Skip to main content

restoring multiple-drive system

I too am getting a new PC. (Building it myself)  My current system has the C: drive on an AHCI SSD and a 2nd SSD (E:).  Both drives are installed on a PCIE adapter (no drivers needed). Most (but not all) of my applications are installed on E: (because my C: is only 256GB and I have a ton of pgms). The "My documents" folder is also on E:. When I use Acronis (2019) to backup, I backup both of these drives to the same external device. The NEW machine will have an M.2 SSD and a regular AHCI SSD (maybe also in a PCIE slot). My Windows version is NOT OEM, so it is portable.

Can I use AUR  to restore both of the old drives to the new drives? What if the backups are on different media? Will I need special drivers for the M.2 drive?

0 Users found this helpful

What is your Windows OS here?

If it is Windows 10 then you may not need to use AUR at all as it handles hardware changes better than all earlier versions of Windows.

If you currently have Windows 7 then that has no native support for NVMe M.2 SSD drives so you would need to install support for such before attempting to migrate your OS to a system with any of these drives.  You will also need to use AUR.

Given that your OS and applications are split across 2 separate SSD's, then you will also need to ensure that you get the correct / same drive letters allocated for the new drives in the new build PC.

I would recommend making separate backups of each source SSD then restoring these to the new PC drives using the standard Acronis Rescue Media without attempting to boot the new PC until you have both drives restored.

Test booting the new PC with the rescue media and check to see if your M.2 SSD is visible.  If not, then you will need to install drivers for this either into the rescue media when rebuilding it, or else on your old computer if creating the rescue media using the WinRE option (Simple mode).

Note: I would recommend looking at the MVP Custom ATIPE builder tool (link below) as this has options which can inject additional device drivers, along with RAID support (via Intel RST drivers) into the rescue media.  If you have AUR installed, the MVP tool will also include that in the rescue media as an additional program menu option alongside ATI.

Another follow-up to Steve's already great questions and advice:

What is the OS license type - is it full retail or OEM?  You can't move an OEM license to a new PC build (new motherboard) - it won't activate, even if it does boot correctly when all is said and done.

If it's full retail, you can move it and reactivate by calling Microsoft directly, if it does not automatically activate on its own.

If you have Windows 10, you should be in much better shape to migrate to the new system though with the PCIeNVME drives.  Before you do that, update your IRST drivers from Intel into your current system to prep the OS migration (just in case).  You can get them directly from Intel (we've put a list of common drivers on our MVP Google Drive document so you can get to them easily and the links go directly to the original vendor or manufacturer links (no third party drivers or driver tools):  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RSVbF5C3ykSGOKnD_vLh3xX6-LxqY8VXp9XZd7MMQrs/)

Windows 7 will be a headache here and you'd be better off starting from scratch with Windows 10, especially since mainstream support for Windows 7 is EOL in January.