How to setup W7/W10 Dual Boot-PC for Image Backup with Bootable Acronis-media?


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That is because for her former work, she was required to use Acronis' off-line backup utility for the laptops they used. This was deemed to be fool-proof as no interference whatsoever could happen because theOS was not active. She learned how to make an image backup and how to backup related critical data in that manner. And after that she went on the same way buying the latest versions of Acronis True Image and Disk Director. And to be honest, I do not want to change an easy method that works - that is easier for me too.
When the new PC is assembled and I have it next week, I will let you know how it all went!
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GPT is the UEFI partition scheme for the whole 2TB drive, within which you will be creating separate NTFS partitions for each of the installed Windows OS.
When you install the first OS to the empty drive, it should create the hidden / system EFI & MSR partitions, whereas if you install to a already formatted drive, it may store all the EFI / Boot data within the OS partition so that there will be no separate EFI & MSR partitions. The downside of the latter is that the second OS will be tied to the first OS partition as its BCD data etc will be stored in that first OS partition.
The method used to boot the Windows install media will dictate which partition scheme (GPT or MBR) will be used - if you boot the install media in UEFI mode then GPT will be used.
This also applies to when booting from the Acronis Rescue Media (for backups or recovery) where the BIOS boot mode should match how Windows boots.
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Thanks for the additional explanation, Steve.
Your reply made me realize that I had a bit wrong idea about the relation between the GPT partition scheme and creating a partition. Your latest response pointed that out, and now I have searched the internet some more, I fully understand it.
I will install directly onto an empty drive, first Win7 and then Win10.
And booting in the same (UEFI) boot mode from Acronis then works fine to create an image for each of the 2 OS partition sets. And the same for subsequent restores.
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