Way to move system image from legacy BIOS system to UEFI system?

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Is there a way to move a (windows 8) system image From a LEGACY BIOS system to UEFI-based System, or is a clean install the only way to achieve this? :huh:

(I am aware there is not MBR on the drive of a UEFI setup, and that required partitions on the drive are also different, so a sector-by-sector copy of my boot disk will not work; but being lazy, I would love to avoid completely re-installing everything if/when I move to a UEFI-capable setup).

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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Many articlesare available with what should be an answer to your question. I do not have a UEFI system, so can not respond directly with 1st hand experience.

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Thanks Ted..

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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No problem. I hope one of the articles helps.

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Is there a way to move a (windows 8) system image From a LEGACY BIOS system to UEFI-based System, or is a clean install the only way to achieve this? :huh:

petemst,

Hello… Boy this is going to be complicated to try to explain …”Cause” there are a few variables… I have done this …but the other way around, Moving a GPT UEFI image to a MBR setup. I’ll throw a few questions first …

1. Depending on the Motherboard … some will have options for either UEFI or MBR …Are you building a new PC?

2. Why do you want a UEFI GPT system ? … I have a UEFI MOBO that can handle MBR OS’s …I hate GPT ! ( hold on …putting my “Woopin Helmet” on…Cause i know that I’m gonna take a “Woopin” for saying this ) Why on earth would anyone want or need more than 4 primary partitions on a HD? or are you secretly working for the “Space Administration” ?

3. UEFIGPT sets up two partitions from the “Geko” …one contains the boot info …who knows what the other is…So here’s the problem …

4. If you try to install a MBR Image to a GPT UEFI HD, there will be no boot info …so it wont boot ..There are “workarounds”

5. Macrium Reflect Pro can Install the Image and fix the boot problems …. ( haven’t tried this ..MBR to GPT ) Did this the other way around and needed Acronis True Image, as well to set the GPT Image to Active Primary ..so Macrium could use it… ( Macrium didn’t have the option from the dropdown)

I know….. I’ve made more questions than i answered … I’ll try to help…:cheers: Regards Fred

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While I agree with you in part, and I am set in my ways.

in part 2 “Why on earth would anyone want or need more than 4 primary partitions”

That is not the point of UEFI.
Any OS that conforms to UEFI registers it’s presence with the BIOS during install. In the BIOS you can select an OS by it’s name and not by it’s physical location, allowing that OS to be moved around yet still work. The OS can coexist on the same ‘partition’ as another operating system (file/folder conflicts not notwithstanding).

The only OS that is not co-operative at the time of writing is Windows.
“Windows supports either UEFI-GPT boot or BIOS-MBR boot only, not UEFI-MBR or BIOS-GPT boot.”

Where as.
Such a limitation is not enforced by the Linux kernel

There is also inherent security by an OS that, when installed, registers with the underlying hardware BIOS.

There are some other things about more than 4 primary partitions, larger disk sizes etc, but they were dealt with long ago by using dynamic disks or Linux anyway.

I do note that boot time increases.

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@Just Plain Fred: Many thanks. I decided I would like to “try out” UEFI/GPT just to see what, if any, advantages I would gain. I have managed to “do it”!! Here’s what I did:

I created a fresh, full image of my Win 8 64-bit system, programs and data (c-drive).

I booted from an Acronis TI 2013 Plus Pack Bootable Recovery disk (with my PC still in MBR boot mode). I reformatted my c-drive as GPT using the tools in the recovery environment. I then rebooted into the BIOS and changed boot option to UEFI. I booted up and clean-installed Windows 8 64-bit (whilst disconnected from the internet to avoid any automatic attempts at downloading updates or activating the product). This step is necessary so that Windows installs the necessary boot instructions in the right position on the GPT -formatted drive. (Note you will need the Windows Product key to proceed). I then re-booted from the Acronis recovery disk (BIOS still in “UEFI mode”) and used Acronis to recover the system image to the c:drive (partition) on the GPT-formatted volume. When recovery was finished, I rebooted (in “UEFI mode”) with my internet connected and “voila” all was well. No activation or anything else was necessary.

Was it worth it? Probably not. I notice a slight decrease in boot-up time, and that is all. I suppose that “one day” when I move to a new up-to-date system, only UEFI will be available and I will hopefully be able to use Acronis to migrate to the new system “with relative ease” thereby avoiding a complete re-install of all my stuff (or so they say!!)

My Rig: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12-Core CPU; ASUS Cross Hair VIII Formula Mobo; Win 11 Pro (64 bit)-(UEFI-booted); 32GB RAM; 2TB Corsair Force Series MP600 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD. 1TB SAMSUNG 960 EVO M.2 NVME SSD; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 VENTUS 3X 24G OC; Microsoft 365 Home; Condusiv SSDKeeper Professional; Acronis Cyberprotect, VMWare Workstation Pro V17.5. HP 1TB USB SSD External Backup Drive). Dell G-Sync G3223Q 144Hz Monitor.

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