Migration from old (BIOS) PC to new (UEFI) PC

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sigi
Posts: 243
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:59 am

Migration from old (BIOS) PC to new (UEFI) PC

Post by sigi »

I would like to ask for your kind advice on


Problem area A
--------------------

How best to transfer my data from the old to the new PC


Problem area B
-------------------

How best to migrate the two respective Win10 partitions to new hardware in order to avoid or at least alleviate activation problems




My old PC
-------------

Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

CPU
Intel Core i3 540 @ 3.07GHz

RAM
8,00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 666MHz (9-9-9-24)

Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co. Ltd. H55M-USB3 (Socket 1156)

Storage
596GB Western Digital WDC WD6401AALS-00L3B2 (SATA)
596GB Western Digital WDC WD6400AAKS-00H2B0 (SATA)

Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CDDVDW SH-S223C
TSSTcorp DVD-ROM SH-D163B


My new PC
---------------

MEDION AKOYA E42013, Intel Core i3-9100, Windows 10 Home, 256 GB SSD, 1 TB HDD, 8 GB RAM




Re Problem area A
-----------------------

My two favorite methods to transfer my data (Extended Partition "MBR Entry 0" on the WD6400AAKS) to the new 1 TB HDD are no longer available for the following reasons:

1) Terabyte's CopyWipe does no longer exist.

2) Connecting the WD6400AAKS to a SATA port of the MEDION AKOYA E42013 should be avoided for warranty reasons.


So, as far as I can see I am left with the following options:

3) Creating an Extended Partition on the 1 TB HDD and trasferring the data by copying them with Win10 Prof means via USB3 or LAN.

I am reluctant to use this method because I fear privilege problems

4) Create a BootIt UEFI boot medium and use it to copy or image & restore my "MBR Entry 0" to the 1 TB HDD via an external HDD

5) Use Image for Linux to copy or image & restore my "MBR Entry 0" to the 1 TB HDD via an external HDD.



Re Problem area B
-----------------------

I intend to

1) migrate the MEDION Win10 Home from the SSD to the MEDION1 TB HDD
2) transfer the Win10 Prof from the old WD6400AAKS to the MEDION SSD

Re B1) should not pose a problem for BootIt UEFI.
Re B2) is analog to Re A4) or Re A5) with regard to the management of partitions.

Concerning easy reactivation of the two Win10 products are there any special considerations to be taken into account? (e.g. would it be necessary or advisable for the sake of easy reactivation not to use Re B1) or Re B2) but to buy additional MS cloud storage space instead and use this for the two Win10 migration actions?)




Any comments on "Re Problem area A" and "Re Problem area B" are highly welcome.
My personal preference would be to use IFL and one of my external HDDs. Thus I would not have to start dealing with BootIt for UEFI at the moment, which is still new for me.
DrTeeth
Posts: 1289
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 6:58 pm

Re: Migration from old (BIOS) PC to new (UEFI) PC

Post by DrTeeth »

On Sat, 23 Nov 2019 09:10:53 PST, just as I was about to take a herb,
sigi disturbed my reverie and wrote:

>I would like to ask for your kind advice on
>
>
>Problem area A
>--------------------
>
>How best to transfer my data from the old to the new PC
>
>
>Problem area B
>-------------------
>
>How best to migrate the two respective Win10 partitions to new hardware in order to avoid or at least alleviate activation problems

Hi Sigi,

Before offering advice, as a firm BIOS fan, I have to ask if you need
anything that UEFI offers.

Brian is a BIG fan of UEFI and he will be the best to advise on the
advantages of that system and to answer your questions.

Personally, for me, UEFI would do absolutely nothing for me except
make my life difficult. I can do everything I want with BIOS and that
is how I run my new PC.

If I were to answer your questions for the BIOS option, it would take
about 3 lines of text to answer BOTH your questions.

