How many types of 64-bit Windows 10 Pro installations should you do to create universal backups?
With Acronis True Image it is not possible to make backups that work on dissimilar hardware but sometimes they work anyway.
I wanted to do 2 different installations on VirtualBox, one on MBR disk and one on GPT disk but I can't do the second one.
Is it possible to install Windows 10 on GPT? Why can't I?
I currently have 2 installations, one with Windows Pro 32-bit (MBR) and one with Windows Pro 64-bit (MBR).
Thank you in advance


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Thanks for the reply and happy Easter but I don't know what ATI is and above all I don't know how to enable UEFI on VirtualBox. On my physical PC UEFI is enabled.
On VirtualBox there is no check on EFI so I think Lecacy is not enabled. If Legacy is not enabled UEFI is enabled. For this reason I don't understand why my OS won't install.
If I check EFI I have problems.
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I have no experience with VirtualBox but I do use VMware Player for my own virtual machines of which I have both MBR and UEFI installations.
Similar to how Acronis rescue media can be booted in both UEFI and Legacy BIOS boot modes, so can the Windows 10 install media by selecting the appropriate BIOS entry for the virtual machine when booting from an ISO image.
In the virtual machine settings, those using UEFI have the line:
firmware = "efi"
whereas those using Legacy do not have that line but can be set to Legacy by using:
firmware = "bios"
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Like Steve I cannot answer your question about VirtualBox as I do not use it. It would be best to ask this over on the VirtualBox forum
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I would like to switch to your program so I ask you 5 questions:
1) What is the exact name of your software (free version)? That's right?
https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation-player/workstation-player-e…
2) What is the exact name of the paid version of your program that allows you to install infinite versions of Windows and Linux? I would only use 3 for the moment (MBR 64bit, GPT 64bit, MBR 32bit) but in the future I might add.
3) How do you access the BIOS of your program to make the necessary changes? Could you give me some more detailed info? I'm a bit hindered ... :)
4) Avoiding driver problems for which the system does not boot, are the 3 installations enough?
5) What is the difference between "UEFI Boot Support" and "UEFI Secure Boot Support"? Which of the two versions serves my purposes?
https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation-pro.html
thanks
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I am using VMware Workstation Player 15 but which looks to have been superseded by version 16 now.
You can access the BIOS for the VMware machine by pressing the ESC key when the VM is being launched and shows a black screen.
You can also edit the VMware VM configuration file and force the BIOS mode as I indicated in my earlier reply by adding the line firmware = "efi" or firmware = "bios" after doing the initial VM creation and before starting the machine.
Sorry, I cannot advise about avoiding driver problems - each VMware machine is based on my host system running the VMware Player and uses just the drivers provided by VMware. I have never tried to take such a VM and use it with physical hardware in the way you are considering.
UEFI can be used either with or without enabling Secure Boot - there is no difference to the installed operating system, this is effectively a firmware protection being applied at the BIOS level. I have again never tried to set UEFI Secure Boot for any of my VM's and do not know if this is even possible with VMware. Secure Boot is enabled for my host PC running the VMs.
I only ever have a single VM active at any time.
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I can't connect the external USB drive to the program. I can't backup and restore.
Wrong approach or is it a compatibility problem?
thanks
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You should install the VMware Tools for best compatibility with your host system and the VM's as this makes them easier to operate etc.
I updated to the Player 16 version along with updating the VMware Tools on first launch of one of my VM's.
The following images show one of my USB drives (128GB Samsung flash drive) connected to the VM.
The first image shows how it looks without the USB drive connected.
The next image shows the USB flash drive connected to the VM, along with Explorer open to this. The drive has 2 partitions where VMware doesn't recognise the first of these (EFI partition for a Windows 2 Go USB drive).
The final image shows the Safely remove information with the USB drive shown.
I will typically send my backups to either a second virtual drive for the VM or else use my NAS as the destination for the backups.
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I solved the disk problem. I have found that I have an external drive that only works on my physical computer and not on VMware Workstation 16 Player.
Fortunately I have a second external drive which also works on VMware Workstation 16 Player.
Both disks are GPT so I think it's just a hardware component problem.
Before proceeding with the new installation of the operating system I would like to ask you the difference between these two systems.
I prefer the single file because I'm used to it with VirtualBox but VMware Workstation 16 Player recommends another solution.
I would like to understand the difference.
I would like to reuse my virtual installation on other versions of VMware Workstation and above all I would like to be able to load the same installation on other computers (my laptop, my new desktop computer that I will buy next year, etc ...).
Also I would like to ask you if with VMware Workstation 16 Player it is possible to save my installation in a universal format, not VMware proprietary.
