locked
Migrate a UEFI installation to a BIOS installation? RRS feed

 > 

  • Question

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    There are very specific reasons for my wanting to do this. The target PC has Intel RAID built-in, and trying to make an OS-managed software RAID-1 setup is a nightmare for a UEFI PC.

    Please don't argue it.

    Anyway, on the Windows 10 Desktop side of things, I have a BIOS-based image that I routinely deploy to UEFI PCs by using a script that creates a series of UEFI volumes and populates them with data from the Windows 10 image. I'm thinking there's a way to do the same thing in reverse: Take an image of my Server 2016 OS volume, and then deploy it to a BIOS PC by scripting the population of the System Reserved volume. I'll assume the RAID driver is included because, well, Intel RAID has been included since Windows 8 at least.

    I already use SYSPREP for this, and even if that wasn't an option I know how to use BCDEDIT and such, and even simpler I could boot from the installation media and repair the installation.

    So, how can I do this? At my disposal are, installation media, a Windows PE 10 boot device, the source PC image, and you lot.

    At simplest, I could try imaging the source PC, installing a simple Server 2016 on the destination PC, restoring the image to the destination PC's OS volume, then using Startup Repair to fix the BCD.

    Monday, December 18, 2017 6:12 PM

Answers

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    1
    Sign in to vote

    Migrating the installation proved a lot simpler than I guessed.

    Step one was installing and updating a Server 2016 installation to my target PC in BIOS mode. I didn't know if any updates would also update files in the System Reserved volume, so I made sure my source and target PC had the same patch level.

    Step Two was imaging the source PC's OS volume using DISM and restoring it to the target PC's OS volume, overwriting the previous installation. That surprisingly seemed to work.

    I think this is because the boot manager on the new System Reserved volume would look for a Windows installation on the new OS volume, and didn't care what that Windows installation looked like. DISM didn't change the target volume's ID. As for Windows itself, it didn't seem to care as long as its disk host adapter drivers found the disk. As Windows 10 and Server 2016 include Intel RAID drivers, this was the case.

    So that proved simpler than I expected. On Windows versions prior to Vista, I'd usually have to preload my target PC's disk host adapter's driver on the source PC first, so the OS would have a chance to boot. If anyone else tries to do this, do that step if you can.

    • Marked as answer by Gordon Fecyk Thursday, January 4, 2018 6:50 PM
    Thursday, January 4, 2018 6:50 PM

All replies

  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    Hi，

    You may check whether this link below helps:

    How to convert Windows 8 from UEFI to BIOS

    https://4sysops.com/archives/how-to-convert-windows-8-from-bios-to-uefi/

    Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.

    Best Regards,

    Amy

    Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
    If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact tnmff@microsoft.com.

    Thursday, December 21, 2017 10:37 AM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    1
    Sign in to vote

    Migrating the installation proved a lot simpler than I guessed.

    Step one was installing and updating a Server 2016 installation to my target PC in BIOS mode. I didn't know if any updates would also update files in the System Reserved volume, so I made sure my source and target PC had the same patch level.

    Step Two was imaging the source PC's OS volume using DISM and restoring it to the target PC's OS volume, overwriting the previous installation. That surprisingly seemed to work.

    I think this is because the boot manager on the new System Reserved volume would look for a Windows installation on the new OS volume, and didn't care what that Windows installation looked like. DISM didn't change the target volume's ID. As for Windows itself, it didn't seem to care as long as its disk host adapter drivers found the disk. As Windows 10 and Server 2016 include Intel RAID drivers, this was the case.

    So that proved simpler than I expected. On Windows versions prior to Vista, I'd usually have to preload my target PC's disk host adapter's driver on the source PC first, so the OS would have a chance to boot. If anyone else tries to do this, do that step if you can.

    • Marked as answer by Gordon Fecyk Thursday, January 4, 2018 6:50 PM
    Thursday, January 4, 2018 6:50 PM
  • Question
    Sign in to vote
    0
    Sign in to vote

    I know it's been awhile..... Could you list out the DISM steps/commands you took?

    Thank you.

    Thursday, July 9, 2020 2:25 PM