From TIB to a working VM
I have a TIBX image file of an old UEFI based system with Intel Z77 chipset and Intel Core i7-2700K that was running Windows 7 and I have a pressing need to get back to that system, but I no longer have that old hardware. I could restore it to one of my current setups, but I rather try to restore it to a VM. As I have not done this before, I am turning to this forum for some pointers and general advice.
I intend to use VirtualBox as my hypervisor. Is this workable? Do I need to spring for VMware?
I have seen a lot of discussions about VHD and the ability vs. inability of True Image to convert a TIB (or TIBX) file to VHD. As far as I can tell True Image 2020 does have an option to convert TIB (or TIBX) files to VHD. If ever, in what situation do I have to use a VHD file rather than a TIB file?
The Universal Restore feature is used to restore a backup to dissimilar hardware. Does that include virtual machines? What type of devices do I need to get drivers for to get a basic working system?
What else do I need to consider?
This will not be a permanent installment. I am only doing it to salvage some important information. So it doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to be a working Windows 7 instance as it was before I dismantled the system.
Samir,
First, I am not an expert in the field of VM's, VHD, VDI, or much of anything Virtual. Some observations on my part however are as follows.
You say you have a TIBX file with which you would like to convert to a VHD. Was this file created using Ti 2020 or TI 2021?, not that I think it matters here.
You go on to say in post #2 that you created a VDI which to my understanding is a Virtual Desktop established on a remote server. If my understanding is correct then I assume VirtualBox serves as this remote server?
So why are you attempting to use the TIBX file in the manner you described in post #2? You are aware that TI 2021 which I assume you are using here can convert the TIBX file into a VHD file which can then be used as a Virtual Disk and booted inside a running Virtual Machine? This is the preferred way to run your TIBX file as a Virtual Disk (VHD).
I am a bit slow but I am starting to realize why I would need a VHD file. If a VHD file exists, there is no need to use Acronis bootable media to restore the old TIB file to a virtual disk format such as VDI that VirtualBox uses, since VHD can be used directly as a compatible alternative (which is not the case with TIB or TIBX).
That does suggest I will not be able to insert any drivers I may need using Universal Restore.
I did try initializing the VDI disks before booting up from the Acronis media. I even went on adding a second 100 GB VDI disk to accomodate the 58 GB of data needed to be restored (the previous VDI was only 32 GB I think). That still backfired, with the same nasty error message. So up next, I will try converting the TIBX file to VHD and booting off of that and see how that goes.
Enchantech wrote:Samir,
First, I am not an expert in the field of VM's, VHD, VDI, or much of anything Virtual. Some observations on my part however are as follows.
You say you have a TIBX file with which you would like to convert to a VHD. Was this file created using Ti 2020 or TI 2021?, not that I think it matters here.
You go on to say in post #2 that you created a VDI which to my understanding is a Virtual Desktop established on a remote server. If my understanding is correct then I assume VirtualBox serves as this remote server?
So why are you attempting to use the TIBX file in the manner you described in post #2? You are aware that TI 2021 which I assume you are using here can convert the TIBX file into a VHD file which can then be used as a Virtual Disk and booted inside a running Virtual Machine? This is the preferred way to run your TIBX file as a Virtual Disk (VHD).
Thanks for joining me. I saw your reply a bit late.
I believe I used True Image 2020 to create the TIBX.
VDI refers to Virtual DIsk which is the file format that VirtualBox uses and acts like a physical disk. It's not on any server, it's hosted on my main computer and accessed locally.
Samir,
So two points here, if you are using TI 2021 you can import this TIBX file into the application GUI using the "Add existing backup" option then once you have the backup there you can use the drop down menu for the task and select Convert to VHD. Just follow the wizard for creation.
Or, you could open the location where the backup is stored using Explorer, click on the backup file to select it, then right click on the file and hover your cursor over Acronis True Image in the menu and then choose the Mount option in the fly out menu. Again follow the wizard to mount the backup. Mounting will allow you to navigate in the backup to wherever the data is you want to retrieve and from there you can drag and drop or copy and paste the data to a new location on your PC thus eliminating entirely the need for VHD, VM's, etc.
Converting to VHD is the best first step. If TI thinks the tibx backup is corrupt, that may not work either. You should be able to use Universal Restore to inject the Windows 7 64 bit hard disk controller driver needed by VirtualBox after the VM is setup. Getting your hands on the driver will be the hard part. I haven't used VirtualBox for over 10 years, so I can't be of any help.
I was not sure if going for a VHD file is the right thing to do because technically I would be using a different hardware. So I was avoiding the use of VHD. But now I know that it's the best first step.
Sadly though... that first step failed at the very end of the process...
Cannot find the driver for the following device:
ID: PCI\VEN_144D&DEV_A808&SUBSYS_A801144D&REV_00
Place the driver on removable media and click Retry.
Otherwise, you can add the driver by applying Universal Restore under bootable media.
Enchantech wrote:Samir,
So two points here, if you are using TI 2021 you can import this TIBX file into the application GUI using the "Add existing backup" option then once you have the backup there you can use the drop down menu for the task and select Convert to VHD. Just follow the wizard for creation.
Or, you could open the location where the backup is stored using Explorer, click on the backup file to select it, then right click on the file and hover your cursor over Acronis True Image in the menu and then choose the Mount option in the fly out menu. Again follow the wizard to mount the backup. Mounting will allow you to navigate in the backup to wherever the data is you want to retrieve and from there you can drag and drop or copy and paste the data to a new location on your PC thus eliminating entirely the need for VHD, VM's, etc.
Yes, I used the "add existing backup" option and then "convert to VHD". The process appears to have failed at the very end, given the message I posted above. It complains about missing driver. Is this expected? Where do I place the driver if I have it? I'm not sure yet what driver is missing. It says to place it on removable media. Would that be in the same directory where the TIBX file is?
The reason it's not enough to mount the TIBX and browse for the data to extract is because only a running application from within the Windows 7 installation is able to read the needed data.
