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

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Eric
Posts: 224
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 6:53 pm
Location: France

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

Post by Eric »

True. If you want to boot a Windows installed in a GPT disk, you have to set your BIOS in UEFI and use BIU.
CyberSimian
Posts: 137
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2016 12:13 pm

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

Post by CyberSimian »

sigi wrote:
> Finally I have successfully changed the HDD disktype from GPT to EMBR from
> within SSD(GPT)-based Win10. Now I am desperately trying to install BIBM on
> the HDD but I fail on BIOS settings or makedisk.

As I understand it:

(1) Your system has two disks.
(2) The NVMe SSD has a GPT with Windows 10 booting in UEFI mode.
(3) The HDD now has an MBR and you want to copy to it your old Windows 10 booting in MBR mode.

Be aware that:

(4) If you install BIBM on the HDD, you will NOT be able to use it to boot in UEFI mode the Windows 10 on the NVMe SSD.

(5) If you install BIU on the NVMe SSD, you will NOT be able to use it to boot in MBR mode the old Windows 10 on the HDD.

(6) To boot either operating system, you will need to use the BIOS' own "Boot Menu". So you need to check your BIOS to confirm that it does indeed have a "Boot Menu". See this post from me:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3336#p18279

(7) In addition, you will not be able to hide the GPT Windows 10 from the MBR Windows 10 (you cannot stop the GPT disk appearing in the boot item).

(8) You will be able to hide the MBR Windows 10 from the GPT Windows 10, by creating on the HDD four dummy 1MiB partitions, placing them all in a boot item, and trying to boot it. This will fail (because there is no operating system in the dummy partitions), but it will insert into the MBR the entries for the dummy partitions (so when you subsequently boot the GPT Windows 10, it will see these dummy partitions on the HDD, and not the MBR Windows 10).

(9) To be honest, I don't recommend a setup like this, especially for a beginner. My recommendation is to use UEFI or MBR for all operating systems that you install. Microsoft have provided a tool for converting an MBR Windows 10 to a UEFI Windows 10, this one:

How to convert Windows 10 from MBR to GPT without losing data
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/window ... mbr-to-gpt

So you could use that to convert your old MBR Windows 10 to UEFI.

(10) I am not aware of a tool to go the other way (UEFI to MBR), so if you wanted to do that, you would need to re-install the new Windows 10. If Medion provided an install image, it is likely to force a GPT install in UEFI mode (my Lenovo does this), so you would instead need to download a Windows 10 image from Microsoft, and install that.

If your system was delivered with Windows 10 pre-installed, it already has a valid licence, so it is perfectly legal to download Windows 10 from Microsoft and install that. However, it won't include Medion-specific drivers, or any applications that were included as freebies with your system. The drivers can probably be downloaded from the Medion web site, but the freeby applications may not be available for download.

Finally: good luck! You have challenging times ahead of you.

-- from CyberSimian in the UK
Eric
Posts: 224
Joined: Mon Sep 05, 2011 6:53 pm
Location: France

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

Post by Eric »

CyberSimian wrote:
> (10) I am not aware of a tool to go the other way (UEFI to MBR)

Well yes, the chgdtype script. It can do either way.
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