Arch Linux

Coalms

Member

Registered: 2020-04-22

Posts: 59

[SOLVED]Transferring SSD from UEFI laptop to BIOS laptop

LOOK LAST POST FOR SOLUTION IF ANYONE NEEDS IT

A little bit unorthodoxly to ask a question without checking it myself first since I dont have a device yet but here goes:

In a few days I am going to transfer my existing SSD with the OS to a new laptop, I wanna know If I got all things right so I don't have a data loss, broken laptop is UEFI while new one is s 2008ish BIOS one, so what I figured is:

Transfer SSD (or files to new HDD , I'm pretty sure these old laptops can still take ssd/have the same port),

Boot into arch iso,

Arch-chroot

Gdisk and change GPT to MBR(Everywhere I check they say its harmless but I am still sceptical, enlighten me please ?)

???Fix fstab???(Do I have to do that, ain't anything difficult just wondering)

Re-grub

(Is there a conflict with the UEFI files in the middle?Do i need to get rid of them)

Also do I need to fix anything with the pacman/yay or keyrings databases or there is no problem with transfering to a new device, also I would highly appreciated If you left me links with the appropriate information as well, arch wiki or otherwise

Edited:grammar, added a few bits and pieces

Last edited by Coalms (2020-10-21 04:06:10)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,364

Re: [SOLVED]Transferring SSD from UEFI laptop to BIOS laptop

Make a backup regardless and you can recover from a potential loss, you should always do this anyway when doing low level operations on your partitions.

Regarding the conversion, as far as I know this should be safe, the "only" limitation here is that it won't be able to convert more than 4 partitions if you have less it should be fine: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GP … BR_and_GPT

Fstab will be trivially identifiable after you've done it whether it's needed or not.

Regarding the UEFI files, this depends a bit. If you just have the boot loader there you can get rid of the parition entirely, if you intend to keep it as your /boot for kernel images or so, you can keep it. This ultimately depends on what you want here and how you are going to configure the boot loader you will install.

Last edited by V1del (2020-10-15 08:54:44)

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,321

Re: [SOLVED]Transferring SSD from UEFI laptop to BIOS laptop

I believe it should also be possible to use BIOS boot with GPT disks in linux, so the conversion is not really necessary. What has to be done is installing and configuring a bios bootloader.

Edit: If you BIOS refuses to boot with the GPT disk, see here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pa … g_from_GPT

Last edited by progandy (2020-10-15 09:24:09)

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V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 25,364

Re: [SOLVED]Transferring SSD from UEFI laptop to BIOS laptop

Afaik this depends on the BIOS being able to load the boot loader from a GPT disk and I'd expect that to be unlikely on a firmware that doesn't even have the concept of GPT yet.

I know that I was able to do this on one of my older systems but that already was UEFI and I only installed BIOS grub by accident, but it happened to work out.

Coalms

Member

Registered: 2020-04-22

Posts: 59

Re: [SOLVED]Transferring SSD from UEFI laptop to BIOS laptop

So basically @V1del its safe to just leave my efi files alone/leave my boot partition untouched, (also thank god I have exactly 4 partitions), also Il try what you said @progandy in case Acer tryied to be a little experimental with their extensa laptops with a very early uefi version, lasly backup of the whole home folder would and WILL be done,

But I didn't get the answer regarding pacman and keyrings, do they brake being transfered to a new system?Any quick configuration that needs to be done?

Last edited by Coalms (2020-10-15 13:46:46)

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,321

Re: [SOLVED]Transferring SSD from UEFI laptop to BIOS laptop

The pacman keyring does not care about the hardware you use.

also Il try what you said @progandy in case Acer tryied to be a little experimental with their extensa laptops with a very early uefi version,

That only matters if you want to keep the ssd as gpt. If you convert to MBR, you can disregard that link.

Last edited by progandy (2020-10-15 13:54:01)

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Coalms

Member

Registered: 2020-04-22

Posts: 59

Re: [SOLVED]Transferring SSD from UEFI laptop to BIOS laptop

Rogger, by the time I get my new laptop and convert ssd if needed I will update the post title as SOLVED untill then il let it be, thank you guys for easing my mind over the matter

Coalms

Member

Registered: 2020-04-22

Posts: 59

Re: [SOLVED]Transferring SSD from UEFI laptop to BIOS laptop

SOLUTION:

First of all this might actually save you a lot of time it it works for ya Tricking old BIOS into booting from GPT

Boot to arch through ISO
If you have a diffrent partition for boot:(else move to bottom)
mount to boot part && mount to any other part
cp -r * files to a new folder of a diffrent part
fdisk to drive (/dev/sdx /not to boot part to the whole disk)
delete boot part and rameke it,format to linux
(probably reboot)
mkfs.ext4 /dev/bootpartition
fdisk /dev/sdx(whole drive again),set boot part to bootable
mount all partitions to the correct space
(if you want to keep some options of your old fstab that you have preset )genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab vim/nano to fstab and edit and comment old partition table
arch-chroot /mnt
copy the saved files of the boot part before the format back to the new boot
grub-install --target=i386 /dev/sdx (read first 2 paragraphs of GRUB MBR install tut!!!!)
grub-mkconfig
Done

if boot and root are one <3:
just grub-install and grub-mkconfig my dude

now...I'l lhave to find a way to HiDPI downscale or something because this 1280x1024 resolution is killing me,everything is so big

Last edited by Coalms (2020-10-21 04:23:04)