PCI\VEN_144D&DEV_A808&SUBSYS_A801144D&REV_00
This appears to be my Samsung NVMe disk on my current system. I don't understand, why would this be needed for converting the TIBX file to VHD? The old system used a regular SATA SSD (Corsair Force GT SSD 120 GB).
Apparently there are more of these missing drivers...
Cannot find the driver for the following device:
ID: PCI\VEN_144D&DEV_A808&SUBSYS_A801144D&REV_00
Cannot find the driver for the following device:
ID: PCI\VEN_1B21&DEV_2142&SUBSYS_87561043&REV_00
Cannot find the driver for the following device:
ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A2AF&SUBSYS_86941043&REV_00
Cannot find the driver for the following device:
ID: ACPI_HAL\UEFI
Cannot find the driver for the following device:
ID: ACPI\VEN_ACPI&DEV_000C
Cannot find the driver for the following device:
ID: ACPI\VEN_INT&DEV_33A1
That would be all of them.
So what action do I take here? I go on to identify the devices and find their drivers? Then put them on a USB stick or within the directory where the TIBX file is? Then click Retry button for each and hope that it satisfies these prompts for drivers and True Image ends writing the VHD file correctly?
What happens if I click Ignore button, will the VHD file still be written correctly or would it be corrupted? Also, how would I go about using Unviersal Restore to apply these drivers as the message suggests? Is the process same for converting a VHD as when using Universal Restore on a physical machine?
I decided to skip these for now. But then I ran into a new problem in VirtualBox...
Could not open the medium 'M:\PC-P8Z77-V-2020-09-25.vhdx'.
VD: error VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED opening image file 'M:PC-P8Z77-V-2020-09-25.vhdx' (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED).
Apparently VirtualBox does not support VHDX. It only supports VHD. So now I need to convert VHDX to VHD... never ending story. Why can't True Image help me here by offering me the option to convert to VHD rather than to VHDX? It's straight out lying by labeling this feature "Convert to VHD".
I will continue down this rabbit hole. I will get back to you guys later. Please advise on what I'm supposed to do with these missing drivers. I'm not sure why that is coming up as a problem, and why it does so at the very end of the process when True Image is about to finalize the VHDX file. I have not looked up all of these but the first missing driver appears to be for my current system running on a SSD NVMe disk from Samsung, which was never used on the old system. I assume the other missing drivers are also for my current system. So I fail to see why this is a concern (why these messages are showing up).
Samir, in your initial post for this topic you wrote:
This will not be a permanent installment. I am only doing it to salvage some important information. So it doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to be a working Windows 7 instance as it was before I dismantled the system.
Surely, any documents etc from that Win 7 PC would be accessible without going to all this trouble of making a working VM here, by just using the normal options to browse the contents of the .tibx file or mounting the image etc.
I was never successful in using VirtualBox personally but have been using the free VMware Player for some years. The current version is 15 and runs fine on my HP Omen i7 laptop which I use to host a variety of different VM's used for testing.
Restoring an Acronis .tib or .tibx to a VM should be possible though the last time I tried it, the VM wouldn't boot! I couldn't be bothered to try to work out why at the time and just deleted the VM again! I probably should have tried using Universal Restore but it wasn't a priority at that time to fix it.
Samir,
Acronis is applying Universal Restore at the end of the conversion process. That explains why you see the missing driver messages. You should just ignore them. You will need to find a third party program to convert the VHDX file to a VHD file for VirtualBox to work.
If you set the VirtualBox hard disk controller to SATA/AHCI (not SCSI), Windows 7 should be able to boot. Once you get Windows 7 booted in the VM, you need to install the VirtualBox Tools. That should solve most of the driver issues.
You can use VMware instead of VirtualBox. This is done by using a third party program to convert the VHDX file to a VMDK file. I tried it once with a Windows 10 system and it worked well.
To convert VHDX to VHD I used Convert-VHD which is a PowerShell cmdlet that's unavailable unless Hyper-V is available and enabled. Thankfully I have Hyper-V available on this machine so I only had to enable it... which disables VirtualBox but that can't be avoided. So after converting to VHD and disabling Hyper-V, I was able to create the Windows VM in VirtualBox but it failed to boot. It drops me at the EFI interactive shell. So it seems I have reached a dead end. At this point I might as well just spring for a complete system restoration to physical hardware.
It turns out the original system had Windows Vista installed, not Windows 7. It may have had Windows 7 at some point, but Vista is what was installed last time before I dismantled it.
Will someone explain to me why I am getting the missing driver messages when converting TIBX to VHDX? How is that relevant in a format to format conversion? Converting from one format to another is not the same as restoring a backup (TIBX) or even deploying a virtual disk (VHDX) to dissimilar hardware. Or am I wrong to think that?
Thanks for your input Steve and Paul. I didn't see your replies, despite refreshing the page. I'm not sure why, but this is starting to become a theme now. It's weird. But anyway...
Samir, in your initial post for this topic you wrote:
This will not be a permanent installment. I am only doing it to salvage some important information. So it doesn't have to be perfect. It just needs to be a working Windows 7 instance as it was before I dismantled the system.
Surely, any documents etc from that Win 7 PC would be accessible without going to all this trouble of making a working VM here, by just using the normal options to browse the contents of the .tibx file or mounting the image etc.
I was never successful in using VirtualBox personally but have been using the free VMware Player for some years. The current version is 15 and runs fine on my HP Omen i7 laptop which I use to host a variety of different VM's used for testing.
Restoring an Acronis .tib or .tibx to a VM should be possible though the last time I tried it, the VM wouldn't boot! I couldn't be bothered to try to work out why at the time and just deleted the VM again! I probably should have tried using Universal Restore but it wasn't a priority at that time to fix it.
As I wrote to Enchantech,
The reason it's not enough to mount the TIBX and browse for the data to extract is because only a running application from within the Windows 7 installation is able to read the needed data.
What I want to get to is encrypted and not accessible by just reading some files on the file system. That would have been sweet, if possible. I wish to retrieve a few passwords "from the old computer" so to speak. To my knowledge that can't be done without a working system. Even if it's a database stored in a file system and you know its location, it can't be easily accessed without the software and keys and whatnot that goes along with it.
