Q-Hybrid error: Windows volume is not MB aligned

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Q-Hybrid backups work against Windows bases systems by leveraging VSS snapshot to perform their work. VSS snapshots only work against volumes, and not partitions or disks (like a hypervisor snapshot does). So, in order to protect the entire system, Q-Hybrid must also capture portions of the disk that are outside of the volumes protected by VSS. This includes the boot partition table (MBR or GPT), as well as any utility and system partitions that exist on the system.

In order to perform this work and preserve boot-ability in the restored VM, very precise sector based calculations must be performed against the partition table and system/boot partition offsets. In most normal systems (standard installations, OEM installs, etc), the Windows volume/partition is always at a sector offset aligned to the megabyte. A MB aligned Windows partition is required for Q-Hybrid to operate normally.

It may be possible to re-align your system, depending on your OS and drive layout/configuration. An example of how you might accomplish this can be found here.

You can check a system's offsets with the following example:

Open a command prompt and type "diskpart" (no quotes). You’ll see something like:

C:\Users\Administrator>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.0.6001

On computer: <your computer>

To view and select your disks enter "list disk":

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt

——– ———- ——- ——- — —

Disk 0 Online 136 GB 1434 MB

Disk 1 Online 1116 GB 0 B

To see the partitions of a disk, select it with "select disk x":

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

Then, to list your partitions and their offsets, type "list partition":

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset

————- —————- ——- ——-

Partition 1 Primary 1116 GB 1024 KB

As you can see, the above partition is offset by 1024KB, or 1MB. A misaligned partition might look like the following:

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset

————- —————- ——- ——-

Partition 1 Primary 119 GB 32 KB