I've been testing the ability of various imaging apps to restore an entire drive image of a UEFI Win8.1 system to a new empty HD. Symantec SSR 2013 R2 fails to produce a bootable Win8.1. The MSR isn't restored and the new disk is MBR rather than GPT. The failures are... AOMEI Backupper Pro 2.2 Drive Snapshot 1.43 Symantec SSR 2013 R2 The successes are... Image for Windows 2.94 Image for DOS 2.94 Image for Linux 2.94 Acronis True Image 2015 Macrium Reflect 6 EaseUS Todo 8 Paragon Backup and Restore 14 Free O&O DiskImage 9 Pro
LOL I did not expect SSR to be this weak. Deleted it from my collection of imaging apps. IMO, any imaging app that fails this test deserve to be trashed. This scenario is when people lost their HDD and need to restore to their new HDD. This is when a working imaging solution is mostly needed.
Correction. Apologies to SSR. Andy's question made me look at my boot ISO again and I realized it had been made in a non UEFI computer. Just now I made a 64-bit UEFI UFD and booted it in UEFI mode. The image created this morning was restored to a new empty HD. Win8.1 booted and all 4 partitions were present.
"The successes are... Image for Windows 2.94 Image for DOS 2.94 Image for Linux 2.94 Acronis True Image 2015 Macrium Reflect 6 EaseUS Todo 8 Paragon Backup and Restore 14 Free O&O DiskImage 9 Pro" Have you tested Clonezilla too?
Han, Clonezilla was tested in this thread... https://www.wilderssecurity.com/threads/o-o-diskimage-9-pro.373594/#post-2461783
Gaddster, I'm doing these tests as I'd expect the average user to do them. GUI and not command line restores. With DS I used "Restore Partition Structure" and then restored the individual images. I'd be grateful if forum members could check my results for... AOMEI Backupper Pro 2.2 Drive Snapshot 1.43 Clonezilla It has to be a UEFI Win8.1 system. Restore the image to a new empty HD so as to simulate a HD failure.
Some apps' features are only available on 64bit, so 64bit app is preferred when handling UEFI. Of course, booting from a 64bit UEFI based WinPE as well.
Is that the DS is 64bit which is also boot from a 64bit UEFI based WinPE? The lastest changelog of DS only mentioned it supported GPT partitions but not UEFI Maybe someone can report this issue to DS.
LOL DS is too small in size to pack in all these features, even essential features such as UEFI secure boot support is left out.
hi hello, my system is intel i7 x64 processor, 8gb of ram, 300 gb of hdd1 (within that i installed the os in first partition of 150 gb, second partition of 150 gb having my application installed), second hdd of 1 terabytes splited into 2 partition of each 450 gb in that i used to store the backup of ssr r2 images. i am using win 8.1 up to date with march 2015 installed. for side note i installed windows adk also to create rescue iso needed by ssr r2 2013 for creating x64 rescue iso. i am using ssr r2 2013 desktop edition version 11.1.0.53728. i have checked with ssr r2 2013 live update to ensure there is no update available at this time. i have strange problem with my ssr r2 2013 desktop edition, you see after install i created lightsout restore in my pc as well as recovery iso. it runs smoothly and backed up and restore from the lightsout(option to install recovery enviroment before booting into the windows os i think.) restore option. the story gets interested now only after i burned the iso rescue image to my pen drive through rufus and it burned 100% and confirmed it is bootable everything is there accordingly. after booting from the pen drive it sees all my partitions and backed up files were i stored it but it gives error my pc is mbr enabled bios pc and restore image is uefi enable bios so can't restore. try to restore my pc with mbr enabled image. so i am new to this please anybody can tell me what is happened or happening or i am missing something when installed the ssr r2 2013 or creating rescue iso. my real concern is i can restore and take back up from locally installed version but in tomorrow scenario my hdd1 failed on me, then i do not have any option to recovery my previously created image to new hdd through rescue pen drive i have created for unpredictable situation, seriously i do not know what to do in this situation. for your consideration i uploaded some of the pics please see it also and tell me what to do. thanks taking time to read my post ssr2 version number ssr2 rescue media builder problem or error window
kmr1685, Can you post a screenshot of Disk Management? That might help us decide what to do next. Edit... I think I know the solution. Disk Management is the key.