I might as well do the same and delete this VM. Mine failed to boot as well. I will poke it some more to see if I can make it work. If not, I think I will just restore the whole thing to physical hardware. I have a second computer I could spare for this little experiment.
Acronis is applying Universal Restore at the end of the conversion process. That explains why you see the missing driver messages. You should just ignore them.
Paul, can you elaborate on this? Why is it doing that? It's as if True Image is assuming I will be creating a VM on the host machine I'm doing the format conversion on.
You will need to find a third party program to convert the VHDX file to a VHD file for VirtualBox to work.
That I did find. I used the Convert-VHD cmdlet.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/hyper-v/convert-vhd?…
However the VM fails to boot with this VHD attached (EFI is enabled in VM settings of course). It drops me to EFI interactive shell when I boot up. Do you think this would be related to missing drivers, as prompted by True Image?
If you set the VirtualBox hard disk controller to SATA/AHCI (not SCSI), Windows 7 should be able to boot.
Thanks for the tip, I will recreate the VM and make sure the controller is SATA. I looked briefly at using Hyper-V Manager (before I disabled Hyper-V again to get back to VirtualBox) and it looks like it uses SCSI as default. Also, it requires VHDX format rather than VHD like VirtualBox. This might explain why True Image defaults to outputting VHDX when you tell it to "convert to VHD". Because VHDX is the new standard format that Windows uses.
I actually made a Hyper-V VM but it too failed to boot and was stuck at PXE boot for a long time before it gave me a message telling me it can't boot. As I recall it says it could not find a bootable device or something like that.
You can use VMware instead of VirtualBox. This is done by using a third party program to convert the VHDX file to a VMDK file. I tried it once with a Windows 10 system and it worked well.
What VMware product do I need to use? Does it cost anything and can it use or convert VHDX to VMDK?
Samir, see old forum topic: How to convert .tib to VM?
The same principles apply to recovering a .tib or .tibx to a VM, the VM needs to be created to use the same BIOS mode as the OS captured in the .tib(x), so don't try to restore a EFI OS to a Legacy boot VM.
I am just doing another test restore of a 2013 vintage Win 7 .tib file to give it another try. The restore is being done by booting the VM from my ATI 2021 MVP WinPE rescue media in Legacy boot mode.
I will update after the restore completes and I test to see if it will actually boot the VM?
Ok, good news, the restore followed by apply Universal Restore was successful and I have another working Windows 7 VM (with a lot of outstanding Windows Updates!).
Acronis does funny things. They make decisions behind the scene that the user has no control over. One of them is whether to apply Universal Restore at the end of a restore or conversion or not. You are seeing Universal Restore being applied at the end of the conversion. Do you by any chance have the original backup being converted on a USB drive? If you do, that could be the problem. Try the conversion from an internal drive and store the output on an internal drive. That mat stop the Universal Restore process from being applied.
Another behind the scenes decision Acronis is making is whether to use VHD or VHDX. I just tried doing a conversion using TI 2021 on a Windows 7 system and Acronis created a VHD file. You may be running the conversion on a Windows 10 system and that is why you are getting a VHDX file.
You could use VMware Player. It should be free. Google convert vhd to vmdx for third party software. Starwind V2V converter and WinImage are mentioned.
Did you try changing the settings for the VirtualBox VM to Vista instead of Windows 7?
Samir,
Again I am no expert in the virtual field however, my understanding is that booting a virtual disk on Win 10 requires that the virtual disk be in VHDX format. This suggests that TI was applying UR to the VHDX you created and rightly so because your machine is running Windows 10. This may well explain why drivers for the host machine were being requested by UR.
Since your machine is obviously capable of running MS HyperV why not use it to host your Virtual Disk? Using HyperV configured as a Gen 1 VM should allow you to boot either a VHDX or a VHD file of a Windows 7 machine. If that applies to a Vista machine I cannot say but is likely.
If I were you I would attempt to create a HyperV Gen 1 VM then attempt to boot your virtual disk files. I would say one of them should work.
Steve Smith wrote:Samir, see old forum topic: How to convert .tib to VM?
The same principles apply to recovering a .tib or .tibx to a VM, the VM needs to be created to use the same BIOS mode as the OS captured in the .tib(x), so don't try to restore a EFI OS to a Legacy boot VM.
I am just doing another test restore of a 2013 vintage Win 7 .tib file to give it another try. The restore is being done by booting the VM from my ATI 2021 MVP WinPE rescue media in Legacy boot mode.
I will update after the restore completes and I test to see if it will actually boot the VM?
Thanks Steve! Now that you mention Legacy boot... I know the old system had a UEFI firmware, even though it was very old for modern standards (I "dicomissioned" it only last year). It even had a graphical interface with mouse support (one of the main tell tale signs of working with a UEFI firmware). But I may have had the CSM enabled ("CSM" in the screenshot below). Would this still be a UEFI system when making a backup?... that I'm not so sure of. If enabled, it basically makes it a legacy BIOS system.
Mustang wrote:Acronis does funny things. They make decisions behind the scene that the user has no control over. One of them is whether to apply Universal Restore at the end of a restore or conversion or not. You are seeing Universal Restore being applied at the end of the conversion. Do you by any chance have the original backup being converted on a USB drive? If you do, that could be the problem. Try the conversion from an internal drive and store the output on an internal drive. That mat stop the Universal Restore process from being applied.
Another behind the scenes decision Acronis is making is whether to use VHD or VHDX. I just tried doing a conversion using TI 2021 on a Windows 7 system and Acronis created a VHD file. You may be running the conversion on a Windows 10 system and that is why you are getting a VHDX file.
You could use VMware Player. It should be free. Google convert vhd to vmdx for third party software. Starwind V2V converter and WinImage are mentioned.
Did you try changing the settings for the VirtualBox VM to Vista instead of Windows 7?
