Wrong partitions after restoring complete boot disk
Hi,
I did a backup of my boot disk (SSD, Kingston-KC400 256GB) an restored it to my backup boot disk (same hardware/model: SSD, Kingston-KC400 256GB). UEFI was active, the partition scheme was GPT.
The problem: The partition table of my backup boot disk has changed, although I instructed Trueimage to use the original partition structure without changing anything.
Source disk:
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1 Partition table scan: MBR: protective BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: present Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT. Disk /dev/sda: 500118192 sectors, 238.5 GiB Logical sector size: 512 bytes Disk identifier (GUID): 2C9F4A3D-0205-4D85-88F7-920FA4F06894 Partition table holds up to 128 entries First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 500118158 Partitions will be aligned on 2048-sector boundaries Total free space is 250053229 sectors (119.2 GiB) Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name 1 2048 923647 450.0 MiB 2700 Basic data partition 2 923648 1128447 100.0 MiB EF00 EFI system partition 3 1128448 1161215 16.0 MiB 0C01 Microsoft reserved ... 4 1161216 75988991 35.7 GiB 0700 Basic data partition 5 75988992 96960511 10.0 GiB 0700 Basic data partition 6 96960512 250066943 73.0 GiB 0700 Basic data partition
Restored disk:
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1 Partition table scan: MBR: protective BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: present Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT. Disk /dev/sda: 500118192 sectors, 238.5 GiB Logical sector size: 512 bytes Disk identifier (GUID): 584C3134-E35E-445E-80A3-1DA333F75814 Partition table holds up to 128 entries First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 500118158 Partitions will be aligned on 2-sector boundaries Total free space is 249823853 sectors (119.1 GiB) Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name 1 34 262177 128.0 MiB 0C01 2 264192 1185791 450.0 MiB 2700 3 1185792 1390591 100.0 MiB EF00 4 1390592 76218367 35.7 GiB 0700 5 76218368 97189887 10.0 GiB 0700 6 97189888 250296319 73.0 GiB 0700
Since, my bootable partition is a Veracrypt encrypted system volume, the backup disk does not boot anymore. I cannot use the Veryacrypt Rescue Disk to restore the keys.
I did the same with CloneZilla and after this another time with dd. Both worked as expected and results in the same partition structure. The Clonezilla restored disk had to be "Veracrypt rescued", before I could boot from it. dd worked out of the box.
Is there any solution how to duplicate a GPT boot disk with Trueimage without changing *anything*?
Regards
Thorsten
Thorsten, welcome to these User Forums.
Did you disable / unencrypt any Veracrypt partitions before making the backup image?
Did you boot the Acronis Rescue Media in UEFI mode when doing the restore?
See KB 56619: Acronis True Image: compatibility with BitLocker for a statement of how ATI interacts with encrypted drives.
Steve, thank you for your quick response.
I tried both: doing a backup with enabled encryption and (after that failed) a new backup *before installing* Veracrypt. When I restored the *image with the unencrypted Windows 10* to my boot disk I noticed the wrong partition order too, although Windows boots.
But the partition order differ and for that reason some programs not working. E.g. after installing Veracrypt and trying to encrypt my system drive, I encountered an error stating that the boot loader requires 32 KB of free space at the beginning of the system drive. Before the restore at this place there was the "Microsoft reserved" partition (MSR). After the restore now there is the EFI System Partition (ESP).
I booted the Acronis Rescue Media in UEFI mode during backup *and* restore.
Thorsten, there have been some in-depth discussions in these forums on the subject of the order of partitions after doing restores with ATI but I haven't seen any recently over the past year or more.
One that may be of interest to you is forum topic: Guide to Restoring a UEFI/GPT Windows System to a New Disk with True Image 2016 which should be still relevant to your use of ATI 2017.
It may be worth dropping a PM to Mustang who authored that particular topic.
For reference, webpage: MSR and EFI Partitions Are Only Supported on GPT Disk gives a good overview of how partitions should be ordered on GPT drives, and also offers an alternative method of rearranging partitions if needed, i.e. by manually specifying these in the desired order and then restoring just the contents of those partitions manually, though this is a lot more work.
This may also be a case where using Cloning might be a better option though I have not tried doing this personally.
Thank you for the link to Mustangs guide. Although I cannot see how to specify a specific offset (e.g. for the first partition: 2048) this guide seems to be a quite good workaround.
But I am searching a simple solution using Trueimage. We are using Trueimage to easily backup, restore or clone disks every day. For years we thought cloning to the same hardware would result in a 100% equivalent disk. As it turned out this was a misbelief.
I see discussions of the form "what should be the recommended partition order (after a restore)?". But I thinks this is irrelevant.
The main questions should be:
- Why does Trueimage change the order of partitions at all?
- If this is a bug or unwanted behaviour: when will Acronis fix this?
I already tried cloning the disk. It gives the same results (wrong partition order, wrong starting sector of first partition).
In the next days we will test ATI 2018. But I have doubt about ATI 2018 fixing this.
Thorsten, if your testing with ATI 2018 does not offer a solution to this issue for you, then I can only recommend opening a Support Case directly with Acronis for this, as they are the only ones who can answer the specific questions that you are asking.
ATI 2018 does not offer a solution. I will open a support case.
Thank you