From uefi to non uefi?

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from uefi to non uefi

My Notebook crashed and I had a HDD with Windows 10 and UEFI. What must I do to put this HDD in an older Notebook, which does not have UEFI. Can I do this without reinstall windows ?

Thanks in advance

clubb0r
 

TechFreak1

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Re: from uefi to non uefi

Okay, this will get rather lengthy so your going to have to join, participate in this thread and provide more information.

1) First of all it depends on if the partitions are GPT or MBR style partitions.
2) When you say crashed, what happened - it maybe fixable using the advanced recovery tools / bcd commands in CMD.
3) Yes / No - depends on point 1 as you you will need to move all your personal data off the HDD as you can't simply convert partitions from GPT to MBR and vice-a-versa using a converter. You will need to wipe the HDD Clean.
 

clubb0r

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Re: from uefi to non uefi

Okay I see, I have to write more information about the problem.
The problem is not on the hdd, it was on the notebook. the mainboard has an power fail and it doesnt work anymore. The HDDs are good.
I only want to transfer the HDD from the new notebook, which crashed, into an older notebook, which doesnt have uefi. The HDD is in GPT Style.
I only wanted to know, if I can do this, without losing any data. And I think, how you said in point 3., that I must format my HDD.
 

TechFreak1

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Re: from uefi to non uefi

Okay I see, I have to write more information about the problem.
The problem is not on the hdd, it was on the notebook. the mainboard has an power fail and it doesnt work anymore. The HDDs are good.
I only want to transfer the HDD from the new notebook, which crashed, into an older notebook, which doesnt have uefi. The HDD is in GPT Style.
I only wanted to know, if I can do this, without losing any data. And I think, how you said in point 3., that I must format my HDD.

I see, sysprep.exe wouldn't work in that case.

A complete a reinstall looks like is really your only option if you don't want to fiddle around upgrading your BIOS to UEFI (presuming there is an update for the old notebook).

There are ways to migrate a windows install to another motherboard, sysprep.exe is best method however that needs to be run on a working install.

You could try using advanced tools in the windows install media and using the sysprep.exe command.

I doubt it will work however as the .exe is located here: %windir%\System32\Sysprep\Sysprep.exe .

I can't exactly recall where it's buried in the install media as I always do a clean install, you maybe able to get away by typing "Sysprep /generalize" - chances are it won't work (haven't tried it myself).
 
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GrayW0lf

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(Edit: I did not read TechFreak1's earlier post.. Sorry for the duplicate response. I'll leave it intact since I included a link to a potentially-useful utility..)

Converting from GPT back to MBR is a risky proposition. You have to use a third party partition manager (like this: http://www.partition-tool.com/resource/GPT-disk-partition-manager/convert-gpt-disk-to-mbr-disk.htm ) to perform the conversion. If anything happens to go wrong, you will lose the whole disk's worth of data.

IMO, you're better off finding a PC with a UEFI BIOS to copy the data off that drive and then reformat it with MBR instead of GPT.

This may be worth reviewing as well: http://woshub.com/booting-windows-7-from-a-gpt-disk-using-bios-firmware-non-uefi/

I've never tried to use a GPT disk on a non-UEFI BIOS machine. It seems that if you have the GPT disk as a secondary dish in the system, Windows may be able to read it anyway. So you could try a USB hard drive enclosure to connect that drive to your older notebook (if it doesn't have two bays for hard drives).
 

TechFreak1

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Re: from uefi to non uefi

(Edit: I did not read TechFreak1's earlier post.. Sorry for the duplicate response. I'll leave it intact since I included a link to a potentially-useful utility..)

Converting from GPT back to MBR is a risky proposition. You have to use a third party partition manager (like this: How to free convert GPT disk to MBR disk without any data loss? ) to perform the conversion. If anything happens to go wrong, you will lose the whole disk's worth of data.

IMO, you're better off finding a PC with a UEFI BIOS to copy the data off that drive and then reformat it with MBR instead of GPT.

Thanks GrayW0lf, I'll look into that tool could come in handy.

Yup, it is extremely risky as it is pretty delicate process - especially when it comes to personal files which are irreplaceable :).

Edit: I have this tool, for empty drives it works a charm however for converting a windows install... no dice - it doesn't work. I know because I cloned my HDD on to another HDD - it cloned it in MBR as the source was MBR. However the install would not boot when converted to GPT. The data suffered some corruption and plenty of bad sectors.

Even rebuilding the BCD and using a custom bootloader didn't work.

If it worked for you then, I guess it's probably down to my bad luck if anything lol.
 
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