Good luck with whatever path you choose.
--
Cheers,

DrT

** Amateurs built the Ark, but professionals built the Titanic.**
sigi
Posts: 243
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:59 am

Re: Migration from old (BIOS) PC to new (UEFI) PC

Post by sigi »

Thank you DrTeeth for making a start with the answers. I am also a BIOS fan but I have resolved to stay for the beginning with the OEM-provided UEFI and see if I can manage.

I see that my initial questions have been too complex if not confused. I should have read more before posting. So Brian or PP for example may not have seen themselves in a position to answer with reasonable efforts.

In the meantime I have started with operating and adapting my new destop PC making use of the data on my old PC (but not as much as I had intended).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is what I have done so far:

- I positioned the old PC alongside the new one and branched its HDD, where the old Win10 and the Extended with all my data resided, to a free SATA port of the new PC. I provided the power supply for thís HDD just by switching on the old PC letting it energize its own HDD.

- I then created a partition on the new (GPT) HDD for each volume of the old HDD's Extended.

- Then I used IFL-contained Work with Partitions to copy the volumes one by one over to the new HDD.

- When familiarizing with and customizing the new Win10 Home I found out that it works reliably and that I am not missing too much of my old Win10 Pro so that I resolved to not revive the latter on the new PC but just to let it reside there as a partition much like the transferred volumes. Thus I could permanently draw on its data and structure.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now I am stuck with the following two problems and would like to ask experts for your kind assistance:

1) I would like to make an image of the SSD but I do not see it any more in IFL, neither in Work with Partitions nor in the imaging functions. I remember having seen it before but cannot figure out what has changed.

2) I had copied a LinuxMint partition and its swap partition to the new HDD and do not know how to set up a Boot Item for it in UEFI. Unfortunately it is not as straightforward as in BIBM. It appears that I need a script but I am not familiar with scripting.


Any help with these two problems would be highly welcome – or should I start two separate threads?
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Migration from old (BIOS) PC to new (UEFI) PC

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

1) Is the system using RAID mode (even if no RAID configured)? Does the Linux Mint installation media see the SSD?

2) Was the Linux Mint install you copied originally configured to boot in Legacy Mode? If so, it wouldn't contain any of the necessary booting files. It could likely be converted, but may be easier to just reinstall and copy over any data wanted.
sigi
Posts: 243
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:59 am

Re: Migration from old (BIOS) PC to new (UEFI) PC

Post by sigi »

TeraByte Support(PP) wrote:

> 1) Is the system using RAID mode (even if no RAID configured)?

I don't know anything about RAID. I've always had AHCI although I have a vague recollection of having once googled for a certain item in eventvwr (of my old PC) that appeared to show some relationship to RAID. But I think my old and my new PC both have/had their disks configured as AHCI.

> Does the Linux Mint installation media see the SSD?

How could it? I just copied over the LM partition from the old to the new PC and cannot yet boot it. The old PC where it was operational didn't have an SSD.


> 2) Was the Linux Mint install you copied originally configured to boot in
> Legacy Mode? If so, it wouldn't contain any of the necessary booting files.
> It could likely be converted, but may be easier to just reinstall and copy
> over any data wanted.

The old PC was pure BIOS (two MBR HDD's) with BIBM installed. There was a functioning LinuxMint Boot Item in BIBM. The new PC has UEFI and its HDD is GPT.

From your answer and from what I have read again and again elsewhere in this foum I take it that the best solution for me would be to change the type of my new HDD from GPT to EMBR, install BIBM to this disk and establish a Boot Item there for the LM partition. If that doesn't work I could reinstall LM and copy over any data wanted as you proposed.

--------------------------------------------------------------------


Let's assume that I change the type of my new HDD from GPT to EMBR. I would then want to transform my about ten data partitions to volumes of an Extended to be created. Is there a short procedure how to do it or would I have to create the Extended and then copy the data partitions one by one into it?
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Migration from old (BIOS) PC to new (UEFI) PC

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

You would need to look in the BIOS to check which mode is being used (AHCI or RAID). Linux doesn't include the RAID drivers for NVMe so if it's in that mode (even if not in a RAID) it won't see the drive. If you booted the Mint installation media you'd be able to check if it could see the SSD or if it's just IFL that doesn't see it.

