Acronis TI 2012 and GPT
I'm currently using a computer with EFI, GPT partitions and Windows 7 x64. I know that TI 2011 didn't fully support GPT, but does 2012 fully support GPT? Do i need the plus pack as well or doesn't even TI 2012 with pluspack fully support GPT? Will resize during restore work as well?
I want to be able to create a image of my computer and also be able to do a full recover using that image with all partitions and have a fully working system after the recovery without having to do a lot of manual steps to make the computer boot again.
Since it's hard to find any info about GPT when i read about TI 2012 i assume it doesn't fully support GPT, but just asking to be sure.
-gan
What about cloning? Can ATIH2012 clone the Window's drive with the GPT/EFI slice to a larger or smaller drive?
GPT is not a slice on a drive, it's the partitioning scheme for the entire disk. And cloning for GPT disks is not supported.
Under Disk Manager, I have EFI System, and Windows containing Boot, Page file etc - can ATIH2012 do anything that will allow me to move both of those to a new disk should the existing drive fail, or do I need to reinstall Windows 7 prior to performing a restore?
This is one thing that I could not do under 2010, and I do not want to throw away more money on something that is not going to work the way it used to - I have clones many Windows 7, Vista and XP system on PC Bios computers - or is this because my current system has a UEFI Bios?
http://kb.acronis.com/content/24018
Yes, even without pluspack.
Thank you for your reply. I guess i'll give it a try and see how it works.
-gan
I tried a trial of TI 2012 without the pluspack since there is no trial of the pluspack. Seems like a full backup of a disk with GPT was unsuccessful. After a restore the computer didn't boot. Had to do a lot of fixing to make it boot. That is basically the same results as using Ghost. I found that Paragon was able to do a complete backup and restore of SSD with GPT without having to do any manual steps after the restore. Too bad since i been using Acronis for many year and prefer Acronis. I guess i have to wait for the next version and hope for full GPT support this time.
-gan
I tried a restore too and it failed with UEFI. However, thankfully, I was able to restore the system by the following process.
1 - install a clean version of windows (to create the 100mb partition and files in there).
2 - restore only the system partition. Not the 100mb partition.
That worked for me.
I would also avoid the 6131 update and stick with 5545. 6131 has created shutdown problems (fails to shut down and after about 30 minutes, blue screen of death and restarts). This occurs on two Asus P67 boards both running UEFI boot. 5545 has no such issue.
@David, i have the Problem, too.
I must install a clean version of windows and than restore the system without the 100 mb partition.
I find, this is not OK ! ACRONIS SUPPORT, i have extra buy the plus package and 2012. The support must help !!!
Hello Hermann,
Thank you for your comment. I am really sorry to hear about this issue.
I found your case in our Support system and we are currently working on this issue.
If you have additional questions about your case feel free to contact me directly.
Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Thank you.
@David, i have the Problem, too.
I must install a clean version of windows and than restore the system without the 100 mb partition.
I find, this is not OK ! ACRONIS SUPPORT, i have extra buy the plus package and 2012. The support must help !!!
I tried again with the latest build of Acronis TI 2012 with the pluspack (even if i don't think the pluspack make any difference in this case). After making a image copy of the source SSD/HD I insert the destination SSD/HD, boot from the Windows 7 installation media, choose to start the installation and when i select the SSD/HD to install Windows i clicked advanced and new to create the partitions before starting the Windows installation. After doing this steps all three partitions where created so i stopped and did not proceed with the Windows installation. When doing a restore i restored the two partitions that Acronis managed to backup and restore both of them on the new SSD/HD to the correct partitions where i could already find the partition that i manually created in the previous steps. After doing a restore the computer didn't boot so had to boot from the Windows 7 DVD and do a startup repair that took less than 10 seconds. At this point the computer did boot from the new SSD/HD without any issues. So there is no need to perform a full Windows installation and create the partitions before the Windows installation actually start should work just fine. The pluspack doesn't solve this issue.
I hope Acronis will add full GPT support so i can create a backup of all three partions, then perform a restore without doing any startup repair. I guess it might work by doing a sector-by-sector backup, but that takes a lot more time and take up a lot more space and it's not really a very good option. A sector-by-sector backup is for unknown file systems and partitions layouts that Acronis cannot recognise so it will only backup the contents of each sector without any knowledge what it is. As long as Acronis do not fully support the GPT layout and are unable to backup the last partition i guess there is no way to perform a backup/restore that will actually work without any further hassle.
Hopefully this will be fixed in a new build of TI 2012, but i doubt it. Maybe it will be fixed in TI 2013, but i find it a bit misleading to mention GPT support when it's only partially supported. At least there should be a note that explain this in more details which i was unable to find. I'll stick with Acronis TI for now and bought a upgrade to 2012 with the pluspack, but still hoping for better GPT support. I also have to mention that Acronis is not the only one to leave out a lot of details about GPT support. I found almost all of their competitors to do the same thing.
-gan
I hope some Acronis Tech is monitoring this thread. The last recent comment was 2011 Dec 30. And I do not see a link for "Start a new thread".
I am using ATI Home 2012 update 2.1 build 7133. How do I tell whether I have the Plus Pack?
I am running Win 7 Pro 64 bit on an Asus P8Z77-V Pro mobo, with an Intel i7 3770K CPU, and 32 GB of RAM.
I am a long time Acronis TI Home user, but only for backups until these past few days.
I have recently successfully Cloned aprox 90 MB of basically archive data that will not be subject to change, from a 2 TB drive to a 320 MB drive, thereby freeing the 2 TB drive for more efficient service elsewhere.
Earlier today I semi-successfully Cloned aprox 1.8 GB of data from a (another) 2 TB drive to a 3 TB drive. I successfully specified that the 3 TB target drive should be established as a GPT disk.
A problem is that the resulting disk has 5 partitions, 4 of them small, one of the 4 is tiny.
Using EaseUS Partition Master Pro ver 921, I can see that the main data partition is 2.73 TB.
At the front (begining) of the disk are three small partitions, one is shown as "Other" 128.00 MB (used 128.00 MB), one is shown as "Unallocated" 1007.00 KB, the third is shown as "FAT32" 100.00 MB (used 1.00 MB). At the rear end of the disk is the fifth partition shown as "Unallocated" 455.00 KB.
Why did Acronis do this to my 3 TB disk, and how do I resize the main data partition to regain the "lost" 229.462 MB of disk capacity?
I see nothing in EaseUs Partition Master, when I have selected the Basic GPT disk, that will allow resizing of the GPT partition. The mouse pointer does not change to a double-headed arrow, and while the Partition Master Help instructions say to "Click Partitions > Resize/Move partition" there is no "Partitions" shown on the menu bar. The menu bar consists of General, View, Disk, Took, Wizard, and Help; none of which list "Partitions".
Help will be appreciated.
Bill
Please see my edited comments in this post: http://forum.acronis.com/forum/39815