Legacy/UEFI booting and MBR/GPT

[GrizzlyAK]

Hi, I just purchased the HP x360 Spectre, which came with Win 10 Home and UEFI/SecureBoot turned on. The boot disk is GPT. Also, there are 4 partitions on the drive out of the box, as listed in the :

EFI System

Recovery Partition

Recovery ( 😧 )

Windows ( C: )

This is my first Windows above 7, and the first that is not Legacy BIOS and MBR boot disk, so I'm a little lost with all this. I need to backup the drive before making changes to the new laptop using my Macrium Reflect Win7-based PE USB pen drive, but when I disable SecureBoot and enable Legacy Boot and move USB key to the top of the boot list, it boots Reflect under PE OK, but no drives are shown in Reflect to back up. I'm not sure at this point if this is because Version 5 of Reflect doesn't support UEFI (although I'm not sure that's a factor as I've booted), or some other factor resulting from UEFI and GPT. I know Reflect V5 can backup GPT drives, as I do it now, but have only imaged MBR drives. There are newer version of Win PE; Ver 4 based upon Win 8, and Ver 5 based upon Win 8.1, which might solve my problems. I'm trying that next. If anyone has any insight, it would be much appreciated.

Also, are UEFI and BIOS connected in some way to MBR and GPT, so that one requires the other, or can you mix and match. For example, could I have machine using UEFI and an MBR boot drive, or vice versa? I'm just not sure what, at this point, is making my drives not appear in Reflect.

Also, is there a way to convert a disk from GPT to MBR?

I appreciate any help or input.

Cheers,

Shane

[IT_WinSec]

Hello,

Welcome to the HP Support forum.

From what I understand version 4 is outdated and no longer supported by its vendor. Since your questions are not directly related to HP issue but rather related to Macrium Reflect functionality, please post over their support forums >> http://support.macrium.com

I am sure there you will find better assistance with regards to this specific software.

I don't think this is necessary at the moment but  with regards to the question if there was a way to convert GPT to MBR , please check these:

>> https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725797(v=ws.11).aspx
>> http://www.partition-tool.com/resource/GPT-disk-partition-manager/convert-gpt-disk-to-mbr-disk.htm

Windows 7, 8, 10 offer free option to create system images of the entire drive (partitions) so that you can back-up the system regularly.  All you will need is either external HDD (to store the images) or multiple DVDs  (external HDD preferred ).

Info:

>> https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_10/how-to-create-a-system-image-in-windows-...

>> http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03544793

Hope this helps.