Dissimilar Hardware

Dave,

The phrase "dissimilar hardware" usually refers to separate PC's that have different Mother Boards. PC's are essentially married to their Mother Boards in the sense that you can't normally install a HDD from PC #1 into PC #2 (and expect it to boot into and run the PC in Windows) if the two PC's are not identical. There are several reasons for this limitation, one of which is Driver differences between the 2 PC's Mother Boards.

Acronis provides the "Universal Restore" feature which is sometimes referred to as "Restore to Dissimilar Hardware". There are limitations to this feature, from that I've read about the topic. I haven't tested the feature yet but it's on my "hobby to-do" list :).

Your question about HDD's:

Replacing HDD's isn't involved in the "dissimilar hardware" discussion as you can interchange (replace a bad HDD, etc) HDD's between Windows PC's. If you're planning on replacing your existing HDD with a larger one, you can do that although there are some things that may need to be considered. I've upgraded my Win 7x64 Desktop PC from a 500 Gb to 1 Tb HDD using Acronis (2011 ver) Cloning with no problems.

If you're interested in a HDD that's larger than 2 TB, you'd want the HDD to be initialized as a "GPT" HDD. For this topic, I'm assuming that your HDD's are 2 TB or smaller, which often (Win 7 and previous Win OS'es) are set up as "MBR" HDD's.

Test-Restore question:

It won't be considered as "dissimilar hardware" so it should work ok for your test-restore. There's no need to format the Target HDD when performing a full-HDD Image restoration. I've processed numerous test-restore Images with my 2 Win 7x64 PC's without issue, using my spare HDD in an "unallocated" state prior to restoring it from an existing Image.

This is the same with Cloning as the (full-HDD) Image restoration will also restore the complete HDD, including the MBR, Partition Table, and system partition[s].

From your post, it looks like you've got the procedure nailed :). The only thing I'd add is to insure that you have your Source Image storage device attached to your PC before booting into your media (CD, USB stick).

Here's what I do when I'm prep'ing my PC for an Image Restoration:

* This first step isn't necessary. I do this to make it easy to identify my Target HDD since it will contain near-identical content as a result of a previous Cloning or Imaging process.

- * Prep my Target HDD by connecting it to my PC via a SATA/USB Adapter. Delete all partitions on the HDD. The result is it will appear in the boot media as "unallocated".

- Connect my Image Storage HDD, where my full-HDD Image is located.

- Insert my boot media (CD in my case).

- Shut down PC. Disconnect my original Source HDD.

- Restart Windows, booting into the boot/rescue media. My BIOS boot order is always set to boot from my tower CD/DVD Drive if the BIOS detects a bootable device installed in it.

- Select the desired Image from my external storage device (USB connected HDD).

- Select the desired Target HDD, usually installed in my PC tower.

- Run the Image-restoration process.

- Boot up into Windows, leaving my original Source HDD disconnected, and test the newly-restored HDD (run it on Windows briefly, testing misc things, browser, my e-mail, etc.)

- Shut down PC. Disconnect the restored test HDD and install my original Source HDD. Restart PC as normal.

I attached a HDD anatomy chart that may help illustrate the differences between "MBR" and "GPT" HDD's. If I recall, all Win 8[.1] PC's are shipped with GPT setup HDD's. The blue arrows that point to the metadata sector's were intended for another topic :), where I was discussing malware presences with a member at another forum.

Scoop,

That was certainly a very thorough and informative explanation and I thank you very much for the time and detail involved! The target disk I'll be using is labeled "Spare" (see attachment). It does not show the empty space as unallocated. I'm assuming this would still be okay to restore the image to.

I'll print your suggestions and keep it handy when I do the test in a week or two.

Thank you again!

Dave...

Dave,

You're welcome :)

Your "Spare" HDD should work ok as the Target HDD. The existing "M" partition will be replaced with what should result in an identical copy of your Source (Disk 0 / "C") HDD, as long as your Image that you'll be using as the Restoration source was Imaged as a full-HDD Image.

Attached is my Disk Mgmt console to illustrate why I prep my Target HDD's before Cloning or test-Image restoring to those HDD's.

I connected a recently-cloned spare HDD before capturing the Console screencap.