hi hello, thanks for the answer I just posted the screen shot for your reference please tell me what to do, as well I forgot to write that when I install the win 8.1, I had just used the windows own partition management tool to create partitions. it created gpt disk and uefi based bios. as well as my gigabyte mother board says is efi enabled by default. the very interesting part I found out today, if I create the back up image from the rescue pen drive, it restore with out giving me any error. so there is some kind of problem when I create an backup image through the locally installed ssr r2 2013. now the rescue media says the image created is uefi and pc is bios based, so can't restore. really interesting isn't it. here is the pics you had requested. thank you for your help disk management Symantec disk announcement pc hardware
Thanks. Your screenshots are extremely helpful. You have a UEFI system. I can get the same error, "Cannot restore UEFI based recovery points on BIOS based.........", if I boot my USB flash drive in MBR (Legacy) mode. If I boot my USB flash drive in UEFI mode there is no error. In your image titled "ssr2 rescue media builder" you will see the Boot Firmware field shows BIOS only. It should show BIOS and UEFI. Your UFD is only booting in MBR mode because of the BIOS only setting. Try making a UFD from the "ssr2 rescue media builder". If it doesn't show "BIOS and UEFI" try a different, smaller UFD. I used a 4 GB UFD but a 1 GB UFD should work. Unless you can get "BIOS and UEFI" in the Boot Firmware field you will have a problem with the UFD. Try the Advanced and the Typical options if you have to. I made both but Typical is fine.
ok thanks for the answer as well as helping me. I try to do that. and come back with the result. even I am thinking of give up on ssr r2 2013. because of this problem. I tried whatever I had in my mind to solve this. but still it is coming again and again. so better I will spend one day with this still it is not solved, i will put it in my drawer to sleep. that's all I am thinking about it now. once again thanks for everything.
hi hello, me again, after bashing and fighting with ssr r2 2013 I found out many stupid thing. that's only without making errors you can't learn things. first thing I point out to you is as per your advice I used typical option in rescue media creation then bam ssr r2 shows firmware bootable option bois and uefi, dam I banged my head to see that option in that column. now story got interesting after created the rescue pen drive and iso image successfully, it automatically created lightsout restore option successfully and as usual I can log into that and restore the system, but when I booted from the pen drive which has the rescue option, went to the 3 pages of option and gives me the option from the drop down menu having option to select system full image restore and takes me to next page checked for all the partitions i had backed up and asking permission to restore, i clicked ok button but as usual it gives me the same error as I previously reported. now I seriously started bashing and fighting with it, but suddenly I got idea why I can't try another option in that same drop down menu in the previous page, so went back to last page and selected option file name and selected least file size and went to next page and without any error its give me the last page with option to restore. yeah......... hey.............. i won. but sadly there is a bug or something in ssr r2 2013 to make it not recognizing system wide restore with uefi/bios problem. I don't want to go further explaining this because so much trust I put in this stupid program, but only one thing lastly I need to say is when somebody try to restore the backup from the rescue pen drive, please select the option file name option in dropdown menu and do not select the system option in drop down menu. my only advice and request if you want to see your hdd works after successful restore until or unless god only knows what is next. that's all for now, thanks for reading my lengthy rant about my encounter with ssr r2 2013, thanks once again Mr.Brain k bios and uefi option when creating iso rescue disk file name option system option in drop down menu successful and final restore window heyyyyyyyyyyy.................. good bye everybody who read this.
I suspect you are booting the UFD in MBR mode. When you look at the Boot Menu you should see two entries for the UFD. UEFI and another one which is MBR (but not labelled MBR). You must select the UEFI one otherwise a System restore won't work. Partition restores will work as you have indicated. If you are booting the UFD automatically without looking at the Boot Menu (each time) it is probably booting in MBR mode. Always select from the Boot Menu. If you can't do a System Restore can you post a photo of your Boot Menu?
