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The end of Universal Restore?

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I am impressed. I just moved a Windows 10 Pro image from an old X58 motherboard to a shiny new Z170 motherboard, simulatenously moving from a BIOS/MBR set up to a GPT/UEFI setup, from a SATA RAID disk to an NVMe M.2 AHCI disk, from a single disk controller to a combo Intel + ASRock controller, from USB 2.0 to new USB 3.0 and 3.1.

I was really nervous about going through that process. Felt like the odds were seriously stacked against me.

If you had asked me how to do this 2 days ago, I'd have told you you'd be better off reinstalling Windows instead of using ATI to do this, with universal restore, and the change of BIOS generation. I would have told you you should be prepared for Windows activation issues, etc.

Gee, I was wrong. Without Universal Restore, Windows activation issue whatsoever, blue screens or sketchy reboots, I simply use a normal restore. I bet I could have done a clone just the same way, but I didn't try.

I just took my old SSD from the old computer, put it in the new (completely dissimilar) computer and (magically) Windows 10 booted up, told me it was adding some devices and that's it.

When I activated Windows 10, it asks me for a product code. I had an older 8.1 Pro upgrade retail product code that satisfied the activation process. Probably less likely to happen with an OEM license, I'd say. Office just activated right away. ATI's license moved easily. Norton Security Suite ditto.

I then created a WinPE recovery CD, booted on it, created an image of my old SATA SSD, added the NVMe M2 disk as a GPT disk as and restored the image on the NVME disk. I disconnected the Old SSD temporarily, and the system booted immediately in UEFI mode.

Wow. That was easy.

I don't know what fundamental changes Microsoft and/or Intel did with Windows 10, but the capacity of the OS to move to dissimilar hardware is fantastic.

With migration towards new standards like NVMe M.2 and USB 3.1 etc., this might change the way we think about using ATI when changing hardware...

Happy to field any question if interested. Share your migration stories!

 

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Wow!  That's quite a success story Pat!  I do not have any migration stories yet but I do have an older build due for an upgrade and have been holding off because of thinking like you, it will be tough to pull off (X58 as well).  Reading your success has removed some of that worry.  Guess I will bite the bullet, buy the last remaining part I need (CPU) and do the deed!  Thanks for the post!

On an aside, I have found Win 10 to be very accomodative when needing to perform an in place upgrade.  I have had 2 system where this was necessary and both went smooth as silk with no surprizes!  In that respect I say kudos to Microsoft for doing a great job in this respect.

Very nice to hear!  I wish I would have remembered the new licensing feature of Win 10 v1511 with the ability to take previous keys for renewal before I went through the hassle of isntalling the old OS, upgrading to Win 10 to license it and then restoring my Win 10 image back to my new build a few weeks ago - oh well, lesson learned.

Driver support is waaaay better in Win 10 for sure.  The only thing that stumpped Windows this time was the killer ethernet adapter on my new board which still required me to grab the manufacturer ones before I could get to the web.

I started seeing some weird Windows 10 application errors in the logs last night and decided to try an inplace upgrade as well, and it rocked my socks too.  Was painless, pretty fast (using NVME PCIE drive though - took maybe 15 minutes from start to booting back into Windows) and the errors were gone and system seems to be working flawlessy with all my apps, settings, and data still there (even homegroup shares are still working).

I think Windows 10 already has the AHCI and RAID drivers built in so it's not as reliant on that setting being configured in the bios as it has been in the past.  Mobo's are a lot better at supporting MBR and UEFI builds too so that certainly helps.  I think the only thing that might still get people is how the drive they are moving to is formatted - as you'd still want to have a GPT disk imaged to a GPT formatted drive and vice-versa for MBR.

Thanks for sharing!

I am now waiting anxiously for native support of NVMe disks in the linux based recovery CD. Although I can restore with WinPE, the lack of built in networking capabilities in the WinPE version is a bummer. I thought about creating a MustangPE recovery disk, but I got lazy so I am backing up on a local disk for the time being.

Pat L wrote:

I then created a WinPE recovery CD, booted on it, created an image of my old SATA SSD, added the NVMe M2 disk as a GPT disk as and restored the image on the NVME disk. I disconnected the Old SSD temporarily, and the system booted immediately in UEFI mode.

Wow. That was easy.

 

Is that really easy? Acronis say, when restore MBR to GPT, this disc will not bootable. I think WinPE is not so easy.

I clone my old SSD to new SSD and then transfer it to completely dissimilary new system. No problem, but my disc is still MBR. I cant find an easy way to convert system MBR image to system (bootable) GPT.

 

If you're machine supports GPT, it should be bootable after conversion of MBR to GPT.  In this case, do not restore MBR track 0 and Acronis will to the rest.  Give it a try to a different disk than the original though... just in case.  Remove the original, replace with new/test disk, restore by booting the recovery media in UEFI mode (to be sure, use your one time boot menu or boot override menu and make sure you specifically pick to boot in UEFI mode).  

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/#14008.html

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/#19383.html

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/ATI2016/#13043.html