Limitations on dynamic and GPT disks support
This article applies to:
- Acronis True Image 2016, Acronis True Image Cloud
- Acronis True Image 2015
- Acronis True Image 2014 Premium
- True Image 2013 by Acronis Plus Pack
Description
You can back up and restore dynamic disks both in Windows or from Acronis Bootable Media. In terms of dynamic disks and backup or restore, the product functions are the same when run in Windows or from Acronis Bootable Media:
- You can back up a dynamic disk and restore it to a dynamic disk. As a result, you will have a dynamic disk;
- You can back up a dynamic disk and restore it to a basic disk. As a result, you will have a basic disk.
Limitations on dynamic disks and GPT disks support in Acronis True Image:
- Creation of Acronis Secure Zone is not supported;
- Recovery of a dynamic volume as a dynamic volume with manual resizing is not supported;
- Acronis True Image 2014/True Image 2013 by Acronis: Try&Decide cannot be used for protecting dynamic and GPT disks;
Detailed information on recovery operations involving dynamic/GPT disks and volumes
- Acronis True Image supports recovery of dynamic volumes to the following locations on the local hard drives:
- to the original location (to the same dynamic volume)
- to another dynamic disk or volume
- to unallocated space of the dynamic group
- to a basic disk
- bare-metal recovery (to an unformatted disk)
If a dynamic volume is recovered to unallocated space of the dynamic group, the type of the recovered volume will be the same as it was in the archive.
Manual resizing of dynamic volumes during recovery to dynamic disks is not supported. If you need to resize a dynamic volume during recovery, it should be recovered to a basic disk.
When performing a so called "bare-metal recovery" of dynamic volume(s) to a new unformatted disk, the recovered volumes become basic. If you want the recovered volumes to remain dynamic, prior to recovery the target disk(s) should be prepared (partitioned and formatted) using third-party tools, for example, Windows Disk Management snap-in (Start-Run -> compmgmt.msc).
- The target disk's partitioning scheme remains unchanged after recovery:
- if a GPT disk image is recovered over a GPT disk, the target disk remains a GPT disk
- if a GPT disk image is recovered over an MBR disk, the target disk remains an MBR disk
- if an MBR disk image is recovered over an MBR disk, the target disk remains an MBR disk
- if an MBR disk image is recovered over a GPT disk, the target disk becomes an MBR disk
Recovery to unallocated space of GPT is not supported.
- The target volume type does not change when recovering over an existing volume. Examples:
- When a dynamic volume is recovered over a basic volume, the target volume remains basic
- When a dynamic spanned volume is recovered over a dynamic striped volume, the target volume remains striped