I do in fact, I am running the TIBX to VHDX conversion on an external Seagate disk connected via USB. I am also doing VHDX to VHD conversion on the same disk. Simply because I have over 3 TB of free disk space to play with. My internal system disk is starved at only 150 GB. But I will consider this, and see if I can squeeze in both TIBX and VHDX on it.
Yes, I am on Windows 10 Pro (20H2). From the looks of it, VHDX is not only the new default in Windows, but also the only option, when using Hyper-V Manager for your VM needs. But there are tools within Windows that can do the VHDX to VHD conversion. I used the Convert-VHD cmdlet for this. And what's really weird is that VirtualBox itself appears to have a command line options for converting VHDX to VHD. So it seems VirtualBox can convert VHDX but it can't use it for a VM.
Can I safely ignore all the messages from True Image about missing drivers?... rather than loading up my internal disk to avoid them?
Yes, I did create a new VM in VirtualBox with the "Windows Vista" preset. Good point! I have thought about it also. But I'm starting to think that this mostly serves as a label. I think it helps guide you on things like how much RAM and how large disks you will need for OS installation, and it changes the icon for the VM. That's about it I think.
Enchantech wrote:Samir,
Again I am no expert in the virtual field however, my understanding is that booting a virtual disk on Win 10 requires that the virtual disk be in VHDX format. This suggests that TI was applying UR to the VHDX you created and rightly so because your machine is running Windows 10. This may well explain why drivers for the host machine were being requested by UR.
Since your machine is obviously capable of running MS HyperV why not use it to host your Virtual Disk? Using HyperV configured as a Gen 1 VM should allow you to boot either a VHDX or a VHD file of a Windows 7 machine. If that applies to a Vista machine I cannot say but is likely.
If I were you I would attempt to create a HyperV Gen 1 VM then attempt to boot your virtual disk files. I would say one of them should work.
I did try creating a VM in Hyper-V Manager earlier. First thing to note here is that it requires VHDX files for disks. But still, it failed to boot. However I did select the Gen 2 VM type rather than Gen 1. Because the original system (screenshot above) was a UEFI system (but may have had CSM enabled which would effectively make it "Legacy" or BIOS). So thanks for the tip! I will try creating a Gen 1 VM.
ID: PCI\VEN_144D&DEV_A808&SUBSYS_A801144D&REV_00
https://www.pcilookup.com/?ven=144D&dev=A808&action=submit
ID: PCI\VEN_1B21&DEV_2142&SUBSYS_87561043&REV_00
https://www.pcilookup.com/?ven=1B21&dev=2142&action=submit
ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_A2AF&SUBSYS_86941043&REV_00
https://www.pcilookup.com/?ven=8086&dev=A2AF&action=submit
ID: ACPI_HAL\UEFI
ID: ACPI\VEN_ACPI&DEV_000C
ID: ACPI\VEN_INT&DEV_33A1
These devices are most definitely found on my current machine. But how do I find drivers for "ACPI_HAL\UEFI"? I know what ACPI is but it's first time I see that it needs drivers (not that it does not have them but Windows usually takes care of that without user intervention). The same goes for the second to last device in the list. The last device in the list may be an Intel network adapter.
Samir,
Try this:
- Copy your VHD and VHDX files that you created to the external disk you have. Create a folder there to place them in
- Enable HyperV and create a Gen 1 VM during this process point to either the VHD file (my first choice) or the VHDX file as your virtual disk, (no need for a physical disk install here, just the VHD(X) file itself will do)
- After configuration startup HyperV and select Start.
My guess is HyperV will mount the VHD(X) file and boot it
If that fails then try the VHDX file same way.
I doubt that you had this backup of Vista booting in UEFI mode. In fact, I have never even heard of anyone doing that. I suppose it may be possible but unless you had UEFI enabled on the board when the install of Vista was performed then a legacy install would have taken place, (most likely scenario)
Time for an update... I have some good news and some bad news.
I will start with the good news. I was able to boot the VHD file with Vista using VirtualBox. I think the problem in previous attempt was that I had enabled EFI firmware. So yes, Enchantech, you're right in doubting on UEFI mode boot. I'm not sure if Windows Vista even had the ability to install in anything but the Legacy BIOS mode. In any case, I must have had the CSM enabled (Legacy BIOS mode). It would also explain why a Gen 2 VM in Hyper-V Manager failed to boot it (those are UEFI only if I'm not mistaken).
I have in fact recreated the VHD file from TIBX in True Image. But I don't think this had anything to do with it. Why I recreated it is because I wanted to see if I could just change the file name extension from the default VHDX that True Image appends to it, to VHD that I type in manually as part of the file name. After reading the documentation on Convert-VHD cmdlet, I had a hunch that it might result in a proper VHD file rather than VHDX. I'm still doubtful that this is what happened, but VirtualBox definitely accepted and booted this new file. So there's that, also.
Here is Vista booting in VirtualBox...
The bad news is that I now have a broken hard drive. I accidentally knocked it off the top of the computer tower to the floor. It's a reminder like no other why we need backups. Lucky for me I did not have anything important on it, it's not my main backup disk. And I did move that VHD file off of it to my internal NVMe disk mere minutes before the accident.
I'm still deciding if I should try to rescue whatever is on it. It's a Seagate "Backup Plus" disk, so I think it comes with their rescue plan but it may no longer be covered.
Friday or not, never do any important work on a 13th! And backup your data!
Samir,
Glad to hear of your success.
I tried my hand at this. I have a disk with a UEFI booted install of Win7 from which I created both a VHD and a VHDX file. I enabled Hyper V on a machine I have setup to run VM's and attempted to boot each one using various setting changes. Those efforts all failed.
So I would caution anyone having an UEFI booted backup image of an old system install from another machine to be wary of getting this to work. Not to say it is not possible but definitely requires more work and is not a simple process.
Thank you Enchantech, Steve and Paul for helping me with this. I had never done this sort of physical to VM image deployment, so this is all a new to me.
Enchantech, If I understood correctly, your argument is that getting the image of a UEFI booted system to work in a VM is more difficult than doing the same with a Legacy/BIOS booted system. I think it's equally difficult regardless. You just need to know beforehand what kind of system you have in that backup, in other words if it's UEFI (EFI) or Legacy/BIOS.
