2TB 3 partition bootable MBR to 3 partition bootable GPT 4TB drive

[videobruce]

RT7 Lite

I don't have it yet.
The W7 is on a USB I believe it's been many years since I used it last. Also my W7 Pro x64 version has been sized down (thru hours of trial and error and research) using RT7 Lite which was done around 6-8 years ago to get rid of the unnecessary and annoying M$ bloat and tweaking it to the 'classic' look of XP and before which proved successful.

 

[Megahertz07]

I don't have it yet.
The W7 is on a USB I believe it's been many years since I used it last, I rely on 1st generation images w/o all the add ons.

It doesn't matter. You're going to discard it anyway.

To make a Win 7 USB boot able drive:

Open a CMD window as administrator and type:

diskpart
list disk (it will list all drives. Identify the USB drive number)
select disk n (replace n by the USB drive number obtained with list disk)
clean
convert mbr
create part primary
select part 1
format fs=fat32 quick
assign
active
exit (to exit diskpart)

If you have a Win 7 installation iso file
On Win 7 use 7Zip to extract all files and folders from the Win 7 iso file to the USB drive.

If you have a Win 7 installation DVD
On a computer that has ODD, copy all files and folders from the DVD to the USB drive

To make it UEFI boot able you must add the \efi\boot folder

Installation
Windows can be installed in two ways: Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT
To install as Legacy-MBR you must boot the installation drive as Legacy
To install as UEFI-GPT you must boot the installation drive as UEFI.

As you have a UEFI BIOS, you should install as UEFI-GPT
Detach any other drives (SATA or Power cable) from the MB.

During POST, press F12 to launch the boot menu. You will see two options for the USB drive. USB UEFI (Name) and USB (Name). Select USB UEFI (Name) if you want to install as UEFI-GPT or select USB (name) if you want to install as Legacy-MBR.
Go to install and delete ALL partitions on the main drive till you have one and only one unallocated space and then proceed.


To make it universal (all Win 7 versions), go to \sources on the USB drive and delete \sources\ei.cfg

 

[SIW2]

ms official installation iso files can be found easily, browse internet for:

English Version Details.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Windows 7 Ultimate SP1-U ISO (Refresh)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
x86
Part- X17-59463
en_windows_7_ultimate_with_sp1_x86_dvd_u_677460.iso
SHA1: 65FCE0F445D9BF7E78E43F17E441E08C63722657
ISO/CRC: 35511F11
X17-59463.iso

x64
Part- X17-59465
en_windows_7_ultimate_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_677332.iso
SHA1: 36AE90DEFBAD9D9539E649B193AE573B77A71C83
ISO/CRC: 992B8FCD
X17-59465.iso

Windows 7 Professional SP1-U ISO (Refresh)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
x86
Part- X17-59183
en_windows_7_professional_with_sp1_x86_dvd_u_677056.iso
SHA1: D89937DF3A9BC2EC1A1486195FD308CD3DADE928
ISO/CRC: E8C2AD67
X17-59183.iso

x64
Part- X17-59186
en_windows_7_professional_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_676939.iso
SHA1: 0BCFC54019EA175B1EE51F6D2B207A3D14DD2B58
ISO/CRC: AD44DB36
X17-59186.iso

Windows 7 Home Premium SP1-U ISO (Refresh)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
x86
Part- X17-58996
en_windows_7_home_premium_with_sp1_x86_dvd_u_676701.iso
SHA1: 6071B4553FCF0EA53D589A846B5AE76743DD68FC
ISO/CRC: 85B5EF4A
X17-58996.iso

x64
Part- X17-58997
en_windows_7_home_premium_with_sp1_x64_dvd_u_676549.iso
SHA1: 6C9058389C1E2E5122B7C933275F963EDF1C07B9
ISO/CRC: 4A182640
X17-58997.iso

 

[Volume Z]

Can I get this boot/FAT32 partition (whatever it is called) without doing a full Windows installed, or is that the only way?

It's just a few lines in command prompt.

diskpart
select disk 3
create partition efi size=100
format fs=fat32 quick

Could be done from within your current installation.

 

[videobruce]

I updated my previous post regarding RT7Lite if that matters.

There is text in Gigabytes MB manual regarding installing W7 and GPT partitions.;
" If you want to install a O/S like W7 x64 that supports GPT, select the optical drive w/ the W7 disk that is prefixed with UEFI string."

 

[Volume Z]

Why oh why would you do all this for a small stretch of FAT32. You could even create the partition in disk management and then change the partition ID. Basically you could shrink a partition of your GPT disk and start to practice right now.

 

[videobruce]

Are you referring to RT7 Lite or that quote I took out of the MB manual? :huh:

 

[Megahertz07]

It's just a few lines in command prompt.

diskpart
select disk 3
create partition efi size=100
format fs=fat32 quick

Could be done from within your current installation.

Volume Z, OP doesn't have a OS on the 4T drive.

