Win10 to Win11 Upgrade by "Image, restore, then in-place upgrade" when source machine is Intel and destination is AMD

[britechguy]

Almost directly on the heels of @Velvis's topic, Quickest way to upgrade to new computer?, where @lan101 has confirmed that "image, restore, and in-place upgrade" does work, I got a call from a client that has thrown an additional monkey wrench into the works: What if the source machine for the image has an Intel processor and the destination AMD (or vice versa, probably)?

I've not ever tried this method under those conditions. I'd still have to believe it could work, but if anyone's moved a Windows instance from Intel to AMD, or AMD to Intel by imaging the source and restoring on the target, please report the outcome.

 

[Diggs]

My question would be what if the source machine is MBR and the destination machine is GPT. If it's an image the destination will end up MBR (?) which stops the Win11 upgrade. So I guess you run MBR2GPT.EXE, then image, then restore to a machine with UEFI turned on, then upgrade?

 

[britechguy]

@Diggs

I'd wonder about that, too. But it's been quite a while since I've even touched a MBR machine. They disappeared almost entirely before Windows 10 ever made its debut.

I'm not presuming a pre-Windows 10 32-bit that got upgraded to Windows 10, but something that was 64-bit from the get go and used GPT.

But information on all the permutations, from those who have experience with any given one of them, would be welcome here. Also, information as to whether your proposed suggestion has been shown to work would be welcome, too.

 

[lan101]

My question would be what if the source machine is MBR and the destination machine is GPT. If it's an image the destination will end up MBR (?) which stops the Win11 upgrade. So I guess you run MBR2GPT.EXE, then image, then restore to a machine with UEFI turned on, then upgrade?

I upgraded a dell optiplex 3020 to a optiplex 3070 a month or so ago. The old 3020 had an MBR config. The system backup image option from Aomei worked fine on it. Just had to make sure in the bios that it's NOT on the raid mode and that it's on AHCI/NVME mode.

After that I updated to windows 11 just fine. Got the driver updates etc. from windows updates and the dell support assist program too.

 

[HCHTech]

As @YeOldeStonecat mentioned in the other thread, moving installs to different hardware by imaging breaks the EULA. The argument that both machines had their own licenses so it all evens out is just a rationalization. I guess I would consider this in the very corner cases, but I would gin up some kind of agreement for the client to sign. I'm not even sure what the remedy would be if the business got audited, just buying a new license and sitting it on the shelf? The only audits I've ever been involved in (there were two) passed successfully, so no remedy needed.

 

[britechguy]

The argument that both machines had their own licenses so it all evens out is just a rationalization.

I disagree, since every instance I've known of (as I have not done this myself, and definitely not for any business, which is a different deal than a home user) ends up with the classic Windows being activated message. You cannot tell me that Microsoft cares, one iota, if the license from machine one, now scrapped, transfers to the license on machine two, purchased with an OEM license to begin with, occurs, and it seems it does.

As I said in my prior reply, and I stand by it, is that if Microsoft allows it to run, and says it's activated then it's valid. They are, and should be, the gatekeeper. I've been around long enough to remember that they blocked all sorts of stuff with ease when people were trying to pirate.

I don't think having two licenses is a rationalization, and particularly where one of those is going away entirely by the hardware being junked, and the new hardware also has a license.