rem ==    b. Prepare the Windows partition =========

format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"

assign letter="W"

list volume

exit

1. Next use Win 10 Mustang PE USB with Acronis 2015 to Restore Craig Yoga to Backup Shown in 8 above to Yoga 900.
2. Use Universal Boot to install the drivers need for the Yoga 900. Installed drives that were needed to make Mustang Win PE USB boot.
3. Reboot- Failed Inaccessible Boot Device
   1. Internal SSD hardrive not seen with diskpart

Not much helpful information here. The first thing you should know is how the BIOS SATA mode was set on the Yoga 2. I can glean from your post that the Yoga 900 is probably set to RAID. If the Yoga 2 was set to AHCI mode, you should change the Yoga 900 to SATA before doing the restore. In any case, the Yoga 900 should be set to the same mode as the Yoga 2.

What OS was on the Yoga 2? If it was Windows 10, it probably won't require the use of Universal Restore to boot.

You also need to know how the Yoga 2 was booting. I assume the Yoga 900 is booting in UEFI/GPT mode. Was the Yoga 2 the same?

You need to boot MustangPE in the same mode as was used on the yoga 2 for the restore to be successful.

Attached are photos of Bios Screens for Yoga2 and Yoga900. It's not clear to me based on the bios settings screens what the BIOS SATA mode is for the Yoga 900. From the installed drivers on the 900 I also believe it is RAID. I do not see a setting for changing it to SATA.

 As you suspected the Yoga 2 mode is AHCI.

Yoga 2 is Win 10. Both machines boot in UEFI/GPT mode and therefore Mustang PE was booted in the same mode for both machines.

One thing catches my eye in the Yoga 900 BIOS. I see Reset to Setup Mode on the Security tab. What is available there? Is it possible the Configuration/SATA Controller Mode setting might show up on the Yoga 900 by playing with the Reset to Setup Mode setting?

I also see Secure Boot in Disabled on the Yoga 2 and Enabled on the Yoga 900.

Craig,

Is your Lenovo Yoga 900 a model 13ISK2?  If yes apparently Lenovo has disabled the ability to change or alter SATA mode from RAID to AHCI.  I am attaching link to Lenovo Blog site which talks about the issue.

https://helgeklein.com/blog/2016/06/lenovo-yoga-900-ssd-upgrade-clean-w…

Mustang,

I tried disabling secure boot and rebooting but failed with same inaccessable boot deivice error. I also tried Resetting to Set Up mode but nothing happened i.e. no options for modifying BIOS settings appeared and a reboot resulted in the same boot failure with IBD error.
 

The Yoga 900 is a 131SK2 and it appears per comment below (from link you provided, Thanks) and my experience that ACHI mode is blocked by Lenovo.

Michael October 4, 2016 at 07:18 #

my yoga is 13ISK2 and SSD can work in RAID mode only (it is NVMe though). Lenovo has blocked an option in BIOS and you cannot change it to AHCI . This is not a big problem for Windows Pro installation (you just need Intel drivers to be integrated into Windows image). But you cannot install Linux at all. I’m going to reflash my BIOS using SPI programmer and unlock those options.

I also looked at  wife's Yoga 2 BIOS to see if I could configure SATA Controller Mode to RAID to match the 900 mode but the only choices are AHCI and IDE. If it had a RAID option I could change it and then make a backup with my Yoga 2 image and the RAID BIOS setting and try to restore that to the Yoga 900 but that is not an option.

Am out of options? Is it time to throw in the towel on this and do a clean Win10 Install on the Yoga 900 and use my wifes Yoga 2 imaged with my Yoga 2 backup as reference and manually get the 900 set up the same as my departed Yoga 2?

Too bad the BIOS is locked.

You can still try to get the restored Yoga 2 image to boot on the Yoga 900 in RAID mode. First, you will need to install the Intel IRST drivers in the restored system using Universal Restore. I suggest you get the IRST drivers from the MVP_ATIPEBuilder tool. Download it here https://forum.acronis.com/forum/127281 . You can get the Basic or Advanced version. Unzip the download and find the IRST drivers in the Drivers\x64\IRST folder. Next, make a Windows Recovery USB drive from a working Windows 10 computer. Go to Control Panel/Recovery and select the make a recovery drive option. Follow the instructions to build the USB drive. Then boot the Yoga 900 with the Windows Recovery drive. Get to a command prompt and try some bootrec commands:

bootrec /fixboot

bootrec /RebuildBcd

If it still won't boot, try the automatic boot repair option from the Windows Recovery drive. Most of the time, boot problems are fixed this way.

There are also some third party programs (like Paragon HDM) that can attempt to repair boot problems. Google for other programs that can repair boot problems.

