Cloning 750MB MBR Boot Drive to a 4TB GPT Boot Drive, is it possible with Acronis 2020?
I have the need to
Clone a 750MB MBR Boot Drive to a 4TB GPT Boot Drive, is it possible with Acronis 2020?
Mike Lynch


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"I would recommend getting the current boot drive working in that mode first before making any attempt at cloning to a larger drive."
Are you recommending I Clone my:
750MB MBR Boot Drive to a 750MB GPT Boot Drive?
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Mike Lynch wrote:"I would recommend getting the current boot drive working in that mode first before making any attempt at cloning to a larger drive."
Are you recommending I Clone my:
750MB MBR Boot Drive to a 750MB GPT Boot Drive?
Not using cloning for this type of migration. I assume that you actually have a 750GB boot drive not something as small as 750MB unless you are running Windows 3.1 or similar!
Does your computer have UEFI BIOS to support booting from a GPT drive of 4TB capacity?
If yes, then you should first make a full disk backup of the working MBR drive.
Next, if you have Windows 10, then you can use MBR2GPT to try converting the drive.
To do this using ATI 2020, you would need to create the Acronis Rescue Media then boot your computer in UEFI boot mode, then restore your full disk backup (MBR) to the 750GB drive, where ATI will migrate the drive during the restore from MBR to GPT.
See the ATI 2020 User Guide: UEFI-booted system, MBR, UEFI supported
UEFI-booted system, MBR, UEFI supported
In this step of the wizard, you need to select the destination hard disk.
Currently your system contains:
System: UEFI-booted
Source partition style: MBR
Operating system on the source disk: Windows, booting in UEFI is supported
If you migrate the system to the selected disk:
After migration, the destination partition style will be converted to GPT and you will be able to boot from it.
Destination disk after migration:
System: UEFI-booted
Partition style: GPT
Operating system: Windows, booting in UEFI is supported
Disk size: the entire disk space is available
You can find more information about the migration procedure in Migration method section.
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There are some issues you need to understand in order to succeed.
1. Your computer needs to have a 64 bit processor. If it only has a 32 bit processor, you need to forget this project.
2. Your current Windows 7 BIOS/MBR system needs to be a 64 bit system. If it's a 32 bit system, forget this project.
3. Your computer needs to have a UFEI BIOS. It looks like an older computer and it's hard to get any information from the Gateway website about the 6.5. The 6 series only supports Windows Vista and Windows XP. You need to understand how to access the BIOS and see if it supports UEFI booting.
4. You can't use live cloning from the running Windows 7 MBR system. Any clone done this way by True Image will convert the target drive to MBR to match the running system.
5. You need to do the conversion from a WinRE or WinPE TI recovery media. Cloning or Backup/Recovery will both work if done correctly. There is a simple rule of thumb to follow. If you boot the recovery media in MBR mode, true Image will convert the target of the clone or the target of the recovery to MBR. If you boot the recovery media in UEFI mode, True Image will convert the target of the clone or the target of the recovery to GPT. It doesn't matter how the targets are formatted before you start, the conversion will happen.
6. True Image will give you a UEFI/GPT system that will boot successfully. I just did an experiment where I backed up a 64Bit Windows 7 BIOS/MBR system and recovered it to the original disk after booting the recovery media in UEFI mode. The disk was converted to UFFI/GPT and booted on the first try. You need to understand how to set the BIOS to boot from the Windows Boot Manager entry of the new drive.
7. True Image build 22150 will fail to create a bootable WinRE media using the Simple method. This is because of a program bug that effect Windows 7 systems. You will need to Use the MVP Tool offered here https://forum.acronis.com/forum/acronis-true-image-2019-forum/mvp-tool-custom-ati-winpe-builder You can select the build from WinRE option to create a successful WinRE recovery disk. This disk will boot in either BIOS/MBR or UEFI/GPT mode. You need to understand how to get to the one time boot menu option for your computer. You will see 2 boot options listed for the recovery media if your computer supports UEFI boot. The one that starts with UFEI will boot in UEFI mode. The one that does not mention UEFI will boot in Legacy BIOS mode.
8. After the successful clone or recovery to the 4 TB drive, you will need to expand your C: drive partition to fill the space on the disk. I don't know what hidden OEM partitions may be on your disk, so I can't tell you exactly how you will need to do this. Just cross that bridge when you come to it.
If this all sound complicated, it is. Don't blame True Image, blame the computer industry.
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