As for the conversion to EMBR, you would need to create the extended partition and copy in each logical volume. You could convert it to EMBR directly, but they would all be primary partitions, which doesn't sound like what you want.

Before any conversion it would be good to check the BIOS and verify that it supports booting in Legacy mode (if you haven't already).
sigi
Posts: 243
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:59 am

Re: Migration from old (BIOS) PC to new (UEFI) PC

Post by sigi »

TeraByte Support(PP) wrote:
> You would need to look in the BIOS to check which mode is being used (AHCI or RAID).
> Linux doesn't include the RAID drivers for NVMe so if it's in that mode (even if
> not in a RAID) it won't see the drive. If you booted the Mint installation media
> you'd be able to check if it could see the SSD or if it's just IFL that doesn't
> see it.

AHCI - NVMe - RAID - the last two subjects are new to me and I had to read some stuff about them and have a closer look at the respecitve UEFI items. I think the disks were definitely not in RAID configuration. But I detected a setting called "Intel Optane" (see Attachment), which is perhaps related to "drivers for NVMe" you mentioned above.

So I disabled "Intel Optane" and could in fact thereafter see the SSD in IFL Work with Partitions and Imaging. I created an SSD Image and can now re-enable "Intel Optane" since I now intend to change the type of my HDD from GPT to EMBR and install BIBM on it, which will then hopefully see the SSD (with "Intel Optane" enabled?).

> As for the conversion to EMBR, you would need to create the extended partition and
> copy in each logical volume. You could convert it to EMBR directly, but they would
> all be primary partitions, which doesn't sound like what you want.
>
> Before any conversion it would be good to check the BIOS and verify that it supports
> booting in Legacy mode (if you haven't already).

Yes, my UEFI supports legacy mode.
Attachments
Intel Optane Setting in UEFI.jpg
Intel Optane Setting in UEFI.jpg (154 KiB) Viewed 9634 times
sigi
Posts: 243
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:59 am

Re: Migration from old (BIOS) PC to new (UEFI) PC

Post by sigi »

I forgot to mention that after having disabled Intel Optane, I had to re-assign (in Win10 disk management) the original drive letters I was used to work with on my old PC, because 4 of my 12 partitions (formerly 12 volumes on the old PC, now 12 partitions on the HDD of the new PC) had been changed automatically. I don't know the reason. I am not aware of any new partition. Perhaps the reason is simply that the drive letter (X:) that I always assign to the DVD drive had been changed to (D:)?
TeraByte Support(PP)
Posts: 1644
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 12:51 am

Re: Migration from old (BIOS) PC to new (UEFI) PC

Post by TeraByte Support(PP) »

Usually, that type of reassignment results from Windows seeing the drive as new (with a different signature/GUID, for example). Disabling Intel Optane may have caused it.

As for booting, you may be limited to booting Legacy from the HDD.
sigi
Posts: 243
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 1:59 am

Re: Migration from old (BIOS) PC to new (UEFI) PC

Post by sigi »

TeraByte Support(PP) wrote:
> Usually, that type of reassignment results from Windows seeing the drive as new (with
> a different signature/GUID, for example). Disabling Intel Optane may have caused
> it.

Can you advise me on how to re-assign the original signature/GUID if possible at all? I have created an image of the boot partitiion on the SSD by means of BIU prior to disabling Intel Optane in UEFI and another one with IFL of the full SSD after having disabled Intel Optane in UEFI. Maybe the one or the other could help.

As it is now, the Intel Optane Memory and Storage Management gives the following information (cf. Attachment):

Under Manage > Status: "Your storage system is functioning normally".

Under Intel Optane Memory > "Your system is not ready for Intel Optane Memory. The following conditions are not met: There is no valid pair of drives in your system." (own translation from German).
Attachments
Intel Optane Troubleshooting.jpg
Intel Optane Troubleshooting.jpg (147.6 KiB) Viewed 8274 times
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