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New HDD Migration

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I'm getting a new computer with a 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD.

I plan to migrate data from 2 SSD Boot drives (one for games and one for work) which are less than 500GB on this current computer.  See attached

 

What would be the process using Acronis True Image?

Can I partition the PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD into two 500 GB partitions and use Acronis Backup to restore each drive to each new 500 GB partition?  Then use Universal Restore on both? 

Or do I need 2 physical new drives in the new computer to be able to boot to each?  (I'd rather just have 1 powerful drive in the new hardware).

How would that work?

Will Universal Restore remove all the old drivers from the systems or do I need to manually uninstall/reinstall?

Thanks for any assistance.

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It is possible to have multiple operating systems (OS) on the one drive. However the tricky part will be migrating two OS on separate drives to the one drive.

There are also issues about licencing of OS; for Windows 10 in particular the licence is tied to the particular hardware. This is not a problem if you the new PC has the same OS (for example Windows 10 Pro x64), if you activate the version on the new PC before doing the migration.

Please advise the OS used for both the existing installations. As the new PC has an NVMe drive, it will also use UEFI rather than Legacy/BIOS that you existing PC uses.

Also, can you give details of the hardware of the new PC, in particular the Motherboard used. I ask this because I suspect that the easiest solution would be to install a second drive, preferably another NVMe SSD. Most motherboards have at least 2 M.2 slots, but on many (mainly those using Intel CPU) the second slot is only PCIe 2 rather than PCIe 3 - thus much slower (in my two i5 9400 systems the second drive maxes out at reads about 2000 whereas the main one is about 3500 -  this may be particularly important with your games installation.

Ian

I have 2 separate licenses for each drive's Win10 Pro x64.  They were both upgraded for free from Windows 8 and I have them setup with Microsoft Accounts which I believe are tied to the license?  It says "Windows is activated with a digital license linked to my account"  Worst case is I'll have to get a new license...

I wasn't planning on putting an OS on the new PC.  I was planning to use ATI to format and restore each drive backup to each new partition with my existing Win 10 installs.  My ATI backups aren't "entire PC" if that matters.  Attached is a screenshot.

I am using BIOS not UEFI it seems.

MOBO: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/PRIME-Z490-V/

I'd rather partition 1 larger drive into two and add each boot drive to each partition if possible.  I've done it with other drives yet just not with ATI in the mix.

Thanks for any further assistance.

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Layne, I can see a number of issues with what you are proposing to do here!

I'm getting a new computer with a 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD.

Your new computer will be UEFI / GPT as required to support the NVMe M.2 SSD drive.

Can I partition the PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD into two 500 GB partitions and use Acronis Backup to restore each drive to each new 500 GB partition?  Then use Universal Restore on both? 

No, this will not work.  Your screen images of one of your drives shows a Legacy BIOS system where the System Reserved partition is on a second drive, plus you will be setting up a dual-boot system not two separate copies of Windows.

Universal Restore is not normally required when migrating Windows 10 systems due to the much improved hardware handling it now has.

To achieve what you are asking here will require a different approach to that which is recommended when doing a simple one to one migration from one PC to another.

If your new PC comes with a copy of Windows 10 installed, then I would highly recommend that you make a backup of that PC before attempting any migration that would overwrite that installed OS, plus also identify all installed device drivers for the new PC, as you may need to install some of these after migrating your old OS.  Use the ATI 2020 WinPE rescue media to create the backup, assuming that you have already purchased a license for the software?  ATI 2020 will need to be installed to create the WinPE media.

Focus on migrating just one of your existing Win 10 OS systems to the new computer, and if this is going to be the one shown in your screen images, then you will first need to move the System Reserved partition to the same drive as the OS, i.e. from the Samsung 840 EVO to the SanDisk drive.  Download a copy of the EasyBCD 2.4 software to do this.

Once you have the MSR and OS on the single drive, then make a new Disk backup of that disk.

