Recovering volumes

Let's assume you backed up the system and boot volumes (or the entire machine) and want to recover these volumes to a different platform. The ability of the recovered system to boot up depends on the following factors:

• Source operating system: convertible or non-convertible OS. The following Microsoft Windows operating systems are convertible, that is, allow changing the boot mode from BIOS to UEFI and back:
  • Windows Vista SP1 x64 and later.
  • Windows Server 2008 x64 SP1 and later.
  • Windows 7 x64.
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 x64.

  All other operating systems are non-convertible.

• Source and target disk partition style: MBR or GPT. System and boot volumes of BIOS platforms use MBR disks. System and boot volumes of UEFI platforms use GPT disks.

  When selecting not initialized target disk for recovery, this disk will be automatically initialized either to GPT or to MBR depending on the original disk partitioning style, the current boot mode (UEFI or BIOS) and the type of operating systems (convertible or non-convertible) that are located on this volume.

  If the initialization may result in bootability loss, the software takes the partitioning style from the source volume ignoring the target disk size. In such cases the software can select the MBR partitioning style for disks whose size is more than 2 TB; however, a user cannot use the space beyond 2 TB.

  If required, you can initialize the target disk manually by using the Disk management functionality.

The following table summarizes whether it is possible to retain the system bootability when recovering boot and system volumes of a BIOS-based system to UEFI-based and back.

• The plus (+) sign on a green background means that the system will be bootable. No user action is required.
• The plus (+) sign on a yellow background means you need to perform additional steps to make the system bootable.
• The minus (-) sign on a red background means the system will not be able to boot due to BIOS and UEFI platform limitations.