How to make my Win7 OS bootable on modern PC?

[Aludin]

Note, I do not wanna reinstall, I just wanna transfer my Win7 SSD with the OS already installed on it to the new PC. It has no legacy boot.

I am experimenting with a VM and so far converting the MBR to GPT with EaseUS made the OS unbootable. I get no startup repair option or command prompt. Booting the Windows ISO also shows no option for repair, only to install.

Need some help from you Windows 7 gurus.

[october262]

Note, I do not wanna reinstall, I just wanna transfer my Win7 SSD with the OS already installed on it to the new PC. It has no legacy boot.

I am experimenting with a VM and so far converting the MBR to GPT with EaseUS made the OS unbootable. I get no startup repair option or command prompt. Booting the Windows ISO also shows no option for repair, only to install.

Need some help from you Windows 7 gurus.

see this thread - https://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/427671-windows-7-uefi-compatibility.html

[ProWo]

See this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etcztSQeHuA

[Aludin]

see this thread - https://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/427671-windows-7-uefi-compatibility.html

I don't have the RAM to test Hiren's boot CD.

See this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etcztSQeHuA

No such tool as MBR2GPT on my installation ISO, but I tried with AOMEI Partition Assistant that sevenforums recommended. It made it unbootable just like EaseUS. Also, that video shows how to convert a Windows 10 MBR to GPT, not Windows 7. I don't have a boot folder with the BCD in it.

EDIT: I found my BCD. It is in EFI/Microsoft/Boot on the tiny system partition. But I did what the video instructed and I see nothing weird.

[ProWo]

See this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etcztSQeHuA

No such tool as MBR2GPT on my installation ISO.

EDIT: I found my BCD. It is in EFI/Microsoft/Boot on the tiny system partition. But I did what the video instructed and I see nothing weird.

Retry with a Windows10 ISO.
MBR2GPT is included there and you only need the ISO anyway to have offline access to the partitions and to be able to perform the specified operations.

[Aludin]

See this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etcztSQeHuA

No such tool as MBR2GPT on my installation ISO.

EDIT: I found my BCD. It is in EFI/Microsoft/Boot on the tiny system partition. But I did what the video instructed and I see nothing weird.

Retry with a Windows10 ISO.
MBR2GPT is included there and you only need the ISO anyway to have offline access to the partitions and to be able to perform the specified operations.

It seems my ISO was outdated. I grabbed the latest Win10 ISO and finally got MBR2GPT to run. The only error it reported was failing to update an XML file. It rendered my OS unbootable just like all the other tools.

[Cornucopia]

You shouldn't need to explicitly run MBR2GPT if you've got a true bootable Win10 - all you have to do is:
1. Boot into BIOS, and make sure it is set for UEFI booting, with "Enable Legacy mode" UNCHECKED.
This means it can ONLY boot via UEFI, and since UEFI REQUIRES GPT media for their bootable partitions, any targeted partitions MUST become GPT and will be forced to become that.
2. Boot using the Win10 installer media. During install, delete all existing partitions of the targeted MBR disc, so that it is like "new" (uninitialized).
3. Have Win10 initialize the disc - it should autocreate 3 to 4 partitions. One is the boot partition, another is a recovery partition, another is the OS system partition. Continue with the Win10 installation.
4. It should at some point reboot itself and start running the finalization using the now-bootable now-GPT drive. DONE!

It should be as simple as that. I have personally done it this way successfully literally 100s of times (as I manage a fleet of computers on a University campus).

If you are trying to do this w/o losing existing data, that is NOT going to work and you will be frustrated without end. Back up your existing data, perform the change, and then add restore the data.

<edit>FYI, this process also works with a Win7-64bit ISO image as well, so you aren't forced to upgrade if you don't want to. Of course, I see few reasons for maintaining a Win7 setup (especially when you can just run a VM for those few exceptions).


Scott

[ProWo]

The only error it reported was failing to update an XML file. It rendered my OS unbootable just like all the other tools.

The error only means that the recovery partition could not be recreated, which is logical since you have a windows 7 system and the windos10 iso has a different recovery partition. you can recreate the recovery partition later.
If your system does not boot, you have made a mistake in one of the steps. look at everything again carefully.

[Aludin]

The only error it reported was failing to update an XML file. It rendered my OS unbootable just like all the other tools.

The error only means that the recovery partition could not be recreated, which is logical since you have a windows 7 system and the windos10 iso has a different recovery partition. you can recreate the recovery partition later.
If your system does not boot, you have made a mistake in one of the steps. look at everything again carefully.

I was practicing with a VM, but since this is getting nowhere I decided to clone my OS drive to another SSD, stick it in the modern PC and run the MBR2GPT tool from there. Now it complains that it Cannot find OS partition for disk 0 when I do mbr2gpt /validate /disk:0, let alone when I try to convert. A step backward.

What the hell am I doing wrong?

[Cornucopia]

Not sure, but it could possibly be because you have a different listing of drives in the new setup (so it is disc:1 instead of disc:0, etc). IIWY, I'd run diskpart and list your discs, partitions & volumes to get a better idea of what you're working with.


Scott

[Aludin]

Not sure, but it could possibly be because you have a different listing of drives in the new setup (so it is disc:1 instead of disc:0, etc). IIWY, I'd run diskpart and list your discs, partitions & volumes to get a better idea of what you're working with.


Scott

It is disk 0 on both PCs, diskpart confirms it. There's only one partition. To get a better idea of what I'm working with, I need tools that work with this damn complicated UEFI system. Everything I knew/had before is out the goddamn window.

You are right about UEFI being less understood with less reliable tools available. I did manage to make an EFI partition and finally get my new PC to recognize my 7 OS but now it crashes right after pressing "start Windows normally".

EDIT: Patched the ISO with the latest stuff and this time setup started but stalls on the starting windows logo after the second reboot. I don't understand why there's no startup repair/repair install.

[Aludin]

So I got it to work. Some elite guru installed it on his Dell PC, said he put a "shim" in the EFI drive that made it work on UEFI. He sent me the image of his HDD and I simply copied the 2 hidden partitions and overwrote the OS partition with my own. A little help with a bootable partitioning program to adjust the OS for the new hardware and bam, that sexy blue welcome screen of 7 appeared.

This was incredibly annoying but it's done and running smooth. I'll have no choice but to upgrade to Win10 for my next upgrade, cuz I ain't doing this shit again.