At this point you will need to boot the new PC in UEFI mode from the Acronis WinPE rescue media with the backup from the above OS disk available on a backup drive.

Recover the OS backup to the new PC at a Disk level to the whole M.2 SSD and ensure that this is successful when complete.

Shutdown the new PC, remove the rescue media & backup drive, then attempt to boot into the recovered Windows 10 OS on the new PC.  This may take a little longer as any new hardware is discovered and device drivers installed etc.

Assuming you get to the Windows desktop ok, confirm that the OS is activated to your MS Account.

If all is looking good, then install ATI 2020 on the new PC and make a new Disk backup of the working migrated OS to your backup drive.

The next steps are needed to prepare to setup a dual-boot configuration.

Download a copy of the free MiniTool Partition Wizard software, install this and use it to resize your OS partition to make space for the second copy of Windows 10 from your second PC. Leave any other partitions as they are, i.e. the EFI System and Recovery partitions.

Download the installation media for the edition of Windows 10 that you will be using from the second PC from the Microsoft site by using the Media Creation Tool provided by MS. Create either a USB or DVD boot media from this.

Boot your new PC from the Windows install media using UEFI mode, and select to install a new copy of Windows 10 into the unallocated space on the drive (created above using PW).

Let Windows handle the dual-boot setup and provide options in the Boot menu to select between the two copies of Windows 10.

Once all is working as expected, then you can restore just the Windows OS partition from your second PC to the second OS partition on the new PC using either the installed ATI GUI or else after booting from the ATI WinPE rescue media. 
Note: do not attempt to restore any other partitions except the C: OS one!

Make ATI backups as you work through the above steps - better to have too many backups than not enough!

Thank you very much for the very detailed response.

No, this will not work.  Your screen images of one of your drives shows a Legacy BIOS system where the System Reserved partition is on a second drive, plus you will be setting up a dual-boot system not two separate copies of Windows.

Maybe this is my confusion.  I have 2 drives with 2 different Windows 10 Pro installs.  Whats the difference between this and a dual boot system on 2 partitions.  On my current system, I just happened to have the SSDs to create 2 separate Windows 10 installs on each, yet isn't it the same to partition a larger drive into 2 partitions and then restore each Windows 10 Pro drive onto each new partition?

Universal Restore is not normally required when migrating Windows 10 systems due to the much improved hardware handling it now has.

My plan was to use the Acronis Survival Kit (ASK) (I have a license) to hold all the latest drivers for new mobo on same drive as the ATI 2020 backups - as the new computer will only have a bare 1TB drive.  To your earlier point I may get two 1TB drives (which will work on the new mobo) and restore each ATI backup to each new, bare drive.

I don't think the Survival Kit is WinPE - is that an issue - does it have to be WinPE?  I can create the bootable media for ATI using WinPE yet the one I have is Linux and it has both ATI and Universal Restore on it which I can't find how to do with WinPE - when creating rescue media with WinPE it seems to only add the ATI and its listed as WinRE base media x64....

So I'm hoping to boot to ASK.  Partition the drive into two 500GB partitions or install on one of the 1TB drives.  Do I need to format the drive to GUID?  Or does that matter?

Then recover the drive with the MSR to the first of the newly formatted partitions or drives - not sure how to do this without Universal Restore as there will be no drivers whatsoever.

Then verify the restored drive works and add all drivers to new Windows 10 Pro install for sound, video, etc.  I will have all latest drivers on the Acronis Survival Kit external backup drive also.

Then open ATI 2020 on newly restored and working drive and recover the 2nd partition that doesnt have the MSR.  Do I recover MBR and Track 0 for any of these?

Then verify it works and install all drivers.  (would I need to edit the boot configuration file to list the new configuration?)

Focus on migrating just one of your existing Win 10 OS systems to the new computer, and if this is going to be the one shown in your screen images, then you will first need to move the System Reserved partition to the same drive as the OS, i.e. from the Samsung 840 EVO to the SanDisk drive.  Download a copy of the EasyBCD 2.4 software to do this.

