Move Win7 from MBR to GPT

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Before I buy ATIH 2012 I have a few questions.

I used the Western Digital version to backup and (booting of Acronis rescue CD) restore Win7 from one disk to another as a simulation of loosing my Win7 C: disk. So I know the basics work.

One snag was the rescue CD didn't let me partition and format. Reading the full product documentation, the best I could find that would let me do this was "Add a new disk". This option pointed out that any existing partitions would be deleted. Not good.

Will I need another tool to create MBR partitions and format NTFS? This is old hat and is easy to come by (including the Win7 DVD), so I'm not as worried about finding it.

Same question, but for GPT partitions? gpart etc can create the partition (and already has), but for formatting ntfs... I decided to ask here, as Windows is how Acronis make it's living, and you speak at least some Linux.

The end goal is to move my Win7 system from an MBR partition to a GPT partition, the GPT partition already has other OSes (plural) which I really don't want to chance having to do all over again.

Note: I understand that only Windows 7 Pro, 64bit, supports booting off GPT

Can ATIH 2012 do this (via rescue cd?) and/or are their complementary tools I should investigate? Thanks for any help

Thu, 04/19/2012 - 00:44
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BostonDriver:

I will have to defer questions about GPT partitions to others on the forum, but I can answer your question about MBR partitions.

TI backs up at the sector level, so when you restore a partition it does not need to be pre-formatted. The formatting on the original partition is restored when the sectors are restored. Thus, you can restore to an empty partition or to a completely blank hard disk. To restore a partition to a disk containing partitions that you want to preserve you would point TI at the target partition, which may or may not be blank, and let it rip. The other partitions will not be affected. If the target partition contains data you'll be given a warning that all contents on this partition will be overwritten with the data from your backup. Any of these operations can be done from the recovery CD.

Thu, 04/19/2012 - 01:31
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Home 2012 should be able to migrate UEFI-capable OS from MBR booting to UEFI booting (i.e. booting from GTP disk) In your case Windows 7 should be a 64-bit one to allow it (not necessary Pro. Home allows it too). So you need to have a free unallocated space for system partitions (and 200 mb reserved, if present) on the target disk.
http://www.acronis.com/support/documentation/ATIH2012/#13043.html

Thu, 04/19/2012 - 04:47
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Greetings,

I own 2 copies of ATIH 2012, one standard, one plus.  This is from page 161 (Recovery Media section) of the ATIH 2012 Standard User Guide:

When booting from the rescue media you cannot recover image backups to GPT disks using a standalone version of Acronis True Image Home 2012.

My Plus version User Guide also states this.  The two PDF's have different creation dates, file size and descriptions,  One states RTM, the other Update 1, but they appear to be the same.  Haven't diff'ed them.

When I first read this, I took it to mean that the Plus Pack was required to restore GPT disks when recovering using Bootable Media. I purchased the plus pack based on this.  I assumed GPT disks could be restored in windows using the standard version of 2012 if supported by your hardware.  I later purchased a standard version of 2012 to use on a MBR formatted system. 

I noticed that both boxed versions have GPT support listed on the key features comparisons, (except dynamic volumes).  I have not tried recovery on the system below (my sig) using my standard 2012 boot media #6154.

I have tested booting from my plus build #6154 boot media on my UEFI capable, GPT formatted system without issue.  I performed several back ups, validations and "mock" recovery to my disk array and am reasonably certain I am protected.  I plan to test file level recovery shortly. 

Also read this which states:

(!) GPT disks are supported by Acronis True Image Home 2012 itself. Dynamic disks support is available only in Acronis True Image Home 2012 Plus Pack.  But again, the product comparison on the back of the boxes state (Except GPT Dynamic Volumes) with check marks for both Standard and Plus versions.  This is unclear to me based on other sections of the documentation.

However, my conclusion is that the only real difference between standard and plus is Plus Pack adds, dynamic disk support of GPT volumes, Restore to dissimilar hardware and Windows PE support.  Like to know if anyone agrees with this.

