Full System Backup / Restore
I did a system backup at my desktop, and whant to restore at my notebook (dissimilarhardware). I folowed the online tutorial, and did the backup and boot drive.
After that I boot my notebook using the emergency disk, and click restore - > universal restore.. Until then, everyhting goes fine, and got the message that the taks was succesfully done, but when I try to restart my notebook I got a messagem saying, that the operational system is missing..
What am I doing wrong? Can your help me? Just search at the forum, but coudn´t find any problem like mine.
thanks in advance
Comments
MBR <> GPT
If the Desktop is BIOS with MBR and the laptop is UEFI with GPT (or vice versa) then they cannot be mixed.
If the laptop is UEFI you can go into UEFI firmware and choose Legacy or CSM mode to make the laptop act like BIOS/MBR.
Dear JohnnyboyGo, thanks a lot for your help.
can you teach me how to choose? My laptop is a sony vaio model VPECH10EB. When I enter the bios, I can´t find any option that looks like CSM or MBR
thanks a lot again, and sorry for so many doubts!
I don't know that model. Are you sure that it is UEFI and the desktop is BIOS? If the original OS on the laptop is WIndows 7 it is unlikely that it is UEFI because UEFI is implemented since Windows 8 AFAIK..
And the desktop, is it BIOS or UEFI? What is the original OS?
Both are with windows 10. When I format to install windows it goes to
MBR, but when I do a system restore using the full system bkp, it
automatically format to GPT, and after that I can´t boot aymore. They
both are 64bits
Now I found that my desktop is GPT... is that possible to convert do MBR? :O
What about your notebook? Is it MBR?
If your desktop is UEFI/GPT and your laptop is BIOS/MBR then it is not possible to clone or backup/restore to the laptop.
However it is possible to run an UEFI based OS on an MBR machine if it is the second OS on that machine. I've done that a few times.
Make a partition backup of your desktops C: drive and restore in on a separate and empty partition on the laptop. You could also create a VHD on the laptop, large enough to hold the data and restore to that VHD (Virtual Hard Drive) if you don't have an empty partition or don't want to create a partition.
Then Start your existing Windows 10 (or whatever). Download the free EasyBCD, install and run it. Then add using EasyBCD your second OS (the restored one) from the separate partition or from the VHD to the boot menu.
If you reboot you'll have a dual boot menu to choose which OS you want to run.
http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/
"Now I found that my desktop is GPT... is that possible to convert do MBR? "
Look in the UEFI firmware for the option Legacy or CSM or BIOS mode.
But your existing OS on the desktop won't run anymore since the HDD still is GPT and Legacy mode expects MBR. You could convert the GPT to MBR using Diskpart, but you'll loose all the data on the disk. Conversion to MBR is only possible with an empty HDD.
There are however programs that can covert to MBR without data loss. Aomei has one, but I have no experience with that. If I understand it correctly for OS disks this is only implemented in the paid versions:
http://www.disk-partition.com/help/convert-gpt-mbr-disk.html
Now I come to think of this. Maybe you can try to convert your laptops GPT (after you did restore the desktop backup) to MBR using partition assistant and see if that works.
It works!! thanks a lot for your help! I just did a partion as you said, and follow your instruction.
thanks a lot again! without your help I would never find out what to do!
best regards
Fabio