Driveimage XML : unable to retrieve drive layout

Question

DriveImage fails to execute "Drive to Drive" operation. Since the 1TB hard disk is dying, I decided to move the System Drive to newly bought HDD.

It said, unable to retrieve drive layout.

The source drive is a 1TB hard disk ( at Disk 0 , MBR ) , with 4 partitions + 1 System Reserved :

• System Reserved 100MB NTFS (System, Active, Primary Partition)
• C: 99.0GB NTFS (Boot, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
• P: 300.0GB NTFS (Primary Partition)
• M: 300.0GB NTFS (Logical Drive)
• Z: 231.51GB NTFS (Logical Drive)

The destination drive is 3TB hard disk ( at Disk 3 , GPT ) , with 2 partitions :

• X: 200.0GB NTFS (Primary Partition)
• W: 546.39GB NTFS (Primary Partition)

Another problem: when I right click on X: drive of Disk 3, the option "Mark Partition as Active" is disabled. Why ?

Note: OS is Windows 7

Solution 1

I just had the same issue. Actually, your drive must be converted to MBP instead of GPT. You can convert it into the Windows Disk Utility program.

Hope this helps !

Solution 2

Had same issue. Thought my backup was HOSED! Turns out Converting drive to MBR works like magic! Right click where it says "Disk #1" or "Disk #2", that box which says Basic, XXXGB, and Online. I was then able to restore the file using the XML + the backup files using DriveImageXML. Hooray!!

By the way the size of the partition I restored to just needed to be big enough to hold the entire image, not the exact size.

EDIT: full instructions

Certainly. Requirements: must be on a Windows machine for this first part, although it can be done on OS X/Mac. I'll post instructions for that later.

1. Connect the donor drive that you will restore the drive backup to.
2. WinKey + R to open Run, type "compmgmt.msc"
3. The Computer Management window opens, click on the tree on the left side to go to Disk Management
4. On the right side of the computer management window look for your connected drive, it should say Disk #1, 2 or 3. If you aren't sure, disconnect the donor drive and refresh (F5) disk management then reconnect and refresh again.
5. Right click on the donor drive where it says Disk #, the drive size, Live, and select "Convert to MBR"
6. Now if you drive is already partitioned you should be able to restore the Drive Image XML backup to it. If it is not partitioned you need to make a partition of adequate size for your backup.

Comments

[Simon]

You can do this in Windows Disk Utility program but need to first delete all partitions. You have to actually right click on where it says 'Disk 3' (to the left of the graphical representation). At first glance it doesn't look like it's clickable but clicking on the graphical disk won't give you the menu.

[p̻̻̥r̥̻̥o̻j̤͛ec͔t̞dp]

Hi Michael Foust, can you include the full instructions on converting the drive to MBR? I would like to follow the steps exactly and upvote your answer :)

[Michael Foust]

Hey there, added instructions as an edit to my first reply. Hope this helps!

[Patrick Kenny]

Which drive needs to be converted? The source, the destination, or both?

[Fabien LG]

@PatrickKenny It's been quite a long time since I did that, but from what I remember I converted the destination drive only.