You made a good point earlier, what matters is in what mode the OS installation was done. So key is whether or not it was "UEFI booted" as you say. It doesn't matter if the motherboard itself supports UEFI if it was disabled (i.e. CSM or Legacy/BIOS mode enabled). If UEFI was disabled during OS installation, then any attempt at restoring or attaching that system to a VM needs to be done so in a EFI enabled VM.
Have you tried using VirtualBox instead of Hyper-V Manager? I have not tested creating a Gen 1 VM in Hyper-V since VirtualBox worked out for me last time. But I think I will do a test soon, using the same VHD image that I'm currently using with VirtualBox (just need to remember to select Gen 1 VM type, and reboot of course).
Booting from a copy of the VHD file I used with VirtualBox, in a Hyper-V VM now...
It nearly works! As you can see it fails to boot up properly. This is likely to do with driver issues, in addition to this being a direct copy of the now modified VHD file that I used with VirtualBox that now contains all the VirtualBox bells and whistles like their own Guest Additions, VBoxSVGA video card and so on. I would have to rebuild this VHD from scratch, using the original TIBX file which I no longer have since the hard drive literally crashed to the floor. But this is looking promising already. I never got this far the last time I tried the Hyper-V Manager (using the VHDX file I got from the Convert-VHD cmdlet). Most likely because I selected to create a Gen 2 VM type (assuming the old Vista installation was done in UEFI mode, which was false assumption).
When you go on to create a new VM in Hyper-V Manager, it will prompt you to attach either a VHD or a VHDX for Gen 1 VM type (Legacy/BIOS), or VHDX only for Gen 2 VM type (UEFI).
For Gen 1 VM it will say:
"Use this option to attach an existing virtual hard disk, either VHD or VHDX format."
For Gen 2 VM it will say:
"Use this option to attach an existing VHDX virtual hard disk."
This all sounds complicated, and while it can be tricky to get it working, the most important thing is to set the UEFI/BIOS setting correctly and to have the right disk image format that the VM accepts.
- Hyper-V Manager uses VHDX for UEFI VM, and VHD or VHDX for Legacy/BIOS VM.
- VirtualBox uses VDI or VHD for either UEFI or Legacy/BIOS VM (among other formats).
- True Image can only create TIBX (TIB in older versions) or VHD files, and when it does create VHD files it does so with the help of Windows built in facilities which is why it should be able to create VHDX files just as easy as VHD files. (If I'm right, you should be able to just type in ".VHDX" as file name extension and it should create a proper VHDX file rather than VHD.)
The problem with the Hyper-V boot is probably related to the hard disk controller. Make sure it using a SATA controller.
True Image decides whether to make a vhd or vhdx file on its own. I found that it made a vhd file when the conversion was run by a Windows 7 32 bit system that was booting in Legacy mode. I also found it was making a vhdx file when run by a Windows 10 64 bit system that was booted in UEFI mode. You can't change the file type by manually changing the extension before the conversion. It will let you change the extension from vhdx to vhd, but the resulting file will still be in vhdx format with a vhd extension.
I can't seem to add anything but IDE controllers or SCSI controllers for Gen 1 VM type (with IDE being the default setting), and only SCSI controllers for Gen 2 VM type.
I also found this discussion on this topic:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HyperV/comments/7h84r1/virtual_sata_interface_…
"Generation 1 VMs are IDE/SATA, with SCSI as an option. Generation 2 VMs are indeed SCSI only."
The discussion is 3 years old, and the comment above has received 7 votes.
Isn't IDE the same as ATA? And that should be just like SATA, only in parallel? I'm just speculating I am no expert on virtualization but I am familiar with these abbreviations from working with physical hardware.
Regarding VHD and VHDX, the output file I got in True Image 2021 was something like "My File.vhdx". I didn't bother at the time to inspect it to see if the file is in fact VHDX or VHD (with .vhdx file name extension). But True Image did not change the extension to .vhd on its own after I typed in ".vhdx". I know that VirtualBox didn't complain and I was able to attach it and boot off of it. But it was very slow. That is most definitely because I was reading it from the (now broken) Seagate drive. Once I moved it to my internal NVMe it was flying through the boot logo and everything. It might be that VirtualBox looks at the file name extension rather than what's inside the file, but I suspect it would not boot unless it was true VHD. (For the record, I know nothing about differences between VHD and VHDX.)
I think I will do a small test later to see if the resulting file from True Image is in fact VHD if you type in manually ".vhd" in the save dialog box. This should be both interesting and useful to know.
But it is rather peculiar that True Image would make all these decisions on its own without prompting the user, or at least giving us the option if we want VHD or VHDX file. It doesn't surprise me much. The one size fits most mindset (and sometimes all) is very common in software now. Everything just happens automagically. I'm against this, but I'm also a minority.
I ran a little conversion test now on a small partition backup that I have. It doesn't contain any OS, it's just a storage partition, but I thought it should serve well as an indicator if True Image truly can create a proper VHD file simply by changing the file name extension from the default ".vhdx" to ".vhd". Here are my results.
You can see the output files in this screenshots. I ran two rounds, one for each format.
Documents.vhdx
Size: 13.8 GB (14,822,670,336 bytes)
MD5: 71F4BC3F663ECDFAD8DEEC7358DF2625
Documents.vhd
Size: 13.7 GB (14,813,747,200 bytes)
MD5: 3D9543BE4B12E5B319794EE397393F21
Documents 2.vhdx
Size: 13.8 GB (14,822,670,336 bytes)
MD5: 30D2AD5E7A4A1C47812B8706497F08F7
Documents 2.vhd
Size: 13.7 GB (14,813,747,200 bytes)
MD5: 9478C8DF2BBF57E52D981620FA4BB958
As you can see, both VHD files are consistently wrongly sized compared to their VHDX counterparts. Which suggests that they are fundamentally different. So what is going on here?
According to filesignatures.net the signature for VHD is 0x636F6E6563746978.