I updated my previous post regarding RT7Lite if that matters.

There is text in Gigabytes MB manual regarding installing W7 and GPT partitions.;
" If you want to install a O/S like W7 x64 that supports GPT, select the optical drive w/ the W7 disk that is prefixed with UEFI string."

That is correct but if you follow the instructions above you will end with a Win 7 USB installation drive.

I can give you a link to a Win 7 SP1 installation files

 

[videobruce]

Thanks, I have had that file since 2016. That new drive won't be here until next week probably.

 

[Megahertz07]

As I already wrote, you don't need to install Win 7 on the new drive just to create the EFI and the MSR partition.
You can create both with diskpart commands, copy the Win 7 partition from the 2T drive and load the boot manager on the EFI partition.

 

[videobruce]

You could.
1. initialize the target 4tb disk to gpt and create esp and msr partitions on it.
2. mount your acronis image as a physical disk
3. use something like winntsetup wincopy to migrate from the mounted image to the gpt disk.
I haven't tried using diskgenius os migration to migrate from mounted mbr image to gpt disk, that might also be a way to do it. ************************************************************************************************************ A different way is to restore the mbr image to the the 4 tb disk. Then convert the 4tb to gpt afterwards and adjust the partition sizes. Unless you know what you are doing, you might end up with the esp partition in an awkward place.

That seems to make the most sense if I can figure out the details.
A friend of mine wants to use Macrum Reflect. I'm not familiar with it so I ran a trial copy. It looks like all it is is another image/file copy which I can't see working. No provision to change any type of formats or anything else, just backups or similar. I explained the situation, but he must of missed alot of the details. Anyone know anything about this from the UK?

 

[Megahertz07]

That seems to make the most sense if I can figure out the details.
A friend of mine wants to use Macrum Reflect. I'm not familiar with it so I ran a trial copy. It looks like all it is is another image/file copy which I can't see working. No provision to change any type of formats or anything else, just backups or similar. I explained the situation, but he must of missed alot of the details. Anyone know anything about this from the UK?

Once again
You create the EFI and the MSR partition with diskpart commands, and use Macrium Reflect to copy the Win 7 partition from the 2T drive and load the boot manager on the EFI partition using bcdboot command.

 

[videobruce]

He only referred to this one program to do all of that which didn't make sense to me unlike what you posted earlier (which is over my head).

 

[Megahertz07]

As I already wrote before you have two options to make the new 4T byte drive boot able:
- Do a Win 7 clean install as UEFI and then replace the windows partition with the Windows partition of the 2T drive
or
- Create a EFI and the MSR partition with diskpart commands, and use Macrium Reflect to copy the Win 7 partition from the 2T drive and load the boot manager on the EFI partition using bcdboot command.

What you want to do? Do you need our help to execute one of the two options?

 

[videobruce]

I will know when I get the drive, probably in a few days. I will see what he has to say. I'm not impressed with that Macrium Reflect so far, it's images are 1/3 larger then what True Image produces. That AOMEI Partition Assistant has it over MR for the preparation functions.
One step at a time.

 

[videobruce]

Update;

Long story short, with the help of a tech friend he finally got the drive switched over to GPT with a added, hidden partition and boot as a UEFI drive ok.
BUT,
Only by itself, when I connect the MBR SSD drive and try to boot from the GPT drive it errors our with a supposed hardware like error. That is selecting the UEFI drive as the boot drive in the BIOS boot menu. The MBR SSD 'Main system drive still boots fine. The MB is a Gigabyte GA-970A-D3P v2.

Any ideas?

 

[Megahertz07]

We don't know what your a tech friend did.
You received a clean 4T drive.
- Did he do a win 7 clean install as UEFI-GPT and then replaced the Win 7 partition created with the other on the 2 T?
or
Did he converted the 4T drive to GPT, created the EFI and MSR partition and cloned Win 7 partition from the 2 T and then loaded the boot manager on the EFI partition?

Please post a whole window Disk Manager image of ALL your drives. Don't forget to expand the columns so we can read them. How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management
If you have a MiniTool or AOMEI Partition use it instead or Windows disk manager.

 

[videobruce]

The 2nd route, except only one additional hidden partition was created, not counting the 2 data partitions duplicating the 2TD drive. The work was done remotely thru 'TeamViewer' which he has done from many years and a land line.
He used AOMEI Partition Assistant DiskPart and Macrium Reflect. He created the 'Hidden Partition' with DiskPart IIRC.

Here is the screen shot of the 3 drives, #2 is the new 4TB and the created partition.

 

[Megahertz07]

Something isn't right. The drive 2 , partition 2 (efi) has only 7 M on it.

Would you like to recreate the partition and reload the boot manager on it?

 

[videobruce]

Don't take this the wrong way, yes, but I'd rather have him do it. If I do it and it's wrong for whatever reason I'll get the blame.
IOW's I don't want to 'break it any more.
I would like to see the procedure with the file package if that is ok with you..