In my Console, Disk 3 (partition's "G" & "I") is my recently-cloned spare HDD, appearing nearly identical to my Source (Disk 0) OS HDD.

Disk 4 is a Flash Stick that I connected and then deleted the partition on it so it appears as Unallocated. In this example, let's assume that this device is my Target HDD for a Cloning or test-Image restore HDD.

When I boot into any Cloning/Imaging media, it's always easy to select my Target HDD since it will appear as empty/unallocated.

There appears to be a fair amount of apparent confusion indicated in 'net forums about formatting, assigning a drive letter (creating a partition), before Cloning or restoring a HDD from a full-HDD Image. I've read many posts elsewhere where users seem to be under the impression that this is required before either Cloning or restoring from an Image.

I'm not using GPT HDD's (primarily used with Win 8[.1] installs) so my Cloning/Imaging experiences are all based on MBR HDD's and my 2 Win 7x64 PC's in addition to a family member's XP PC, but I've never prep'ed (formatted, assign drive letter, etc) any of my Target HDD's with these 3 PC's before Cloning or Image-restoring on 3 separate PC's.

David,
you might want to invest some reading time here but read it all.
I am assuming that you have your choice of either 2014 or 2015 as the TI Restore/Recovery CD.
I have not used 8.1 so unable to comment other than to know 99% are GPT.
https://forum.acronis.com/forum/60129

Grover,

I read through the thread you provided and I'm afraid it was a bit over my head. Is it indicating that because I have Windows 8.1 and my disks may be partitioned with GPT that Acronis restores the partitions incorrectly?

I am using ATI2014 rescue USB stick. Checking disk management for my 2 internal HD's Properties , I find they are partitioned with GUID Partition Table (GPT). Not sure what all this means though.

Thanks to you and Scoop for your help with this.

David,
As I indicated, I do not have 8.1 for testing so unable to help. Yes, there is the possibility that the partition structure of the test restore will not match the original but may or may not boot. You may just have to test in order to know the answer. Perhaps Mustang or Joey will comment. It appeared that the 2015 TI Recovery CD has better GPT recovery results.

When restoring I would have the original source disk totally disconnected, and then connect the test disk to the same connector as used by the original.

The issue Grover described is the reason I no longer use True Image.

Using 2014 to perform a disk mode recovery to the original disk results in free space at the beginning of the disk. The space is from the partitions that were originally in front of the MSR partition. Recovery places these partitions after the MSR partition. Performing a disk mode recovery or clone to a new disk results in the MSR partition being placed first on the disk.

2015 has some minor improvements over 2014. A disk mode recovery with an image created by 2015 to the disk from which the image was taken results in all partitions being restored in the correct order. A disk mode recovery or clone to a new disk however results in the MSR partition being place first on the disk.

This causes several issues because the partition order no longer matches what is stored in the BCD. On my systems for example the Windows partition was still partition number 4 so it booted without using startup repair. However the advanced startup and recovery functions no longer worked because the WinRE partition was now partition 2 and the information in the BCD pointed to partition 1 which was now the MSR partition. The command line tool reagentc can be used to update the BCD to match the new layout, but it would be difficult for the average user. I had to prepare my disk prior to a recovery with diskpart to ensure full functionality. On one PC the nonstandard layout caused "no operating system found" messages to appear when powering on the system. Correcting the partition order resolved the issue.

Thank you Joey for the information you provided.

I am beginning to wonder if ATI2014 can provide the "peace-of-mind" I need to to expect from a proper restore of a disk image to my Windows 8.1 GPT partitioned disks.

Let me ask any of you another question.

I have an external 750GB USB HD that is new and unused. It is formatted NTFS and shows the partition style as MBR. It's original out-of-the-box. If I use 8.1 to format the disk, I assume the partition style would be changed to GPT. Is it possible to restore a .tib disk image of my boot disk to this USB external HD? The reason I ask is that I'm not feeling good at this point about testing the restore to an internal HD as a bit more work is involved in preparing for the test and it seems it may fail anyway.

Assuming the restore goes well on the USB HD, it would be easy to open Disk Management and see what the partition layout is. If it's NOT an exact replica of the original disk then my question would be answered. If the layout IS correct, should I be able to reboot from this external HD (seems I read somewhere that you can't boot Windows from an external HD).