Once you have the MSR and OS on the single drive, then make a new Disk backup of that disk.

The MSR is on the same drive as the OS and it only needs to be on one drive (both drives have their own Windows 10 Pro licensed install and one has the MSR).  I verified with Microsoft that the configuration was ok.

At this point you will need to boot the new PC in UEFI mode from the Acronis WinPE rescue media with the backup from the above OS disk available on a backup drive.

Recover the OS backup to the new PC at a Disk level to the whole M.2 SSD and ensure that this is successful when complete.

Can I just use the ASK in UEFI mode and format the drive into 2 partitions and then recover to one at a time (already asked above)?  I'd rather not install Windows 10 on the new drive/s if I don't have to.

Download a copy of the free MiniTool Partition Wizard software, install this and use it to resize your OS partition to make space for the second copy of Windows 10 from your second PC. Leave any other partitions as they are, i.e. the EFI System and Recovery partitions.

Download the installation media for the edition of Windows 10 that you will be using from the second PC from the Microsoft site by using the Media Creation Tool provided by MS. Create either a USB or DVD boot media from this.

Boot your new PC from the Windows install media using UEFI mode, and select to install a new copy of Windows 10 into the unallocated space on the drive (created above using PW).

Let Windows handle the dual-boot setup and provide options in the Boot menu to select between the two copies of Windows 10.

Do I need to install the Windows 10 Pro on the bare NVMe M.2 SSD?  I'm confused as to why I need to do this.

Once all is working as expected, then you can restore just the Windows OS partition from your second PC to the second OS partition on the new PC using either the installed ATI GUI or else after booting from the ATI WinPE rescue media.

I just did a dry run to see restore options and I don't see a way to use the ATI GUI.  I searched the help and couldnt find it either.  Is there a doc for that process?

Note: do not attempt to restore any other partitions except the C: OS one!

So for the second drive without don't restore Recovery partition or the MBR and track 0?  Or is this only if I was to install Windows 10 Pro on both partitions which would create the Recovery Partition for each?

Sorry I'm still so confused yet I need to get this right the first time.

I really appreciate your guidance.

Thank you very much for any further assistance.

Maybe this is my confusion.  I have 2 drives with 2 different Windows 10 Pro installs.  Whats the difference between this and a dual boot system on 2 partitions.  On my current system, I just happened to have the SSDs to create 2 separate Windows 10 installs on each, yet isn't it the same to partition a larger drive into 2 partitions and then restore each Windows 10 Pro drive onto each new partition?

This is one problem with only having partial information.  How are you selecting between the 2 separate Win 10 OS's?  Is this from a single menu with both choices offered at boot, or are you changing BIOS settings?
If you are selecting from a Windows boot menu, then you have a dual-boot system with a single System Reserved partition that is shared between the 2 different Win 10 OS systems.

I don't think the Survival Kit is WinPE - is that an issue - does it have to be WinPE?  I can create the bootable media for ATI using WinPE yet the one I have is Linux and it has both ATI and Universal Restore on it which I can't find how to do with WinPE - when creating rescue media with WinPE it seems to only add the ATI and its listed as WinRE base media x64....

The Survival Kit is WinPE because it is created from the Windows 10 Recovery Environment with no Linux involvement.
Again, you should not need to have Acronis Universal Restore for this migration.

So I'm hoping to boot to ASK.  Partition the drive into two 500GB partitions or install on one of the 1TB drives.  Do I need to format the drive to GUID?  Or does that matter?

If you are using the NVMe M.2 drive then this requires UEFI and GPT, which in turn does not use a System Reserved partition to hold the BCD - the BCD is stored within a EFI System partition.

Then recover the drive with the MSR to the first of the newly formatted partitions or drives - not sure how to do this without Universal Restore as there will be no drivers whatsoever.