According to windows.net (PDF document) the signature for VHDX is 0x656C696678646876.
Now here are the first 512 bytes of these files.
Documents.vhdx
Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 000000000 76 68 64 78 66 69 6C 65 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 vhdxfile........ 000000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000100 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000170 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Documents.vhd
Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 000000000 63 6F 6E 65 63 74 69 78 00 00 00 06 00 01 00 00 conectix........ 000000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 27 BC 78 6F 76 70 63 20 ........'¼xovpc 000000020 00 05 00 00 57 69 32 6B 00 00 00 05 00 0E 80 00 ....Wi2k......€. 000000030 00 00 00 05 00 0E 80 00 A2 8C 10 3F 00 00 00 03 ......€.¢Œ.?.... 000000040 FF FF EE B2 7C 71 4B 5D A2 AA 81 7F EA 13 0B 4C ÿÿî²|qK]¢ª..ê..L 000000050 69 D7 1B 1C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 i×.............. 000000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000100 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000170 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Documents 2.vhdx
Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 000000000 76 68 64 78 66 69 6C 65 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 vhdxfile........ 000000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000020 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000030 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000040 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000100 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000170 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
Documents 2.vhd
Offset(h) 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 0A 0B 0C 0D 0E 0F 000000000 63 6F 6E 65 63 74 69 78 00 00 00 06 00 01 00 00 conectix........ 000000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 27 BC 79 6F 76 70 63 20 ........'¼yovpc 000000020 00 05 00 00 57 69 32 6B 00 00 00 05 00 0E 80 00 ....Wi2k......€. 000000030 00 00 00 05 00 0E 80 00 A2 8C 10 3F 00 00 00 03 ......€.¢Œ.?.... 000000040 FF FF EC 53 98 6F 8D 5D 86 A7 EA A2 E7 D2 87 28 ÿÿìS˜o.]†§ê¢çÒ‡( 000000050 E2 33 1E C5 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 â3.Å............ 000000060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000070 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000080 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000090 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000000F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000100 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000110 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000120 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000130 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000140 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000150 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000160 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000170 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000180 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 000000190 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001A0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001B0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001C0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 0000001F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
As you can see, the signatures match up perfectly. Just note that the signature for VHDX is in reverse.
VHD:
The hex values 63 6F 6E 65 63 74 69 78 are decoded as "conectix" which refers to Connectix, the name of the company that originally designed the VHD format. In the sections that follow the file signature or identifier, there are references to what software was used to create the file and what operating system was used. The "vpc" refers to Virtual PC, which is again a reference to Connectix and its software product that used VHD files, before Microsoft acquired the company and changed the name of Virtual PC to Hyper-V. The "Wi2k" is a reference to Windows, possibly Windows 2000 (or is it the Y2K bug?).
VHDX:
The hex values are given as 65 6C 69 66 78 64 68 76 in the Microsoft document. The reverse of that is 76 68 64 78 66 69 6C 65 which matches perfectly in the sample files above. For some reason no creation software and no operating system reference is found in these files.
Paul,
You are correct about the non-boot being the disk controller. I got the screens shown above in my attempts. I prompted the Safe Mode screen to boot in no frills safe mode and it hing at the drive controller driver loading. Proof enough for me.
I can attest to there being a difference in files by manually changing the file extension fro vhdx to vhd in the TI conversion process. The only way I could get the screens above was with the vhd file. The vhdx file would end in a black screen displaying a HyperV logo or a solid black screen with a red bar across the top of the window with an unlocked gold colored log icon that was oversized.
I made changes to drive controllers, with and without network controllers, etc. All in all, there was either no change or little change in behavior prompting me to abandon my efforts.
Well, I thought I could get the converted vhd file of a Windows 7 32 bit system that was booting Legacy on a SATA controller to boot with Hyper-V. The first hurdle was to get by the hard disk controller driver issue. I got the driver by installing a clean Windows 7 32 bit system in a Gen 1 Hyper-V machine. The install went well and the system booted. I got the PCI Bus Master IDE Controller driver from the system. I then booted the VM with the converted vhd file with WinPE and manually injected the IDE driver. That worked and the boot process got past the Windows 7 blinking flag. At that point it just stopped at a black screen with a mouse cursor and died there. I thought it was a video driver issue, so I got the video driver from the clean installed VM. I injected that with WinPE. The result was the same. It died at the black screen where the login/password screen should have been. I'm giving up at this point.
The lesson is that Hyper-V is much more difficult to deal with that either VMware or VirtualBox. I think I'll just stay away from Hyper-V from now on.
The signature of the output file is different if you type in ".vhd" manually instead of accepting the default ".vhdx". It's "conectix" for VHD and "vhdxfile" for the default setting which produces a VHDX file. This proved to be a useful little experiment. (I still wish Acronis would turn this into a proper option that you can click on.)
I have also given up on Hyper-V. It appears to be a bit too finicky (even for me). It appears to have all the bells and whistles, and the interface looks very professional. But in practice it is lacking compared to both VirtualBox and VMware products.
So to anyone wanting to convert their Acronis TIB file to something more workable like VHD or VHDX for the purpose of booting it up in a VM (i.e. a system disk), I would recommend to use VirtualBox. I have used VMware Workstation in the past, since the very early versions in fact, but I have not tested using any of their products for this scenario. So I'm not sure how that would work, or if I would be able to convert the TIB format to something that VMware can use. I believe they use the VMDK format by default, but you can probably use others too (as long as it's not Acronis TIB or TIBX). So for that reason alone I can only recommend VirtualBox.
Samir, if using VMware then it was a case of booting a new VM from an ISO of the ATI rescue media using the correct BIOS boot mode then doing a recovery of the .tib or .tibx file, followed by using Universal Restore to complete the process.
I tested this earlier in this topic using VMware Player 15 (free) and a .tib backup of a Win 7 32-bit system from 2013. This was successful and I have upgraded the restored OS to Win 10 since then!
Steve, what disk type did you use for your VM? SATA or SCSI? I'm looking at doing this now and VMware recommends using SCSI.
