While recovering an UEFI disk, ATI displays an MBR

Are you wanting to recover to the same disk that the image was made from or to a new disk? Have a look at the link below for procedures to do either.

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/index.html#2…

Hello,

Thanks for your answer.

Enchantech wrote:

Are you wanting to recover to the same disk that the image was made from or to a new disk?

I would like to test both methods.

I carefully read the part of the documentation that you linked, and other parts, but it doesn't cover my case.

When the source disk and destination are both MBR, and you recover to a new disk, it advises to NOT select the MBR and Track 0 box :
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/index.html#2…

When the source disk is MBR and the target system is UEFI-booted, it advises to recover the MBR :
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/index.html#2…

None of the above applies to me, as my source disk is UEFI/GPT.

Also, screenshots (in the documentation) of the ATI boot media often displays the "System Reserved partition", but it nevers appears for me, when I backup, or when I recover (but I know I have such partition, as Windows 10 showed it when installing itself).

Anyway, I tried to apply a recovery to my original disk, and selected all partitions, but did NOT select the "MBR and Track 0 box".
It worked perfectly.
Just before the recovery started, it said it will be recovered using sector-by-sector, which is strange, because when I created the backup I switched OFF sector-by-sector.

So, to recover to the same disk, now I know I do NOT have to recover the "MBR and Track 0 box".

Now I would like to test the recovery to a new disk (identical to the original disk, same size, same model, same manufacturer).
The documentation only covers that operation when the source disk is MBR, which is of no use for me :
http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/index.html#2…

Do you know what I need to do ?
Thanks.

The "Recovering your system to a new disk under boot media" is the procedure you would use to restore to a new disk.

Thanks Enchantech.

But this procedure explains (Step 9) that if I have a System Reserved partition, I need to select it on the "What to recover" tab.
I have a System Reserved partition, but it doesn't appear on the "What to recover" tab, so I cannot select it.

The system reserve partition may have a different name in your case such as EFI System or something similar. These partition should be 128MB in total size with some only being 100MB or even 99MB. This size correlation can help you determine which one listed is your System Reserved partition.

Thanks again.

Enchantech wrote:

The system reserve partition may have a different name in your case such as EFI System or something similar.
These partition should be 128MB in total size with some only being 100MB or even 99MB.

I have this :
-EFI System Partition (99MB), displayed by ATI boot media.
-Microsoft Reserved Partition (16MB), not displayed by ATI boot media.

So, the Reserved Partition that ATI needs, is the EFI System, and not the one that is actually named Reserved Partition (Microsoft's).

Also, I have found an answer to my previous question (What is this MBR doing here ? I'm in UEFI, so I use GPT, not MBR) :

GPT contains a dummy MBR table with a pseudo-partition that spans over first 2 TB of the hard drive.
It's used to trick legacy tools that don't support GPT into thinking that a drive contains valid MBR partition table and a single partition with no free space.
It's safer than letting a legacy tool read the GPT, because it could interpret it as a corrupted MBR and attempt to fix it.

http://superuser.com/questions/654798/are-gpt-reserved-and-efi-system-p…

Ok, I replaced my working SSD by an indentical never-used SSD (not even formated).
I tried the "Recovering your system to a new disk under boot media" procedure.

I use the boot media, and browse to the ATI backup.

I select the partitions I want to recover (on the window called "What to recover").

Then I click on "Setting of partition 1-1".
Partition location : Not selected.
So I click on "New Location".

A pop-up appears, with an obvious bug : it only displays some "Disk 2", which is clearly the eternal USB disk that contains the ATI backup file.
When I select it, I can display its details. Nowhere is a "Disk 1" displayed (it would be my new SSD).

The funny part : if I click on an empty spot, then on "Disk Property", I can display the details of an invisible disk, which is the brand new SSD.
I click on Accept, and Disk 1 is now displayed on Partition Location.

But Partition Size, free space before, and Free space after, are all 0.
So I click on "Change Default", but all fields are greyed out, impossible to change the values (all 0).

It's clear ATI doesn't want to format that disk.

But I have found a solution : I have installed Windows 10 on that new SSD, exactly as I have installded the original SSD.
So the partitions have the same size.

Then I have made a recovery using ATI, and it worked !

Fellow MVP Mustang has posted a great definitive guide about restoring to a new disk.  The kink is below, have a look.

https://forum.acronis.com/forum/101550

I have not seen the solution I used to recreate the UEFI files. This works for more than just Acronis but I found it needed when I restored a full machine to a VM.

After restoring the image...

1. Convert the drive to GPT
2. Boot into command prompt in Windows recovery mode or with the Windows install image
3. Determine which drive Windows is installed on as being detected by the system, for example check with "dir c:\" or "dir d:\" etc until you find the drive letter it is using in the recovery environment (may be C drive when working may not show up that way in recovery environment)
4. Remember that drive letter for step 17
5. Issue the following commands
6. diskpart
7. list disk
8. select disk (your OS disk #)
9. list partition
10. If you have a "System" partition that is 200-300 MB (not Windows)
    1. select partition X (where X is the partition number)
    2. delete partition override
    3. create partition efi size=260 (or the size that it was before in list)
11. If you do not have a "System" partition
    1. create partition efi size=260
12. list partition (confirm it has selected System with an asterisk next to the number)
13. format fs=fat32 quick
14. assign letter=K:
15. exit
16. k:
17. Get the drive letter from step 3 and specify it in place of "XXX" in the command below
    1. bcdboot XXX:\Windows /l en-us /s K: /f ALL
       1. for example
          1. bcdboot C:\Windows /l en-us /s K: /f ALL

Power off the computer. Power on the computer. That should recreate the UEFI files and fix the boot!