Moving Windows

I remember easily moving a Windows 10 system to an SSD using Acronis. Not this time. The clone tool isn’t willing to clone *some* partitions instead of a whole disk, so I can’t use that, and the bootable restore tool can’t see the external drive where I put the backup file.

Looking into alternatives. For tomorrow. Or maybe Saturday.

Next morning:

It’s my dual-boot system, so I’ve got a full Linux installation on there anyway. Last night I created an image of the Windows partition, saved it to the external drive (which Linux can see just fine, unlike the so-called universal restore image) and now I’m trying to restore it to the new drive.

Beginning to wonder if it *would* be easier to install Windows fresh and then figure out how to transfer all my saved games. All the other data is easy.

That evening:

I did a clean install, copied my AppData folders, got everything working…then discovered I couldn’t boot it without going through the BIOS screen. I’d accidentally booted the install image without UEFI, so it installed MBR. I couldn’t get GRUB2 to chain load it & the Windows UEFI boot loader could only see the old installation I wanted to remove.

So I did ANOTHER clean install, in UEFI mode, but this time set aside just the save files I wanted.

Bleah.

But it’s working now!

I’ve got UEFI loading GRUB2, which can boot Fedora or chain to the Windows UEFI menu, which will load the shiny new installation of Windows.

Now I just need to figure out how to tell the Windows boot menu that the alternate Windows installation isn’t there anymore & remove it from the list!