From: nospam@needed.invalid   
      
   On Sat, 4/12/2025 7:50 PM, bad sector wrote:   
   >   
   > Recovering data from my suddenly departed son's computer was a job and a   
   half, but it's mostly done. He had a huge server tower and I think he was   
   amusing himself with RAID (which he didn't need) and encryption (which he   
   didn't need) and so on!   
   >   
   > Drives:   
   >   
   > #1   
   > 500gb ssd with strange partitions for Linux and I think some created for   
   future Linux OSes, could't figure out his /home partition setup, possibly raid.   
   >   
   > #2   
   > 1tb ssd hosting fat and ext4 data PLUS a w7 and a w10 partition   
   >   
   > #3   
   > 4tb data   
   >   
   >   
   > #4,5,6 in a Linux-Raid array, all data   
   >   
   > I copied out the #4 data set, cleared those drives, and released the tower   
   to the executors for liquidation. Then I also backed up what ever other data I   
   could find to other drives on hand.   
   >   
   > Plugged the # 1,2,3 drives into my own very similar computer; couldn't   
   believe it when everything just booted right up, even the two window installs!   
   This gave me the idea that I can relax and take my time doing the rest of the   
   recovey, filtering and    
   disposal as time permits because I can now just boot my son's systems on my   
   own computer. But it's my OLD computer.   
   >   
   > _____And that's how shit hit the fan   
   >   
   > I'm moving to a new and inevitably UEFI box, just plugging those 3 drives in   
   doesn't work any more, so...   
   >   
   > I copied the #1 drive to a 1tb ssd to have more space, then did a fresh   
   Linux (Tumbleweed) install to get EFI bootabilty. With that new #1 drive and   
   his other drives including the #2 with windows on it also plugged-in I ran   
   Yast to set up the EFI boot.    
   I can now boot either my temporary facilitating Linux install OR my son's   
   Linux (Leap-15.4) on the new EFI-BIOS board.   
   >   
   > But I cannot boot his windows, for that I'd have to keep my old Legacy-BIOS   
   box which I don't want to do (I can unload it for a few hundered bills).   
   >   
   > Not knowing windows much I think I could do a w7 and a w10 fresh install   
   after having done two 'windows backups' on the legacy box and then try a   
   recovery from those windows-backup files on the new w7 and w10 installs on the   
   EFI box. There's GOTTA be a    
   simpler way   ..I hope.   
   >   
      
   With my Macrium CD, I can boot from the CD and back up any machine.   
      
   You would not use the "Windows 7 Backup" that comes with Windows, because   
   of the rough edges. Commercial backup materials have the rough edges filed off.   
      
   *******   
      
   Similar to your Tumbleweed facilitator install, you can install a Windows   
   side-by-side   
   in a sense. Use Macrium to clone over or backup-restore over, the partition   
   from the other box. Then do a Macrium CD boot repair, and the boot repair   
   (similar to   
   OSprober), it sees the orphan Windows partitions you added, and includes   
   them in the boot menu.   
      
   Similar to third-party "EasyBCD" on Windows, you can use this command   
      
      bcdboot C:\Windows /s C:   
      
   to add an item to the boot menu (stored in the BCD file, BCD file   
   format is actually a registry file).   
      
   But, there is "much to and fro" involved. For example, somewhere along the   
   way, you will be holding an MSDOS Primary partition in your hand,   
   some other disk is GPT with GUID partition type declarations.   
      
   What commercial tools will agree to bodge those items together   
   to make a whole part ?   
      
   It's going to take trickery at some point.   
      
   Perhaps you make a "shell" of a partition (exact sizing important)   
   on the GPT disk, then "dd" copy the MSDOS partition into the   
   space set aside for the GPT partition. I have no idea whether   
   that works. I can tell you, that the equivalent of an rsync   
   between Windows C: type partitions, would never work, due to   
   all the fiddly details involved in such things. Microsoft have   
   gone out of their way, to ensure you can't Robocopy the entire   
   C: drive into another partition. I *used* to do that in WinXP era,   
   but those were simpler times and the file systems were a bit more   
   bend-able back then.   
      
   Windows has an MBR2GPT.exe utility, written by some hapless developer.   
   Any program carrying out composite file system operations (partition,   
   merge, shrink, done) is basically doomed to fail and fall on its face.   
   Developers normally stick to "primitive" "one step" commands, for safety.   
   Yet, somebody wrote that code... and it has enough smarts to reject   
   disk configurations it does not like. Leaving only one configuration   
   it does like. I think you can see coercing such a utility to do more   
   than it intended to do, is a tall ask. It will not accept any old   
   arbitrary configuration, and convert it.   
      
   So yes, your mission looks like, technically do-able, but just about   
   all the tools will tell you "I don't like broccoli", "I will sit   
   here in this corner with this cold broccoli until hell freezes over",   
   and so on :-) You've seen this before somewhere.   
      
   MBR2GTP.exe can help you cross that river, but it won't allow   
   you to carry a duck and a potato in the boat with you (a reference   
   to this problem, where the problem was modified for an AI to solve).   
   How the problem can involve a duck and a potato, I will never know.   
      
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf,_goat_and_cabbage_problem   
      
   Summary: Do-able, but mostly a bar bet, like a steam powered rocket launch :-)   
      
      Paul   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)