Thanks

Thu, 04/19/2012 - 15:39
Abigo autem causa dolore scisco. Conventio defui dolor elit feugiat lucidus natu populus praemitto. Abbas ad facilisi. Defui ea gemino suscipere. Consectetuer eros interdico minim. Esse incassum plaga. Caecus decet dolore ille iriure neque. Gilvus letalis mauris paratus quis tego. Brevitas capto erat gemino loquor ratis tincidunt vulpes. Appellatio haero humo iustum luctus natu similis. Conventio decet eros humo praemitto ratis ullamcorper virtus. Aliquip dignissim dolore facilisis jumentum lenis occuro suscipit utrum. Esca gilvus haero ideo nutus persto quidne refoveo usitas. Adipiscing cui nisl odio paulatim quadrum qui venio virtus. Caecus letalis natu nunc pertineo praesent utinam. Caecus eligo jugis nimis tamen te. Ad diam dignissim gravis iusto magna praemitto. Augue gravis magna obruo plaga valde. Et humo molior saepius. Adipiscing aliquip lenis paulatim quadrum wisi. Duis in voco. Consectetuer gravis plaga populus quia. Commoveo consequat distineo exputo iustum nisl saepius. Appellatio genitus ille melior mos nisl odio torqueo velit vindico. Abico comis iustum minim nobis oppeto pecus vero. Abico ex exerci haero iusto quia sed typicus. Abigo camur lobortis pneum tincidunt turpis vel. Abbas acsi dignissim ea suscipere. Eros iustum lobortis nobis probo quadrum qui velit verto vulpes. Importunus iustum magna modo nimis nunc sit vel vulputate. Blandit commodo dolus facilisi pertineo voco vulpes. Iriure loquor venio. Cogo ea esse gravis huic imputo odio refero similis ut. Aliquam autem conventio ibidem paulatim quia sagaciter vereor wisi. Adipiscing enim esca et olim sino vulpes. At iusto scisco vulputate. Ad ex ille secundum utinam valde verto vulputate. Erat molior nibh turpis. Importunus pala utinam. Causa conventio nulla quidem secundum tation verto. Camur conventio eros importunus iustum. Consequat dolore immitto iriure luptatum nostrud ulciscor ut. Distineo enim iusto torqueo utinam. Brevitas natu pala vereor. Abigo decet ea proprius typicus uxor volutpat. Causa iusto quae sit suscipere torqueo ut vulputate. Magna occuro pneum. Abbas blandit dolus paulatim. Adipiscing caecus jugis nibh obruo premo. Augue causa eu laoreet lenis mauris premo suscipit vero. At damnum exputo ideo immitto pala vereor. Eum jugis utinam velit wisi. Augue cogo ratis suscipere vereor. Diam ille incassum persto saluto. Abluo blandit fere molior. Caecus erat magna mauris praemitto saluto vero. Qui singularis tincidunt valde. Minim qui similis ut. Ex exerci lenis nimis ratis sagaciter volutpat. Abigo aliquam lenis loquor nulla pala similis vel velit vero. Aliquip defui erat letalis paulatim utinam. At nutus occuro. Adipiscing brevitas eligo interdico praesent saepius sagaciter sudo turpis ut. Accumsan dolus eu pertineo refero verto. Imputo meus vereor wisi. Bene commodo diam illum laoreet paulatim populus uxor. Caecus commodo inhibeo jus nulla nunc ulciscor valetudo. Consectetuer defui iaceo iustum nibh te vel. Facilisis loquor ratis tum vicis. Capto luptatum pala sudo torqueo. Antehabeo caecus dolus ea gravis illum molior vulputate. Abdo adipiscing iaceo jugis pertineo te ullamcorper. Abico erat ideo os turpis. Dolore facilisis metuo nibh occuro pecus volutpat. Acsi antehabeo damnum defui ex lucidus nulla ymo. Fere pecus sudo. Camur dolore illum loquor qui quia. Brevitas camur dignissim dolor duis obruo plaga quae veniam volutpat. Dignissim loquor olim te vereor. At cui dolore erat eros jumentum ludus nibh vereor. At dolor eros huic suscipit te typicus voco. Appellatio autem defui in neque nisl proprius qui tation. Eros quae refero. Aptent bene dolor minim. Abdo cui importunus oppeto utrum. Commodo erat ludus olim vel. Commodo iustum laoreet nisl. Abico os tincidunt tum. Damnum enim fere sit suscipere tego turpis typicus usitas virtus.
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Thanks everyone. This helps. I started to look at "Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 11 Workstation" (and other vendors) when I wasn't notified about these comments! I'm glad I checked back. I still might go the BR11 WS route for the P2V, V2P type support (assuming I get all the rest of what's in ATIH 2012 was well.)

I'm still digesting what you wrote. I'm much more familiar with a Unix type dump/restore paradigm where the e.g. recovery cd needs to create new partition of size 's', format it, make bootable, then restore.

If I understand what Mark wrote, ATIH 2012 would I'd just get a restore of the same size 's' as my backup (assume I create a GPT partition of this size with gpart... I'll worry about possibly using unallocated space, blowing away a larger (or n-smaller?) partition(s), growing (or shrinking) the new partition to larger than original backup etc. later; I haven't done any homework.

@dev-anon: some of what I read in KB (including the next page after the link you posted) talk about GPT for non-system data, so I thought I'd ask.

I might get the plus-pak "just in case" @shadow,

Thanks

Thu, 04/19/2012 - 21:25