{"id":50151,"date":"2021-03-23T15:11:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-23T11:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/?p=50151"},"modified":"2024-08-02T11:47:10","modified_gmt":"2024-08-02T07:47:10","slug":"how-to-restore-an-image-based-backup-to-a-drive-with-a-different-partition-structure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/blog\/how-to-restore-an-image-based-backup-to-a-drive-with-a-different-partition-structure\/","title":{"rendered":"Restore Image Backup to Drive with New Partition Structure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes, you need to reconfigure the partitions of your image-based backup<\/a> for your backed-up system to fit a new computer or a new system structure \u2013 for example, when one of the updates for Windows 10 has changed the partition structure, and this modification might cause failures if you restore an \u201colder\u201d backup. Another common situation is when backed-up and target physical drives have different sizes.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The solution in these and other cases is manual partitioning. Below, we\u2019ll overview the process of partitioning for UEFI \/ BIOS and restoring the backup using MSP360 Managed Backup. Also, we\u2019ll cover several common issues.<\/p>\n

Further reading<\/span> File-Level vs. Image-Based Backup<\/a><\/p>\n

Creating Partitions in UEFI and BIOS<\/h2>\n

If it is a new drive, you need to recreate all the partitions needed. Use the diskpart<\/b> tool. In the bootable ISO\/USB environment, click Tools<\/b> and then Command Prompt<\/b>.<\/p>\n

\"MSP360 \"MSP360<\/p>\n

Type \u201cdiskpart\u201d and press Enter.<\/p>\n

\"Diskpart<\/p>\n

Now, create and format the mandatory partitions. Here are examples of scripts.<\/p>\n