If none of that works, you may need to throw in the towel.

I would second Mustang on creating the MVP WinPE.  It works on a system I have using 2 NVMe M.2 drives in a RAID 0 array when nothing else does.

I tried this myself. I used a Windows 10 64 bit UEFI\GPT Secure Boot system for a test. The system was set to use SATA AHCI mode. I entered the BIOS and changed the SATA mode to RAID. When I tried to boot, I got a BSOD with an inaccessable boot device error. I then booted MustangPE and ran Acronis Universal Restore. I supplied the IRST drivers that are included with the MVP_ATIBuilder tool as I suggested you use. UR completed successfully. The system was now able to boot with the BIOS SATA mode set to RAID. I believe your Yoga 900 also uses an IRST RAID controller. This suggests that your Yoga 900 should boot if the restore was done properly and UR injected the correct IRST drivers.

If you are still having no luck after following my suggestions in reply #88, you should try removing all partitions from the new disk leaving it initialized as GPT and then doing a full disk restore with True Image. Just let TI put the partitions on the disk and don't worry about the partition order or size. Then run Universal Restore to inject the IRST drivers. I think it should boot into Windows successfully. After you have it booting, you can back it up again and then try to restore it with the original partition order and size.

Wouldn't it also be important to build the UR boot disk with IRST injected into it so the WinPE could properly detect the disk and OS install as well? Technically you'd need IRST drivers twice. Once to build the WinPE and once to inject into the restored OS with UR

As I understand the UR rescue media builder, when it asks for drivers, those are strictly to inject into the WinPE so it detects the hardware of the system for the WinPE to function. 

When you launch UR and it asks if you want to add drivers, those are to inject into the restored OS to give it the correct drivers for the new hardware. It's a two step process for the drivers.

Yes.  The drivers need to be supplied for WinPE recovery media to detect the installed drive and supplied again for UR to install in the restored OS for boot purposes. 

1. Mustang #88 Post Restore Method (Paul, I've been documenting this effor in a Word doc. Text of which is below. I emailed you the doc with the pictures)
2. Th long and the short of it is same boot fail error IBD. Also NVMe drive still not seen when running diskpart from command prompt accessed from advanced options after boot failure. For some reason TIH205 Universal Boot is not injecting the MVP IRST drivers. Why would that happen?

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

Word doc text

1. select disk 0 (Make sure you have selected the new disk. If you select the wrong disk you
   will lose all data on that disk.)

clean
convert gpt

1. Results were
   Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393]
   X:\windows>diskpart
   Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.14393.0
   Coyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation.
   On computer: MININT-F36HS24
   DISKPART> list disk
     Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
     --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
     Disk 0    Online          476 GB      0 B        *
     Disk 1    Online         3841 MB   960 KB        *
     Disk 2    Online         1397 GB  1024 KB

   DISKPART> sel disk 0

   Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

   DISKPART> clean

   DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

   DISKPART> convert gpt

   DiskPart successfully converted the selected disk to GPT format.

   DISKPART> list part
    

There are no partitions on this disk to show.

1. Restore Screen Captures

    

I missed photo of last screen but was successful and shut down without rebooting.
 

1. After restore this is disk partitioning

Select IRST Drivers from MVP PE zip file

Point to other Drivers where I have collected other drivers that I don’t think I need but have them available just in case.

1. Reboot fails with same Inaccessable Boot Device Error
2. Diskpart executed from command line after boot fails.. Shows NVMe SSD drive is not found
    

If UR didn't install the IRST drivers, you can do it manually. Boot MustangPE and run the a43 file manager to determine the drive letter assigned by WinPE to your restored Windows system. Most likely it will be drive C. Now open a command prompt and enter the following line to install the IRST drivers:

dism /image:"C:\" /Add-Driver /driver:"full path to the IRST 64 bit drivers" /recurse

where the full path to the IRST 64 bit drivers is the folder name where the IRST drivers are stored. You should see that 2 drivers were successfully installed. That should do it. Windows should now boot. I tried the experiment again installing the drivers manually instead of with UR and it worked.

Paul, Thanks a ton. That worked. I appreciated all the help from the forum and gained some new insights and learned some new tricks. Again a BIG Thanks to all.

Craig

I'm glad to hear it worked. I'm surprised UR didn't work for you. It's always worked for me.

I've had other versions work in the past. Maybe it's just a 2015 issue. Thanks again.

Very interesting. You're welcome.

[moderated]

Dina, welcome to these user forums.

Sorry but your guide to creating a partition is not the same as this guide to restoring a UEFI/GPT disk image to a new disk drive or of converting a Legacy MBR Windows OS installation to run with UEFI/GPT BIOS hardware without any data loss.