You make a very good point. What the article is actually explaining how to do is convert a disk with a Windows installation on it from MBR to GPT and adding the EFI partition that the computer might need in order to boot in UEFI mode. It does NOT convert anything in the BIOS (or, more correctly, UEFI firmware).
Last edited by Try3; 27 Mar 2023 at 06:02.
Just following up to say that I completed the Migration we've been discussing and the change went in with no issues. Smooth and straight forwards! To recap, I replaced my aging 12+ year old BIOS/MBR based motherboard, with an updated UEFI/GPT based motherboard. The SSD, graphics and memory were updated while other components stayed the same. In my system specs below, you will see the older system detailed under "System One" and the new system detailed under "System Two." The Windows 10 installation migrated from System One to System Two with all applications and settings in place, and unchanged. Since I wanted to keep my OS and applications in place, I needed to migrate those to the new hardware platform. This is more involved than simply recovering an image from the original SSD to the new SSD, because the Windows 10 partition structure on UEFI systems is different then on the older BIOS system using MBR partition structure. Three years ago I first heard of the method I used from NavyLCDR when he described it in a thread I referred to in my opening post. I followed his instruction and all worked perfectly. In brief, I started work on the new system by doing a clean install of Windows 10, ver 22H2 onto the SSD. That was done from a Windows 10 bootable thumb drive made from the Windows 10 Media Creation Tool downloaded from Microsoft. I kicked the tires a little using that new install just to verify my new hardware did not have any bugs in it. I never connected to the web because I figured it would just waist time waiting for windows to install drivers and updates that would be written over later. Then I booted from my Macrium Reflect Disk and recovered only the C: partition from the original system, as I had left it, writing over the C: partition on the new clean install. Also using Macrium Reflect, I then invoked Fix Windows Boot Problems. Then I booted on the new system and installed drivers I downloaded from Asus, and connected to the web and let Windows Update do its thing. I may not have needed to install the drivers from Asus, as Windows Update may have done that anyway, but years ago I had some not-so-good experiences from drivers sourced from Windows so I haven't yet gotten comfortable with the new way of doing things. Once the drivers were installed, I could not tell the difference between working on the new system vs the 12+ year old system, except for it being a LOT FASTER! Also, I followed the instructions here to reactivate Windows after a hardware change. According to these instructions, it is necessary to attach the original system to your Micoroft account before taking that system down, otherwise you will not be able to reactivate Windows on the new system. That pertains to a digital license which is what I have.
I'm a happy camper now and extend many thanks to NavyLCDR for introducing me to this method of migration (and Windows reactivation) and to the others who chimed in on this thread.
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