For UEFI<\/a>:<\/p>\n

select disk 0\r\n\r\nclean\r\n\r\nconvert gpt\r\n\r\ncreate partition efi size=100\r\n\r\nformat quick fs=fat32 label=\"System\"\r\n\r\nassign letter=\"S\"\r\n\r\ncreate partition msr size=16\r\n\r\ncreate partition primary\r\n\r\nshrink minimum=650\r\n\r\nformat quick fs=ntfs label=\"Windows\"\r\n\r\nassign letter=\"W\"\r\n\r\ncreate partition primary\r\n\r\nformat quick fs=ntfs label=\"Recovery\"\r\n\r\nassign letter=\"R\"\r\n\r\nset id=\"de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac\"\r\n\r\ngpt attributes=0x8000000000000001\r\n\r\nlist volume\r\n\r\nexit<\/pre>\n
\"UEFI<\/p>\n
For BIOS<\/a>:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/a>\"CTA\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
select disk 0\r\n\r\nclean\r\n\r\ncreate partition primary size=100\r\n\r\nformat quick fs=ntfs label=\"System\"\r\n\r\nassign letter=\"S\"\r\n\r\nactive\r\n\r\ncreate partition primary\r\n\r\nshrink minimum=650\r\n\r\nformat quick fs=ntfs label=\"Windows\"\r\n\r\nassign letter=\"W\"\r\n\r\ncreate partition primary\r\n\r\nformat quick fs=ntfs label=\"Recovery\"\r\n\r\nassign letter=\"R\"\r\n\r\nset id=27\r\n\r\nlist volume\r\n\r\nexit<\/pre>\n
\"BIOS<\/p>\n
Please note: the scripts above are written for Windows 10. You can find the scripts for earlier versions at the Microsoft website. Here\u2019s the link for Windows 8: a script for creating partitions in Windows 8<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
If needed, the scripts can be modified to include other partitions. Note that the size of new partitions should not be less than the size of the source partitions that are going to be restored. Otherwise, you will need to reconfigure the partitions, as the system won\u2019t be recovered properly.<\/p>\n
In the case of UEFI systems, the overall result of the restore will depend on the types of created system partitions (efi<\/b>, msr<\/b> have a specific EFI ID). Be sure to check that they are shown correctly in the output of the script (use the list partition command). If something goes wrong, relaunch the script.<\/p>\n
After running the script and creating the correct partitions, use the backup agent to restore the image partition by partition.<\/p>\n
Restoring the Backup Using the Created Partitions<\/h2>\n
To recover your image-based backup to the partitions you\u2019ve just configured, launch the Restore Wizard <\/b>and choose the partitions for restore in the Destination<\/b> step. The screenshots below represent the UEFI and BIOS environments.<\/p>\n
UEFI\/GPT:<\/p>\n
\"Selecting<\/p>\n
BIOS\/MBR:<\/p>\n
 <\/p>\n
\"Selecting<\/p>\n
After successful recovery of your image-based backup, update the volume IDs and bootloader settings in the BCD menu with the bootrec<\/b> tool:<\/p>\n
bootrec \/scanos\r\n\r\nbootrec \/rebuildbcd<\/pre>\n
\"Executing<\/p>\n
The first command is to confirm that the data is restored correctly; as a result, it will identify the OS. The second command will actually rebuild the BCD menu and include the correct volume IDs in it for a successful boot.<\/p>\n
Note: if the bootrec<\/b> tool is not accessible through the bootable ISO\/USB environment, the commands can be executed using Windows Setup bootable image. The command prompt there can be shown by pressing Shift + F10.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
During the restore and rebuild process, errors might appear. Below, we explain the most frequent ones.<\/p>\n
\n
\n
FREE WHITEPAPER<\/div>\n
Full System Backup and Recovery<\/div>\n
Check out our comprehensive guide covering system state, system image, and application-aware backup and recovery, as well as bare-metal recovery:<\/div>\n\"CTA\"<\/a><\/span><\/span>\n<\/div>\n
\"WP<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Solving Common Issues<\/h2>\n
1. You get the error \u201cThe system cannot find the file specified. \\\\?\\Volume{id}\u201d at the start of the restore job.<\/p>\n
\"\u201cThe<\/p>\n
The error is thrown because the UEFI environment can\u2019t find or access the MSR<\/b> (Microsoft System Reserved) partition. In most cases, this partition doesn\u2019t hold any vital data, so you can exclude it from the restore process. This is done in the Select Partitions<\/b> step.<\/p>\n
\"Selecting<\/p>\n
When you get a warning about possible problems, just click Yes<\/b> to continue.<\/p>\n
\"Selecting<\/p>\n
After doing this, everything should be fine and the restore process should go without errors.<\/p>\n
\"Selecting<\/p>\n
2. When running the \u201cbootrec \/rebuildbcd\u201d command, you get an error, \u201cThe system cannot find the path specified.\u201d<\/p>\n
\""The<\/p>\n
In the event of this error, recreate the BCD menu from scratch. To do this, run the following commands:<\/p>\n
cd \/d s:\\EFI\\Microsoft\\Boot\\\r\n\r\nren BCD BCD.bak\r\n\r\nbcdboot w:\\Windows \/l en-us \/s s: \/f ALL<\/pre>\n
Please note: in this example, all drive letters are specified according to the diskpart<\/b> scripts from the article above (S:<\/b> - ESP, W:<\/b> - primary system partition).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\"Recreating<\/p>\n
The last command will also try to update the BIOS settings including UEFI firmware\/NVRAM. But the old \u201cWindows Boot Manager\u201d item in the boot menu may not be updated. In this case, remove the old item manually, and the new one will automatically be added from the restored system after the first successful boot.<\/p>\n
Here is an example from the VMware virtual machine firmware:<\/p>\n
\"An<\/p>\n
\"An<\/p>\n
\"An<\/p>\n
Now you know what to do if you\u2019re restoring an image-based backup to a drive with a different partition structure. With MSP360 Managed Backup Service<\/a>, this process is clear and you can access all the information and tools that are necessary for this job right from the main interface. If you have any questions, please contact us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sometimes, you need to reconfigure the partitions of your image-based backup for your backed-up system to fit a new computer or a new system structure \u2013 for example, when one of the updates for Windows 10 has changed the partition structure, and this modification might cause failures if you restore an \u201colder\u201d backup. Another common […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":89,"featured_media":50158,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[886,878],"tags":[960],"class_list":["post-50151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-backup-and-dr-guides","category-msp-university","tag-image-based-backup-restoration-how-to-recover-a-backup-to-a-disk-of-a-smaller-size"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/89"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50151"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50151\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58195,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50151\/revisions\/58195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msp360.com\/resources\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}