0

I have cloned my windows 10 pro desktop at work to my desktop at home with macrium. I paid no attention to hardware specs. It worked beautifully. Activated Windows and Office with a new key, renamed the machine, reconfigured the VPN, etc.

Now I would like to clone the same clone to my laptop.

Originally, I made a disk clone of my home PC, boot my work PC with it and saved a disk image with macrium to that clone. Then i booted my home computer with the same disk (it's a 1tb m.2) and restored my work computer to my home setup.

I would like to do the same thing with my laptop only my laptop came with some interesting instructions. Basically, it can only dual-boot off of grub into windows because the firmware was built with Linux in-mind. It comes with a special partition that is necessary for it to run windows named WINDRIVERS. In the instructions that came with the laptop it says explicitly that the laptop will not run windows without this partition.

So i can't just do the same thing i did before because macrium does not let you to restore a disk image partially. You have to restore the whole image and wipe the destination entirely.

I retrieved the partition with drivers for windows, 'WINDRIVERS', from my laptop and converted it to an .iso .

it's saved together with the disk clone i made at work (with macrium) on my home computer.

I am trying to restore the C: partition from my work desktop along with the WINDRIVERS partition that I retrieved from my laptop back to my laptop.

Whats difficult is that there is no 'disk' to clone. Its two partitions taken from two disks. I positive that i am going the wrong way about this. I wish someone would enlighten me as to how this is to be done.

Can I leave WINDRIVERS and just restore the C: partition from work? Will it boot?

I do not have much courage to experiment because last time i started doing this kind of thing my laptop died (you couldn't even turn it on). It was brand new.

I have spent days losing sleep over this. I spent money on backuppers and burners. I i'm sure many people have done this before and have a straight forward way to do it. I would appreciate some insight.

Keep in mind that there should be no licensing issues as I am replacing the product key for windows, office, etc.

Elisha Habinsky
  • 175
  • 1
  • 4
  • 13
  • Why do you need the "WINDRIVERS" partition? AFAIK, it's not a standard partition of the system. – CaldeiraG Nov 19 '19 at 14:27
  • I think i covered that but I edited my quest for clarity. – Elisha Habinsky Nov 19 '19 at 14:34
  • Use `DISM` to create a WIM image of the larger of the two partitions, then capture an image of the second partition by appending it to the first. See the **Imaging** section of [this](https://superuser.com/a/1503102/529800) answer, using `/capture-image` for partition one's base image, `/append-image` for partition two to append it to the base image, and then `apply-image` _(using `/index:2`)_ to apply the image to a partition _(since it's a Windows OS partition, format it prior to applying)_. – JW0914 Nov 19 '19 at 21:44
  • isn't this going to leave me with ine volume? I'm looking for a solution that leaves with two volumes: system and C: . editing question. – Elisha Habinsky Nov 22 '19 at 09:33
  • @ElishaHabinsky No, WIM images allow application to any partition (WIMs aren't partition/disk specific). I understand why you're trying to do this in the way you describe, however, that way isn't recommended due to the hardware differences between PCs. To do this properly & maintain system stability on the laptop, you'll need to backup user data on the Desktop PC > [`SysPrep /generalize`](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/sysprep--system-preparation--overview) the Desktop > WIM `C:\ ` on the Desktop using `DISM` > apply WIM to laptop's formatted partition – JW0914 Nov 22 '19 at 12:30
  • @ElishaHabinsky What's the make and model of the laptop? – JW0914 Nov 22 '19 at 12:32
  • The destination laptop is an accer aspire. i get this when i type , "wmic csproduct get vendor, version" in cmd: Acer V2.02 . It boots with grub. the hardware is made for linux. Manufacturer warns to be sure not to erase the 'WINDRIVERS' partition or else the machine will not be able to boot into windows. – Elisha Habinsky Nov 24 '19 at 02:51
  • @ElishaHabinsky Right, some Acer Aspires were designed for Linux only by Acer, so the `WINDRIVERS` partition makes sense. The best way to go about what you're trying to do is to use the tools Microsoft created for migrating/cloning Windows from one machine to a different machine, which is via `sysprep` and `dism` _(`dism /capture-image` and `dism /apply-image`)_. Please read the SysPrep link in my prior comment before doing so, as `sysprep /generalize` will remove your user account, so prior to anything, image the Desktop first via `dism /capture-image` _(see link in my 1st comment)_ – JW0914 Nov 25 '19 at 06:44

0 Answers0