When the Acronis rescue media (or Survival Kit) is booted using UEFI mode, it will migrate the OS being restored from being Legacy / MBR to be UEFI / GPT.  Any additional drivers will be managed by Windows during the initial boot when new hardware is detected.  The UEFI BIOS will make the NVMe M.2 drive accessible for the recovery.

Can I just use the ASK in UEFI mode and format the drive into 2 partitions and then recover to one at a time (already asked above)?  I'd rather not install Windows 10 on the new drive/s if I don't have to.

All rescue media / SKit is capable of booting in both Legacy and UEFI modes but ATI is not designed for use with dual-boot systems as far as I understand, so when the MSR is migrated to the EFI partition, there is no guarantee that it will correctly migrate a dual-boot configuration for the BCD.  Doing a minimal Win 10 install on the second partition would register that OS as an additional entry in the BCD of the first OS to be shared by both OS.

I just did a dry run to see restore options and I don't see a way to use the ATI GUI.  I searched the help and couldnt find it either.  Is there a doc for that process?

You can do the second partition restore from the SKit if that is easier for you but restore only the OS partition, not track 0 or MBR.

This is one problem with only having partial information.  How are you selecting between the 2 separate Win 10 OS's?  Is this from a single menu with both choices offered at boot, or are you changing BIOS settings?
If you are selecting from a Windows boot menu, then you have a dual-boot system with a single System Reserved partition that is shared between the 2 different Win 10 OS systems.

Its a single Windows 10 Window that I setup by editing BCD.  So option 2.

When the Acronis rescue media (or Survival Kit) is booted using UEFI mode, it will migrate the OS being restored from being Legacy / MBR to be UEFI / GPT.  Any additional drivers will be managed by Windows during the initial boot when new hardware is detected.  The UEFI BIOS will make the NVMe M.2 drive accessible for the recovery.

That's great news.  Thanks for the explanation.

All rescue media / SKit is capable of booting in both Legacy and UEFI modes but ATI is not designed for use with dual-boot systems as far as I understand, so when the MSR is migrated to the EFI partition, there is no guarantee that it will correctly migrate a dual-boot configuration for the BCD.  Doing a minimal Win 10 install on the second partition would register that OS as an additional entry in the BCD of the first OS to be shared by both OS.

So from the attached screenshot, boot in UEFI mode and first restore the SAMSUNG SSD to the NVMe M.2.

-Do I only restore the System Reserved, Recovery, and Games partitions or do I add MBR and track 0 as well?

Then use the USB version of Windows 10 Pro installer I created using the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool to install an OS on the second partition or drive and then migrate only Web (C:) from the SANDISK.  Do I have to use partition manager to delete the Windows 10 Pro partition I just created?  I'm not sure of the mechanics for this part.

I think we're almost there!

Again.  Thank you so much for your help and time.  I really appreciate it.

 

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So from the attached screenshot, boot in UEFI mode and first restore the SAMSUNG SSD to the NVMe M.2.

-Do I only restore the System Reserved, Recovery, and Games partitions or do I add MBR and track 0 as well?

Then use the USB version of Windows 10 Pro installer I created using the Windows USB/DVD Download Tool to install an OS on the second partition or drive and then migrate only Web (C:) from the SANDISK.  Do I have to use partition manager to delete the Windows 10 Pro partition I just created?  I'm not sure of the mechanics for this part.

When doing the restore of your backup, this needs to be done as a Disk & Partition restore and at the top Disk selection level.

Please see forum topic: [How to] recover an entire disk backup - and in particular the attached PDF document which shows a step-by-step tutorial for doing this type of recovery / restore.
Note: doing a disk level restore will take care of any need for including the MBR and track 0.

When doing the recovery of the Web C: partition, then you will only be recovering that one partition.  The first action of the partition recovery is to wipe the target partition it is being restored to, so will delete the minimal Win 10 partition created to establish the dual-boot option.
Note: if you are confident with editing the BCD then you could try just doing the Web C: partition recovery and edit the BCD to add a menu option for it.