Does Winclone create a new hybrid MBR

Last year, I was able (finally) to get Windows 10 running well in BootCamp. My MacBook Pro is a MBP 9,1 - legacy boot. Disk Utility (Mojave) did NOT create a hybrid MBR when I created a FAT partition, so I was thoroughly “stuck” with regard to installing Windows 10 from my USB drive (prepared using Boot Camp Assistant) until I was advised to try using GPT fdisk for Mac to create the hybrid MBR.

That resolved my installation issues. My question is this - if I have a Winclone 7 image of my Windows 10 boot camp partition, and was starting off with a new hard drive, would Winclone somehow take care of creating a hybrid MBR as part of the restore process? Or would I once again have to first use GPT fdisk to prepare the disk? I have read the knowledge base which says “Winclone will set the Mac to legacy booting mode when restoring”. I’m hoping that means no future need for GPT disk.

Thanks

When formatting a disk with Disk Utility in macOS, it is the default to have a GPT disk. The fdisk hybrid record is only added by Winclone if needed and if SIP is disable. If you mac is newer than 2013 (or so) and it is Windows 10, booting via EFI is the norm and should work fine.

tim

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OK, thanks for the information. I have a mid-2012 MacBook Pro which MUST have a hybridized fdisk record. I have installed Windows without one, only to find that I had no support for audio in Windows 10. If I interpret your answer correctly, should I ever need to fully recreate BootCamp on my system, I would need to 1) Use DIsk Utility to size and create a new MS-DOS FAT partition. 2) Temporarily disable SIP and 3) Restore my Winclone Image to the new partition? In other words, WInclone takes care of doing the hybridization required? A helpful person on Apple Support Discussions who walked me through using GPT fdisk hybridization last year assured me that Winclone would NOT be capable of doing that.

Thanks!

Winclone requires a GPT formatted disk. When restoring windows, if the version of Windows or the hardware requires legacy booting, it will attempt to configure the guard portion of the GPT with the MBR settings that allow it to legacy boot. However, SIP prevents that which is why SIP needs to be disabled in this case.

tim

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Thanks for the prompt, succinct reply. It is a relief to learn I wouldn’t have to rely upon gdisk and Terminal in the future. Just remember to temporarily disable SIP. Far simpler and less risky, IMHO. Congratulations on such a useful product. I recently updated from Winclone 7 to Winclone 9- I installed Catalina and needed to do so.

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