Samir, given the vintage of my ancient .tib file, I first set out by using the New Virtual Machine Wizard and took the option: "I will install the operating system later."
Next, I selected the Windows OS to match the .tib file being recovered, i.e. Windows 7 (32-bit) as indicated by not saying it was 64-bit!
The disk created for this was SCSI and as MBR / Legacy.
The final step was to set the CD to the ATI rescue media .ISO file and have the .tib file in an accessible location that I could connect to. In my case it was on a NAS.
Finally, I increased the default memory from 1GB to 4GB and number of processors from 1 to 4 in the VM settings (otherwise it gave memory errors trying to run the ATI 2021 media).
Note: I used my MVP Custom PE rescue media which included both ATI 2021 and Universal Restore applications, so I could do the restore then close ATI and run AUR without needing to reboot in-between.
Note 2: In the ATI rescue environment, I used the Tools > Add new disk option to initialise the raw VM SCSI disk as MBR before attempting to Recover the .tib to it.
I am of the opinion that if you want to make use of an older TI backup file taken from a different machine, then you MUST recover that backup to a VM and allow the Hypervisor used to create the VHD(X) file to be used. If your need is simply to run a VM of your current install, for example as a way to test boot of a TI backup image, then using the Convert to VHD feature of TI and using Hyper V to run that is perfectly fine. I have done this myself with success.
There is no doubt that I could keep at it with my experiment and reach success but I am not inclined to do so. I am confident however that if I restored the TIBX backup file I created of my UEFI booted Win 7 disk to a VM it would all work out.
Steve,
I forgot that I no longer have the original TIBX file (I managed to destroy a perfectly fine 4 TB external USB disk). So I could not follow through with this.
All I have is the converted VHD file I have been using now with both Hyper-V (without success) and VirtualBox (with success). So I tried using what I have, in VMwar Workstation Pro 15. At first two attempts I got a BSOD, in normal boot mode and safe mode (same as in screenshots with Hyper-V VM above).
I think it helped in my case to attach the VHD file to VMware Workstation to a SATA controller rather than SCSI. So for the third attempt that's what I did. I still ran into BSOD booting in normal mode. But right now I have successfully booted in safe mode.
The type of disk controller used may not be important if you're recovering your backup from TIB or TIBX to a brand new VM. This I think applies to both VMware and Hyper-V. But if you're only left with a VHD file and you no longer have the TIB or TIBX file (as in my case) then it would seem that VMware is more successful at making your VM bootable, simply because VMware supports virtual SATA controllers whereas Hyper-V does not.
Rebooting allowed me to boot back into Windows Vista in normal mode...
Enchantech,
I think you're right in your assessment.
When upgrading a system disk, I prefer to "install" the operating system from a backup rather than cloning the old disk to the new disk. We had an interesting discussion earlier regarding cloning or the failure of True Image to clone a disk to a NVMe target disk that some users reported.
My impression is that both cloning and one click to boot a system on dissimilar hardware spells "trouble". So why take that path if you can avoid it, right? A virtual machine can be treated like any physical PC. With all the pitfalls that come with that. Meaning that a restore or recovery from a backup file can or should be done just as easily as to a physical device. Also, Acronis Unviversal Restore should work equally well in a virtual machine as in a physical machine.
So these are all solid arguments for doing a system recovery rather than cloning or messing with VHD, VHDX, VMDK and VDI files. But I did try that at first using VirtualBox:
https://forum.acronis.com/comment/568877#comment-568877
Unfortunately, it did not work for some reason. I was told that "the file is corrupted" (when it was not). Also, my VirtualBox native VDI disk files were displayed as "not initialized", and it did not help initializing them manually. But as a general idea or principle, I agree that the Hypervisor should be allowed to create whatever virtual disk format it wants to use, and then you boot up Acronis recovery media and restore your system from backup to that virtual disk (just like on a physical disk).
Samir,
Agreed. You and I are on the same page with this. I do need to dive into Virtual Machines more as Virtual Disk is becoming a much more prominent player in the world of computers. I can see a point in time in what I think will be the near future where operating systems will run virtually. So part of an OS install will be to first create a VM on a physical machine which in turn can/will be used to host any number of OS virtual disks. This will be coupled with virtual storage that will be seamless to the end user with respect to data location, that location being a combination of local physical, remote physical, and cloud storage which will likely only appear to the user as one giant storage space.
If I am right then the VM players are going to have to become much more competitive as MS is upping their game here. I notice now in Windows 10 20H2 that Hyper V has changed dramatically over what it was prior to version 2004 release which is probably when the change came to Hyper V. Hyper V now has a wizard to create a VM and VD which I tried but failed in my case because of some assumptions the wizard made about my VHD. If I get the time I might have another go at it just to see if I can work it out. I have been a bit strapped for time lately so priorities take precedence here. :-)
Enchantech,
I agree with your outlook in regard to virtualization technology. It's one of the reasons I wanted to try this VM approach rather than restoring to a physical machine, like I have been doing for the past 10 years or so whenever I needed to restore a live operating system. In fact, I think virtualization paves the way to make the process even easier, especially when the underlying hardware is significantly different from what the old operating system used to run on. But I have a lot to learn to make better use of it all. It's not a priority for me, but it's an area I would like to explore more.
I appreciate your help with this, and the help of everyone else on this topic. I know it has been extensively covered on these forums. A common practice among True Image users that I noted from reading the discussions is to recover the system from TIB to the VM, rather than using VHD and all these other VD (virtual disk) files. Unfortunately that didn't work out so well for me.
Next up, I will try to sum up what has been discussed in this topic to create some sort of overview of the different methods that can be used to go "from TIB to a working VM".
Samir,
That sounds good to me. A well written summation of a proven procedure is a great addition to the Forum.
Since you have vision for the future use of VM's and virtual disks, I will express my vision here to see what you think.
What I believe we will see in the future are machines coupled to virtual storage that will consist of multiple and in come cases many multiples of physical storage devices. Being virtual this storage will appear tot he user as a single large storage area. VM's will be created to hosts virtual disk(s) that may contain one or more operating systems and will be stored in the aforementioned storage space. A host machine will be utilized to run the VM's on and depending on the capability of the host multiple VM's may be run at the same time. The more resources that are available on the host the more VM's that can be run at the same time.
