I want to upgrade to Windows 11 from Windows 10 (I think this drive might have originally been Windows 7, upgraded to 10). First, I have to go from a legacy format to GPT, so I try mbr2gpt and it fails.
In order to upgrade to GPT, you have to have fewer than 4 partitions. OK, I deleted the two different Backup partitions, after first creating a Windows Recovery USB stick. That was scary.
Still can’t run mbr2gpt. Turns out the problem is that my System Reserved partition starts at 4096. I think it has to start at 16384 or later. I tried shrinking that partition by 1 MB, but I guess that shrinks it from the end, not the beginning.
So, now what?
Can I delete the System Reserved partition? (I don’t use BitLocker, which apparently requires it). Once deleted, and the drive (hopefully) upgraded, can I restore it? Do I need to? Can I shift it forward by one MB? What tool can do that?
I’m not interested in starting with a clean install, so don’t bother suggesting that.
Fingers crossed that someone here is really good about this stuff.
Do you have to do it in-place like this? I think it’s very risky and has a high chance of data loss
What if you instead got another hard drive (bear with me here), use the Windows 11 installer to partition it (only, without finishing the install) and then copy the C drive (only) from your old Windows 10 drive over and finish the upgrade then?
Then you can make sure the partitions are set up just the way Windows 11 wants it, without risking your old files. You compartmentalize the risk and effort of changing the partition table vs file system & files this way.
Currently, I have a 1gb ssd. Say I buy a new 2gb one.
Use Windows 11 to partition it
Use a partition manager just to copy over the C drive partition
Use the partition manager to expand that partition
Upgrade to W11
Upfront disclaimer (sorry, I should’ve been clearer about this earlier): I am not sure this will work, I’m just reasoning through it in my head…
It would be something more like:
Use Windows 11 installer to partition it
Don’t touch the actual partition setup any further
Use another computer (or a live CD, etc.) to copy the Windows 10 files over to the new partition at the file system level, i.e. don’t mess with the partition or boot sector at all, just copy the files only
Boot into Windows 10 on that new partition and proceed with the upgrade from there.
Still a lot more work than a clean install =/
I think, but am not sure, it would be as though you upgraded from 10 to 11 on the same drive. i.e. apps that are upgradeable should still be upgradeable, but you might run into driver or old apps that don’t transfer correctly – always a risk when you’re doing cross-version in-place upgrades, especially if some of them were originally from Windows 7.
Sorry I don’t have a better answer for ya. Good luck…
Just to put a coda on this, @Reply, I ended up getting a new 2 TB drive (an M.2 type, which was just a joy to figure out how to install, and also to track down that tiny screw in my original MB box), using easeus to transfer my existing drive over and expand the partition, and successfully installed Windows 11!
It took me a while to figure out where to even put it, because I have a giant GPU and (obviously) RAM already installed, so my motherboard doesn’t look like the pictures. I can’t even get to the second slot without taking out the GPU, but I found the first slot. Then, I had to move the stand-off closer to the slot, and then I had to find that tiny screw in my original motherboard box. Several attempts using a small screwdriver and some tweezers later, and the new drive was installed!
Now, I have to figure out how long to wait before wiping my old C drive and moving my data drive (which is a 500 GB spinny drive) over to it – I’ll probably wait a few months and then forget to do it.
