Can acronis true image 2016 clone & convert 1TB MBR to 3TB GPT HDD?
Can acronis true image 2016 clone & convert 1TB MBR to 3TB GPT HDD?
I'm using windows 7 x64 ultimate....
To convert MBR to GPT, Does newer version windows need?
I am totaly confused about True Image 2015 and 2016 (I have both but am still using 2015) in regards to GPT style disks. I am trying to install Windows 8.1 to an empty partition (currently booting into Windows 7 only on a different partition) that is formatted as an MBR disk. Windows install gives me an error, that it will not install Windows 8.1 on my empty partition unless I convert the whole disk to GPT. Acronis documentation states that I can not convert an MBR bootable/system disk to GPT without loss of data. Also Disk Director 12 will not allow the conversion.
1) If I backup with True image 2015, delete the partitions and format the disk as GPT, will the restored True Image 2015 Windows 7 image/partition (backed up from the MBR disk) convert the disk back to MBR or will the Windows 7 image restore to the newly created GPT?
2) In the Acronis product documentation, it states that I will no longer be able to use True Image backup or restore without a "Plus Pack" and I have no idea if I have the plus pack or how to buy it (nothing on the web site) and I wonder if this is true?
I am a long time user of True Image and Disk Director and hope that there is a way to deal with these issues and get answers to my questions! I am using a 1TByte disk, so there is no reason to switch to GPT now, other than to do the Win 8.1 install, making a dual boot Win 7 and Win 8.1 PC (I can handle that)...
Jim,
If you don't switch to GPT, you will never see more than 2TB of your 3TB drive. This is a limitation of MBR formatted drives and especially those as "boot" drives.
1) When you restore your disk, it will ask you if you want to keep it as the original type (MBR) or convert to GPT - select to convert to GPT.
2) There is no plus pack in 2015/2016 - that was needed in 2014 and earlier. 2015/2016 have full functionality with Universal restore as a separate media add-on but it comes with the purchased license.
In reference to the response to my original post and the reply from Bobbo:
I am not using a disk drive greater than 1TByte, so that is not the issue. I am also not trying to clone the disk, so that was not the issue. I simply have a SSD disk with a bootable MBR based Windows 7 installation that I would like to make into a Windows 7 bootable GPT disk. The disk also has some unallocated space and the motherboard has UEFI BIOS...
1. I backed up my SSD hard drive, using Acronis 2016 True Image, 'cleaned' the original disk and converted it from MBR to GPT using Disk Director 12. I then did a restore to the new GPT disk, using True Image 2016, selecting all parts (MBR, System Reserved partition and Windows 7 OS partition), to my original SSD disk and also to a spare 1 Tbyte hard disk, having converted both to GPT. I did the previous again, not selecting the MBR record. In all cases (and to both drives) Acronis on the restore, overwrote the GPT inofrmation and put the disks (both) back to MBR. I did not recieve a message and was not given a message to convert the restored image to GPT.
2. I repeated the same steps as in 2, this time not selecting the MBR boot record. After restore, the disks were not bootable but remained as GPT.
The only reason I want to convert the disk to GPT is to allow installation of Windows 10 on an unallocated partition, as Windows 10 installation tells me I can't install to an MBR disk (my system has a UEFI bios). Help! I have spent many hours doing the recommended steps and am back to where I started (thanks to a good backup and restore)...
For booting, no Acronis cannot convert the disk from MBR to GPT and still have Windows load. It can do this for non-boot drives where only data lives.
You can use Windows to covert MBR to GPT using diskpart commands without losing data, but I'm pretty sure this will result in a non-bootable OS as well.
There are 3rd party tools that claim to do this. I have used them for non-bootable disks and found succes, but never tried on a bootable one. I'd suggest taking a full disk image of your system "as is" before trying any of them. To be doubley sure, try restoring that image back (at least to another drive if not on your main one) to make sure the image is good.
After that, you can look to one of thes third party products for converting MBR to GPT on a bootable disk and see how it goes and report back on the outcome.
http://www.disk-partition.com/windows-10/convert-mbr-gpt-windows-10-052…
Excerpt from True Image 2016 User Guide:
5.1.3.1 Example of recovery to a UEFI system
Here is an example for transferring a system with the following conditions:
The source disk is MBR and the OS supports UEFI.
The target system is UEFI-booted.
Your old and new hard drives work in the same controller mode (for example, IDE or AHCI).
Before you start the procedure, please ensure that you have:
Bootable rescue media. Refer to Creating bootable rescue media (p. 16) for details.
Backup of your system disk created in disk mode. To create this backup, switch to disk mode, and then select the hard drive that contains your system partition. Refer to Backing up disks and partitions (p. 38) for details.
To transfer your system from an MBR disk to a UEFI-booted computer:
1. Boot from the rescue media in UEFI mode and select Acronis True Image.
2. Run the Recovery wizard and follow the instructions described in Recovering your system (p. 67).
3. On the What to recover step, select the check box next to the disk name to select the entire system disk. In the example below, you need to select the Disk 1 check box:
4. On the Finish step, click Proceed.
When the operation finishes, the destination disk is converted to GPT style so that it is bootable in UEFI.
Hmm, good to know, but I would be cautious with a good backup first before trying - just in case. Whenver I have converted MBR backups to GPT during the restore, i always get a warning that it will not be bootable. I think the limitation is not that a system cannot be converted from MBR to UEFI, but th that the bootability is lost when converting from MBR to GPT disk format.
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/#13840.html
Warning! After migration, the destination disk can be used only as non-system. This option is not available if Acronis True Image 2016 is run in Windows XP x32 operating system.
You can find more information about the migration procedure in Migration method section.
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/index.html#2…
- Copy partitions and use a disk as non-system, GPT style - select this option to convert your partition to a GPT layout.
The trick is to enable UEFI in the machine bios just prior to booting the Recovery Media in UEFI mode. This in essence forces the GPT format to occur on the target disk.
I did this on a Win 7 install just to test it and it worked fine.
Excellent. I have not tried myself, but am glad to know the option can be accomplished this way! Saving this one in my Acronis favorites for reference!
Here is an example of how to perform an MBR to GPT conversion:
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/index.html#2…
Bear in mind this may be dependent on the bios design of any particular machine. My test machine allows for boot in any of 3 modes, UEFI only, UEFI with Legacy support booting UEFI first, And UEFI support booting Legacy first. To perform my conversion I switched to UEFI only mode, saved and exited, and booted into the UEFI Recovery Media. If you do this correctly after setting up the backup you will get a popup message ststing that the recovered disk will be converted to GPT.