This will allow very secure environment for the user which will increase the need and capabilities of network malware protection. AI and machine learning will play a major role in malware detection and prevention.
Writing in progress...
There are two main approaches you can take to go from TIB or TIBX to a working virtual machine (VM). One is to restore the backup to a VM just like you would on a physical machine, using Acronis bootable recovery media. The other is to use the backup as a virtual disk (VD) inside a virtual machine.
Note that "restore" and "recover" are used interchangeably. They both mean the same thing, that is to restore or to recover a backup to a target medium. Also note that "UEFI" (Universal EFI) and "EFI" are used interchangeably and mean the same thing, that is a modern PC firmware that replaces the old BIOS.
Approach 1: Use TIB or TIBX in a VM
To my knowledge, no virtualization software supports immediate use of TIB or TIBX files that Acronis True Image produces when creating backups. So the very first think you will need to do is to convert TIB or TIBX (whichever you have) to a format that a virtualization software can use.
Different virtualization software use different file formats, but the most common ones will accept a VHD or a VHDX file.
| VHD | VHDX | |
| VirtualBox | Compatible | Not Compatible |
| Hyper-V | Compatible | Compatible |
| VMware | Compatible | Not Compatible |
You may need to do more than one conversion to arrive at a format that your particular virtualization software can use. In case of Hyper-V, the format will also depend on whether you're working with a BIOS or UEFI.
Converting TIB or TIBX to VHD or VHDX
You can convert TIB or TIBX to VHD or VHDX from within True Image.
1. Open True Image and make sure the backup file you want to convert is added to the list of backup tasks, otherwise you will have to add it first.
2. Click on the arrow next to the backup you want to convert and then click "Convert to VHD".
3. Select whichever backup version you want to convert and click on Convert.
This will bring up a typical Save As dialog box. Depending on what version of Windows and True Image you're using, the "Save as type" dropdown may only have the option to save as VHD or VHDX, but not both. This is because True Image is trying to guess what format would best suite your needs, and it's assuming that you will use it on the same computer that you're doing the conversion on. On Windows 10 with True Image 2021 you can only select VHDX.
4. Name your file, select the format and click on Save.
• For VHD, append .vhd to the end of the file name. Alternatively, you can also select VHD from the "Save as type" dropdown, if available.
• For VHDX, append .vhdx to the end of the file name. Alternatively, you can also select VHDX from the "Save as type" dropdown, if available.
Converting VHD to VHDX or VHDX to VHD
If you have a VHD file and you need a VHDX file, or if you have a VHDX file and you need a VHD file, you will need to convert it. There are several tools you can use to do this.
Also note that, if you used True Image to convert TIB or TIBX to VHD or VHDX and you kept the source file, you can use True Image to do a second conversion to either VHD or VHDX, depending on your needs.
Using Convert-VHD cmdlet
If you already have a VHD file and you need a VHDX file instead, you can use the Convert-VHD cmdlet. This requires Hyper-V to be available and enabled in Windows. Hyper-V is only available in the following Windows versions and editions.
- Windows 8.0 Pro 64-bit
- Windows 8.0 Enterprise 64-bit
- Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
- Windows 8.1 Enterprise 64-bit
- Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
- Windows 10 Pro Education 64-bit
- Windows 10 Education 64-bit
- Windows 10 Pro for Workstations 64-bit
- Windows 10 Enterprise 64-bit
If you don't have a version of Windows that has Hyper-V or you don't want to enable it for some reason, you should be able to convert VHD to VHDX using the command line tools of VirtualBox.
One reason you may not want to enable Hyper-V is if you're using VirtualBox as your hypervisor, because that cripples VirtualBox and usually results in none of your VMs working correctly. That's all the more reason to use VirtualBox tools to do the conversion for you.
VHD to VHDX
Convert-VHD -Path .\Input.vhd -DestinationPath .\Output.vhdx
VHDX to VHD
Convert-VHD -Path .\Input.vhdx -DestinationPath .\Output.vhd
Using VirtualBox command
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VHD to VHDX
VBoxManage.exe clonemedium "input.vhd" "output.vhdx" --format VHD
VHDX to VHD
VBoxManage.exe clonemedium "input.vhdx" "output.vhd" --format VHD
Using VirtualBox
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Using Hyper-V
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Using VMware Workstation
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Approach 2: Recover TIB or TIBX to a VM
If you decide to restore the backup to a virtual machine rather than using it as a virtual disk, you can create a new VM and let the virtualization software create an empty disk for you in whatever format is the default in that particular virtualization software. This way you don't need to worry about converting whatever image format you have to make it compatible with the virtualization software.
Samir, one suggestion here would be to create this summary as a PDF document to render it easier for users to download and perhaps print off a copy of relevant sections they want to use.
Once you have such a document, you could also consider creating a new 'Tutorial' topic in the forum to attach the document to with a covering explanation, then see if Ekaterina would allow it to be made a pinned topic!
I agree Steve, I need to do this differently. Because the rendering on this forum is very depressing and I'm not sure if I can keep up with this. I would much rather prefer a PDF document than this. We have H2 level headers that are larger than H1 headers, and H3 headers are colored blue for some reason? I was going to do a quick rundown of all the ins and outs, but then I started adding in more bits to it so a tutorial started to take form. This looks so much better in Markdown! I'm currently trying to hack together a simple code block by encapsulating pre-formatted text in block quotes but it's not pretty.
Should I still aim for a web version of this? I'm thinking about moving that post out and turning it into a proper tutorial with screenshots and everything. But I'm not sure how to handle the lacking support in this forum software. If I go for PDF then my efforts on making a web version are wasteful.
I would say to keep with just a PDF document Samir rather making a web version which would present other issues of maintenance etc.
Samir,
Given that today's web browser's support PDF I would agree with changing to that format especially if you wish to include image files and update your work from time to time.