So, in a nutshell, anyone using disks with the GPT partition table may not be able to rely on ATI to perform a bootable image restore. Is that what I'm hearing from this? According to the Acronis website, "Windows 8.1 Certification - Acronis True Image 2014 is officially certified to support Windows 8.1."

Again, my computer knowledge is somewhat limited and I appreciate your assistance in helping me understand what's going on.

Dave...

There is no need to test. Take Joey's word for it, the partition layout will not be correct. That does not mean that a restored disk will not boot, it will. What is does mean is that the Recovery features of WinRE and/or OEMs will be broken and will not work.

As for your USB drive, I would leave it as MBR and NOT do a test restore to it. If you did try to restore to it, True Image 2014 would convert it to GPT. It would not boot because Microsoft will not allow Windows will not boot from a removable drive unless it is using the WinToGo feature of an Enterprise version of Windows 8.

Thank you Mustang for your insight. I think I'm getting the picture more clearly now. I'm glad I've asked these questions and have hesitation about continuing to use Acronis. Started with ATI2009 and have used most all the versions since then. Upgraded to 2015 but went back to 2014 for a variety of reasons. I certainly would have expected ATI to restore an image exactly as it should be. It's an easy UI to work with and there are several features which are quite nice. I think this will be a deal breaker for me.

Thanks again to you, Scoop, GroverH, and Joey for sharing your experience.

Dave...

Yes, my thanks as well to Scoop, Joey and Mustang for their comments.

David,
Many (perhaps Most or even all) volunteers use more than one Backup program. Very few (if any) have ALL the features we want or use so depending upon their needs determines what gets used on a daily use or special use.

Most backup programs confilict with one another which restrict one vendor to a particular computer unless you use only their CD so do be careful of conflicts.

I have multiple backup programs--some free--some purchased.
Grover

Echoing GroverH, thanks for the info here. Joey, Mustang, great GPT/Win 8 HDD info. I'm an old-timer "MBR" HDD guy :d so it's good to get a head start with the GPT Cloning/Imaging tips and issues. I'll probably have to change to GPT HDD's when I upgrade to Win 10 eventually.

I decided to skip over the Win 8[.1] era as my Win 7 PC's are running good on their original OS install's, and (my perspective) MBR HDD backup's seem to be less complicated than GPT HDD issues that are similar to what's been mentioned here. I doubt I'd need more than 4 HDD partitions with my PC's. I think GPT's are capable of 128 partitions? That's a lot of capacity :).

Dave,

GroverH mentioned a significant point to have in place alternative (HDD) backup plans in case issues are encountered with one's primary backup program. That's why I use Macrium Reflect as a 2nd tool in case anything happens with my Acronis program. I've used "Clonezilla" (free ISO download tool) but that's my rarely-used emergency Cloning/Imaging tool since it's not as user-friendly (my pov) as most other tools.

Scoop:

Installed Macrium Reflect about 2-days ago and exploring it now. Thanks!

Dave,

Hope all goes well with your Macrium setup & operations.

Here's some info that may help you when creating your WinPE/RE boot media although this may not apply to your GPT/Win 8 PC as I'm running Win 7x64 with MBR HDD's.

I'm using Macrium's free version 5.3 build 7277.

When I was going through the setup dialog to create my WinPE boot CD, I was encountering a "drivers missing" dialog box which asked me if I wanted to install missing Drivers. This dialog can be ignored depending on what Drivers are missing. For example, when I created my WinPE disc for my Laptop PC, I wasn't able to get it to install the Ethernet Driver but it's not necessary for Imaging and Cloning since I'm booted into my RAM (outside of Windows) when I'm processing my HDD backups.

I verified this ("Driver missing" dialog / not a problem) when I read some posts over at the Win 7 forum Macrium threads.

Since you're running Win 8[.1], there's some helpful info over at the Windows 8 Forum about Macrium.

http://www.eightforums.com/

If you installed the Pro (purchased) version, you have access to the Macrium forum and can post there for assistance if needed. Posting there requires registering with a verified purchased product key.

http://support.macrium.com/