Migrate Win10 boot disk to another PC + install Linux on a second disk

Ordered the components for a new PC will arrrive in the next week or so.
I will reuse the disks from the old one, and the configuration will be

SSD1: Win10 old installation, Legacy boot mode
SSD2: new Linux installation, TBD (UEFI?) mode
HDD: NTFS fs data/Win application disk + accessible Linux data disk

Interested to discuss if this is a crazy setup and need to rethink what to do, or with some care I can achieve it.
Little or no experience in sys admin, so difficult I can achieve something not guided.

I'm assuming you don't want to go into your BIOS settings and set boot drive and EFI or CSM every time you boot so I'd stick to either legacy or UEFI rather than mix.

You can mix both but it is a pain - you would need to set your BIOS to boot EFI and then have a boot loader to check for legacy Windows loaders (like The rEFInd Boot Manager does for example). I do this and I can boot the same Linux volume in either EFI or Legacy but Windows fails in EFI mode as my firmware doesn't present any GPU. YMMV depending on your board.

Unless you want to use secure boot in Linux I don't see any reason to to install it in EFI mode unless your new SSD2 is bigger than 2TB.

If you stick to legacy for both Windows and Linux it will make your life easier (or you could convert Windows to EFI but there is no point really). There is no performance benefit either way.

You can then use either the Windows boot manager to start Linux or the Linux boot manager (probably GRUB2 depending what distro you pick) to boot Windows.

Both methods are fairly simple (you can easily google "dual boot somethingLinux with Windows") but probably the easiest is to use the Windows boot manager and add Linux entry using easyBCD (free from here : EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies).

Steps would be :
* Remove your Windows SSD1
* Install whatever Linux on SSD2 (Legacy mode for simplicity)
* Put SSD1 back in and set your BIOS to choose it first,
* Boot into Windows, install EasyBCD, pick the "add Linux" option as described in the top answer here : How can I add Linux to the new Windows 8 boot manager? - Super User

It isn't quite clear to me what you want to do with your HDD - do you want to have 2 partitions, one NTFS for Windows and one Linux (EXT4 or whatever) or do you want to have just one big NTFS partition and share it? Either is possible but I always prefer to let each OS use their own filesystem especially for writing data.

Your plan is certainly possible anyway - many people (including me) do just this. Just don't forget to disable sleep/hibernation in both Windows and Linux.

Good luck and ask if you get stuck

@lx07 thanks for your very clear answer.
I was wondering if the more modern Uefi was to give me some advantage, but if it's the same (ssd2 is 500gb) no reason to complicate my life, I'll maintain Legacy mode.
Just another question, my I just transfer ssd1 from old to new pc and expect the configuration will be updated?
Will be a complete platform change from old Intel i7-860 to new Ryzen 2600X.

davide445 said:

Just another question, my I just transfer ssd1 from old to new pc and expect the configuration will be updated?

It will, but your Windows will lose activation on the new computer. How do you propose to re-activate Windows?

The only hiccup to the configuration not updating is if the SATA controller driver needed is not the same. Examples, the old computer is set to IDE SATA mode and the new computer is set to AHCI SATA mode - or AHCI to raid - or Optane memory is added. The solution to that is to uninstall the SATA controller driver before you move the SSD to the new computer.

CountMike said:

Moving system to another disk using Macrium Reflect and just restoring full backup to it, MR can optimize it for SSD and AHCI even if original windows were installed in IDE mode.

I do not believe that is correct. Macrium Reflect will not make the driver changes required to switch between IDE and AHCI modes.

CountMike said:

When I restore an image to SSD (I did it last time just yesterday) MR asked me if I wanted to "Optimize for SSD", I thought that it was for that purpose.

I believe it just changes a partitions start position to be the next 4096 divisible number when restoring rather than changing anything within the data restored. I could only find this old page in their documentation but I'm pretty sure it is describing the same thing.

Partition alignment and Solid State Disks (SSD)

Solid State Disks require partition alignment to 4KB boundaries for optimum performance and life. 1MB aligned partitions are also aligned on 4KB boundaries so present no problem, however, CHS aligned partition are often aligned on 63 sectors (31.5KB) and this will degrade SSD performance and life time considerably.

Partition alignment and the Macrium Reflect cloning and restore function

<snip>

Note: This could be used to 'convert' and XP aligned partition for SSD alignment

Partition Alignment

@NavyLCDR

@CountMike

@lx07
thanks for your answers.
Current pc is using Sata drives, boot in Legacy mode.
Last time I changed the disk from hdd to Ssd i used Paragon Drive Copy, but this time I will transfer the whole disk to the new PC since the old will not be used anymore.
Having a retail windows license this is allowed?