Thanks and happy Easter to all
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I just keep to the default settings, i.e. Split virtual disk into multiple files. As to what the difference may be, that may just be a case of smaller files avoid some of the issues with disk fragmentation that can happen with larger files, i.e. default 60GB for Windows 10 disks, though this will start smaller unless you pre-allocate all the disk space up front.
With regards to using the same VM's on other versions of VMware applications, I have only done this when using later versions of the Player with VM's created on earlier versions. I have never tested in the other direction.
When you open a VM on a different PC you will be challenged as to whether you have Moved or Copied the VM, where the recommendation is to choose Copied! Some of my VM's were created many years back on very old versions of Player, i.e. Win95 etc VM's and these still work on Player 15 (not got round to testing them on 16 yet).
Sorry can't answer your question about saving VM's in any universal formal - not something I have needed to do or consider.
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Speaking in general terms, for your proposed usage scenario a single file would be the way to go here. Unless you anticipate total virtual disk file size to reach beyond 1TB (highly unlikely in your case) a single file will serve your needs. The split virtual disk option is there for filesystems that have size limitations like FAT32.
You need to understand that a virtual disk images (VDI) which are the files containing the image running inside the Virtual Machine (VM Player) are assigned a UUID (unique identifier or SID) for that disk for the purpose of preventing disk signature crashes. You also need to understand that a VM will assume driver support from the host system. This infers that moving a VDI between differing VM's on differing machines is possible. There are some limitations to this but nothing that I know of if you are strictly working with Windows OS's from Vista up and disk controllers IDE and up.
I am unable to determine if VM Virtualbox supports UEFI or not. From whai I read it seems that Virtualbox only supports MBR/Legacy boot so this suggests that if you want to use a VDI and apply that image to a physical disk and boot that disk on a UEFI enabled machine you would need to first apply the VDI to the disk and then convert the disk to UEFI/GPT using something like mbr2gpt.
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I installed Windows 10 Pro 64 bit on GPT disk and everything works except Chrome and Opera which I also tried to reinstall. As extensions I use AdBlock Plus. Browsers working but with VMware Workstation 16 Player the drop-down menus are faded. I believe it is a VMware bug. Can you try to install Opera and Chrome and then add AdBlock Plus and tell me if you also encounter this problem?
Thanks
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Curious, do you know how VMware is booting the VDI, MBR or UEFI?
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My Disk wrote:I installed Windows 10 Pro 64 bit on GPT disk and everything works except Chrome and Opera which I also tried to reinstall. As extensions I use AdBlock Plus. Browsers working but with VMware Workstation 16 Player the drop-down menus are faded. I believe it is a VMware bug. Can you try to install Opera and Chrome and then add AdBlock Plus and tell me if you also encounter this problem?
Thanks
Sorry but I never use either Chrome or Opera browsers on any of my systems, nor use AdBlock Plus either.
All works fine for me using Firefox along with uBlock Origin which I do use.
Bob, VMware is using .VMDK disks and you can use the normal msinfo32 in Windows to check the BIOS mode else check for either GPT or MBR for the virtual disks etc.
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Steve,
I am not using VMware at this time and have no plans to do so. I was simply looking to find out if the OP knew or could figure out how this Install of Win 10 Pro x64 is booting. From what I have read VMware Player only boots in MBR/Legacy mode suggesting that any recovery of a VMDK file would result in an MBR/Legacy disk which if were needed to be installed in a system where UEFI was to be used then the restored disk would need to be converted for that purpose. Not a complete deal breaker but I think the OP is looking to not have to do that.
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Bob, I have VMware VM's that boot in both Legacy and UEFI modes, so there is no limitation in that regard.
By default, VMware will install a new Windows 10 VM in UEFI mode if the host PC uses the same from my experience. Windows 7 and earlier tend to be defaulted to using Legacy / MBR.
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Steve,
Okay, thanks for confirming that. It makes since that should be the case but from what I have read as late as 2018 only MBR boot was possible.
Windows 7 would need to be booting on a UEFI enabled machine and then captured as a VMDK file for boot to be possible in VM Player.
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Typically, I have done clean installs of Windows 7 or 10 in my VM's but there are tools that can capture a working OS into a compatible disk format to use with VMware, such as StarWind V2V Converter which also can do P2V conversions. Some of my older VM's were created by using VMware vCenter Converter to do the P2V conversion. I have also used an Acronis backup image and rescue media to create VM's by booting the VM from the media & using AUR.
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You can install Win 7 to boot UEFI/GPT by converting the MBR disk to GPT first but you must use a 64 bit version of Win 7. 32 bit version will not work.
Virtual disks are quite flexible as you indicate in your post.
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