How to convert .tib to VM?
I have Acronis True Image 2015. I made a full backup of my working Win XP SP-3 C: drive, which created a 109 GB .tib file, which is currently on an external USB hard drive. I want to convert, mount, or otherwise use the .tib file in a virtual machine on my Windows 7 Pro 64bit PC, either from the external USB hard drive or I can copy it to the C: drive on the Win 7 PC.
I have read a lot of articles about how to do this. From what I've read, earlier versions of Acronis True Image had features to convert the .tib file to several types of virtual machine including Microsoft VM and VMWare, but those features have been removed from True Image 2015.
I don't care what VM I use. However, after trying disk2vhd I learned that I can't use Microsoft's VM with VHD format because the Win XP C: drive has 153 GB of programs and data, which is too large for the VHD format which has a limit of 127 GB. I also tried the Starwind converter and it didn't work. I think that leaves Oracle Virtual Box and VMWare Workstation Player as VM possibilities.
I've found instructions to use VMWare Workstation to create a VM with a virtual hard disk and use Acronis True Image 2015 mounted on a virtual CD to restore the .tib file to the virual hard disk, but I don't understand the instructions.
I also tried the VMWare vCenter Converter Standalone Client, and like others have reported, when I selected the .tib file, it said the source parameters were incorrect.
I ran VMWare Player. I have a blank virtual disk, no OS installed. I inserted an Acronis True Image 2015 recovery disk in the CD drive, restarted the VM, and VMWare recognized it and loaded True Image. However, neither the VM nor True Image can find the USB external hard drive.
I downloaded Oracle VirtualBox. I'm going to try that instead of VMWare. It says it supports USB 2.0 and 3.0. I also installed the Exentions. I created a VM and a blank virtual disk. The VM won't read the external USB hard drive or the CD drive that has the Aconis Recovery disk inserted.
After doing a lot of searching, reading, and watching videos. I finally got the VirtualBox VM to boot from the True Image CD and ran True Image 2015. I was also able to get VirtualBox to see the USB external drive and selected the .tib file to recover from. In the Recovery Wizard I am up to the step "Destination of Disk 2". The screen lists Disk 2 as the USB drive and the destination I want to recover to, which shows as "Disk 1 - Not Initialized" and model as "VBOX HARDDISK" which is correct. However, both disks are grayed out and it won't let me select Disk 1 to restore to. Possibly I have to somehow "initialize" Disk 1 to enable it for selection, although it won't let me select Disk 2 either.
I appreciate any help anyone can provide.

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I managed it to load an Acronis .tib Backup-File into Oracle Virtual Box:
#create an Virtual Box System
# create an virtual harddisk on the location and with size of the image u wanna mount using virtual box
# enable under Settings\System EFI Support to boot from the Acronis optical media
# insert ur Acronis media and and load the recovery manager
#select in the Acronis Recoery Center the tool-dropdown to create a new partition
#select the virtual harddisk as destination
# choose recovery, select ur backup file, and now the virtual harddisk apears as viable destination disk
# have fun with ur virtual BackUp
greetings
Jonas
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Hi all
Just like to share one success story of converting windows server 2012 R2 acronis 2015 tib to Vmware
Back up and software I was using.
1. windows 2012 R2 Acronis 2015 tib file (which i need in Virtual machine)
2. Acronis true image 2014 installer (I work wih trial version)
3. Acronis True image Home 2010 (I required this as VMware vCenter Converter Standalone support only TIH 2010 or 2011)
4. VMware vCenter Converter Standalone version 6.0 not version 6.1 (i didnot see in version 6.1 option to convert third party image to vmware)
5. windows 2012 R2 installation media (to repair restored machine)
6. VMware Workstation Pro
Steps
1. in acronis TI 2014 convert acronis image .tib (of TI 2015) to .vhd file
2. In Acronis TIH 2010 convert windows back up (.vhd) to Tib (option available in tools and utilities tab)
3. In VMware vCenter Converter Standalone version 6.0 convert .tib (Acronis TIH 2010) to .VMX
4. Open VMware Workstation Pro and run the converted virtual machine
5. Insert windows 2012 R2 bootable CD/DVD
5. Run VM from bootable media
6. and select repair OS
I tried all below 3 method one shot as in link
http://www.hackaapl.com/repairing-windows-2012-r2-startup/
Method 1:
===============
1. Put the Windows Server 2012 R2 installation disc into the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press a key when the message indicating “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD …”. appears.
3. Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7. Type sfc /scannow, and then press ENTER.
Method 2:
===============
1. Put the Windows Server 2012 R2 installation disc in the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press any key when the message indicating “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD …”. appears.
3. Select a language, time, currency, and a keyboard or another input method. Then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7. Type Bootrec /RebuildBcd, and then press ENTER.
Method 3:
===============
1. Put the Windows Server 2012 R2 installation disc into the disc drive, and then start the computer.
2. Press a key when the message indicating “Press any key to boot from CD or DVD …”. appears.
3. Select a language, a time, a currency, and a keyboard or another input method, and then click Next.
4. Click Repair your computer.
5. Click the operating system that you want to repair, and then click Next.
6. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.
7. Type BOOTREC /FIXMBR, and then press ENTER.
8. Type BOOTREC /FIXBOOT, and then press ENTER.
9. Type Drive:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 All, and then press ENTER.
Note: In this command, Drive is the drive where the Windows Server 2012 R2 installation media is located.
And now it working perfect.
Hope this will help some one.
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Welcome to these forums, and thank you for sharing your experience in doing this type of conversion.
The main issue that many users will face is getting hold of the older Acronis products (ATIH 2010 & 2014) which are no longer generally available, and the functions they offered have been removed from the latest products.
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Hello faseelath shihabu...
Thanks for the success story. I don't have any server OS to play with at the moment, but have had lots of success converting Physical systems to Virtual in VMWorkstation using Acronis as well - the offlien media version really doesn't matter so much (as long as it has the drivers necessary to deal with UEFI/GPT if the server install was UEFI/GPT) - older versions of Acronis before 2013 may not handle this well, but 2015 to present should be fine.
1) Boot Acronis rescue media on physical machine - take offline full disk backup of physical machine and store on external or network media.
2) Build VM, but leave the drive blank (no OS installed). Make sure when you build the VM it is either UEFI or Legacy, picking the one that the original OS on the physical machine was installed as. Boot the Acronis bootable rescue media as a virtual CD/DVD (via mounted .iso) in the new VM. Restore the backup image to the VM hard drive. In most cases that's it. However, if there are special RAID controllers on the VM hardware, use Universal Restore to add those drivers if need be.
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Bobbo Thanks,
I tried iniatially as you said but no success,
Acronis resotre process succeeded withot error. But VM startup it give no operating system error. May be because I use BIOS boot.
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You'll need to make sure you build your vm to match the old is install. Not sure which vm tool you use, but VMware workstation lets you pick UEFI or bios. You need to make sure that's set before you do the restore. That will ensure the recovery media boots the correct way dor the restore to. After restoring, make sure the vm bios has the virtual Drive as the first boot priority too.
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Hello All,
For those who migrate a GPT UEFI Windows to VMware Workstation - UEFI mode should be enabled in the virtual machine properties before restoring Acronis image. For that, edit .vmx file in Notepad and add the following line:
firmware = "efi"
Then recover the image using Acronis bootable media. If the restored system fails to boot with a BSOD with code, ending with 7B, then you need to boot the virtual machine with Universal Restore media and apply the Universal Restore using the VMware drivers for the virtual disk controllers.
Regards,
Slava
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Slava is correct. In current versions of VM Workstation 12, the option is built directly into the application as well though.
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