It is not complicated

Cloning usually means directly from one disk/partition to another disk/partition

So if you clone C to a partition on a different disk, then clone D to that same partition,...

Looks like 3x nvme gen4 m.2 plus 4x sata3 ports

There is an option to use the slimsas for either an additional pcie gen4 or 4 additional sata ports.

Also a couple of pcie gen3 slots which...

https://forum.level1techs.com/t/asus-pro-ws-w680-ace/192319/3

If you look at the tech specs
Pro WS W680-ACE - Tech Specs｜Motherboards｜ASUS USA
read the manual before purchasing if you are not sure
Pro WS W680-ACE｜Motherboards｜ASUS USA
...

You could check in your shadow copies ( if you have any)

you need something that can clone/copy into a file

that is often called disk/partition imaging

Confusing for people not familiar with this kind of thing.

For example, diskgenius offers to...

410212


I killed setup.exe before it could revert and had a look . Namespace folders had been moved to windows.old as expected. Installation files had been expanded onto the target partition as...

Setup.exe searches the root all partitions looking for a Sources folder containing the matching installation files.

If your installation files do not match (e.g. different os version)

or

If...

is it the same bit version ?

It is one partition at a time with capture to wim.

Depends what you are doing. If you just want to restore the os partition, the existing esp partition stays as it is and is fine.

If for...

yes a wim image can be applied to a partition easily enough. I do it often. Format the partition first.

dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:D:\Backup.wim /index:1 /ApplyDir:C:\

A handy way is to use...

Is it like a supermarket reward card ?

Many of the third party imaging programs have free versions.

Or you could just capture the os partition as a .wim file using dism which is included in ms bootable media

installation media can...

Have a look and see if the system hive is in system32\config folder

also check if there is a hive backup or if there are shadow copies

can copy shadowcopyview to a usb stick. boot into winpe...

Looks normal. What do you think is wrong?

No. it is from pe. It runs x:\setup.exe to install from any chosen wim/swm/esd file.

I normally use winntsetup for that kind of thing which does not rely on setup.exe and has some extra...

:huh:

I was also able to use setup.exe in win11 pe to install from vista and win7 wim files.

Just been playing with this, works fine. I put the setup files in my fancy win10 pe.

409856

few choice screenies

409864

409857

B450-A PRO MAX | Motherboard | MSI Global

409791

409792

I can remember MS saying there were over 1.5bn windows machines a few years ago. Cant remember exactly when might have been 2016. How many of those are still alive.

Not clear to me either.

pecmd part -gui

It is a lot of effort to dig it out, decompress and attempt to translate it.

It is logical to have v1 then v2.

I dont use startisback, preferring open shell for my builds.

have you tried pecmd part -gui

I dont recommend doing anything with it, unless you can read it.

Next was december which was v2.iso

Becuse you called it v1.iso , I wondered if that was a November iso that I mised.