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[CRITICAL ISSUE] Restoring MBR disk backup / GPT conversion / Linux recovery medium

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ATIH 2016 b5576

Today I focused on testing the new feature that I wished to have in in ATIH 2016, allowing the user to convert a MBR to GPT and vice versa.

I did a full disk backup of an MBR Windows 10 (booted Linux recovery in UEFI mode)
and then tried a restore of that same backup back to same disk.

Refering the Acronis help you did great job in the design of this process and also the documentation is well written. However when I try to restore this Windows 10 MBR (booted via Linux Recovery in UEFI mode / CSM disabled / Secure Key enabled and set to Windows OS)

the wizard gives me the option to restore the drive unchanged (MBR) or as GPT drive but warns the same time this will render the drive to be unbootable, as the GPT will be handled as non system drive.

According to the help I am getting redirected to the entry "booting in UEFI, MBR to GPT Non Windows"

It seems like ATIH is not possible to recognize Windows 10 as valid Windows OS within the backup (haven't tested it with Windows 8.0 / 8.1 yet, Windows 7.0 does not support GPT UEFI boot)

I will post screenshots and more information later on. I spent hours on digging the problem and it was reproducible all the time. I was never possible to restore the MBR disk as bootable GPT layout.

Later I did the GPT non-system restore and figured out how to workaround this issue manually, so how to make this non-system GPT bootable but that's another story.

What I did step by step:
Configure UEFI BIOS compliant (CSM off / Secure Key > Windows OS) > at least on Asus
Boot Linux recovery using the UEFI bootloader
Booting ATIH 2016 b5576
Backing up a SSD containing a Windows 10 pro 64bit MBR installation (previously upgraded from Windows 7 pro) to another disk (Full backup)
Restoring this backup on the same disk
Wizard shows either "do not change layout or use GPT non-system disk"

Upgrading the UEFI BIOS did not change anything. Mainboard Asus H81I-Plus (BIOS 0808 and 2305)

Please check if you are able to make a MBR disk backup and restore it as GPT in a bootable state using Windows 10.

When I find time I will test this behaviour with some older Win 8.1 / 10 MBR backups I have.

p.s. the Help states a conversion is possible. Somehow it reads like there is a tool, that would even make a conversion possible without this backup / restore process but I cannot see anything like that in the Linux based ATIH. Maybe I just get this line in the documentation wrong.

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Hey Karl,

I did the opposite of what you did a GPT disk to MBR SSD with windows 8.1. I backed up my SSD with AHIT and used EaseUS Partition Manager to convert the SSD to MBR, restored with AHIT and rebuilt the boot loader with the Windows Recovery disk. However I had no expectation (after a fair amount of research) that any tool other than Windows Recovery would make my new disk bootable.

Hey DC,
thanks for your information. The help file of ATIH 2016 describes very exactly when a conversion is possible, and also a conversion from GPT to MBR is possible or should be possible when you read that chapter. This should even work without using the Windows installation or recovery disk and then using bcdboot to get things working again.

If you have time please try the following. Use your SSD backup you made with ATIH (GPT) boot the Linux recovery disk of ATIH and restore as MBR.
This should work, or least is intended to work without usage of any third party tool, so you don't need EaseUS Partition Manager to convert the disk to MBR as ATIH 2016 care about that job, and also should bring the bootloader in an consistent state. Please let me know if this worked. Screenshots of the steps taken in the ATIH wizard are appreciated.

I will like find time to test the behaviour of ATIH 2016 with Windows 7 and 8.1 tomorrow as I have a day off work.

ATIH 2016 b5634

Today I had some time to play around with the MBR / GPT topic again. Unfortunately this most likely ruined my day.

I did a full dis backup of a Windows 10 Laptop (Lenovo G500s, BIOS Firmware 2.15), which was upgraded from Windows 7. And so it is an MBR installation.

After the backup I booted the ATIH Linux Recovery medium in UEFI mode and tried to restore the backup (full disk restore). Very unfortunately Acronis did not allow to choose the MBR harddisk "formatted" harddisk as target.

Even not after I have cleaned up the disk and formatted it in GPT via Acronis True Image. The disk was still greyed out as target. In consequence I had no chance to restore this backup as GPT!

To be sure that UEFI is working correctly I reinstalled Win 10 64 bit on the cleaned disk and Win 10 installed and booted correctly using GPT / UEFI (Secure Boot)

I wonder why Acronis has a problem here.

 

At the end of the day I had to revert everything, so disable UEFI and switch back to legacy mode to be then able to restore the backup as MBR.
Disk was no longer greyed out as target. Very strange.

Karl,

I have figured out it is very important how the recovery media is booted. True Image is making decissions and acting very differently depending on how it is booted. If you boot in UEFI mode, TI assumes you are restoring disks for use in a UEFI system. In your case, with a MBR disk, you need to boot the recovery media in NON-UEFI mode for the restore to work. 

Karl,

I see you figured it out and edited your post as I was typing.

Thanks Mustang, I know it is a pain to read to my posts sometimes. As a rule of thumb allow me to have 10 minutes after the first submission, to edit my post at least one time :). It is just a bad mannerism of mine. *blush*

 

Here are some of the steps so each can see what happenend (backup / restore / target greyed out screen)

p.s. I've booted in UEFI mode both times, so also for creating the backup

 

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"In your case, with a MBR disk, you need to boot the recovery media in NON-UEFI mode for the restore to work. "

Well the ATIH help under Linux states it different. The conversion should work if a MBR based backup is getting restored in an booted UEFI environment (ATIH recovery). I would not be able to convert an MBR based disk to GPT if I would boot ATIH in legacy mode, so NON-UEFI (this works correctly)

And it does, just like I did in my original post. But this time I had no possibility to check my assumption that ATIH 2016 is not recognizing a Windows 10 installation correctly as no restore optioned were offered due to the greyed out target disk.