Windows 10: Can I recombine separate boot and system partitions back into one bootable system drive?

I am trying to turn an old 32bit Vista system into a Virtual Computer to run on my new Win11 PC in Hyper-V. However, the virtual machine boots to a BSOD. The old system had Acronis True Image installed now uninstalled, and it appears to have moved the boot portion of the drive or part thereof to a hidden partition which I can see within other third-party software. Is there a way I can recombine the boot and system partitions back into one bootable system on a spare hard drive without loosing installed applications from the original system drive? From where I can then run the Disk2VHD t

:)

 

Fix for boot partition and system partition on separate drives



Hello!

Attempting to upgrade windows 10 to windows 11. When converting c drive(operating system/boot/system drive) from MBR to GPT I discovered that my boot partition and system partition are on separate drives, so I cannot convert. To fix this I am installing a new primary boot drive and reinstalling windows 10 on to it. To avoid issues I have been told to unmount all drives but the new drive while installing fresh copy of window 10. I would then want to remount all old drives and transfer all the program files from the old drive to the new one. I am afraid of creating conflicts or new issues when transferring over the content from the old drive. Will there be issues of duplicate/conflicting windows files? Is there risk of creating any new partition conflicts or issues? Any advice on software to use, or best advice for fixing this issue? I am open to other solutions. I just want to ultimately end up with a new GPT drive with both boot partition and system partition so I can upgrade, but also want to keep all the programs and data from the old drive so I don't have to reinstall everything. Thanks for any advice!

 

lost boot and system partition!!

Hi,

My name is Rogelio. I am an Independent Advisor. Thanks for contacting our support.

Even if a partition contains bootable data, your computer might sometimes fail to detect it as a suitable bootable partition. This is usually due to the fact that, to be recognized by your computer as a bootable partition, a partition does not only need to
contain a bootable environment, it also needs to be specifically marked as an active system partition. You can add that active marker to a hard drive partition by using Diskpart, a command-line disk management application that is built into Windows.

Step 1

Open the Windows Start screen and type "cmd." Right-click on the "Command-Line Prompt" shortcut and select "Run as administrator."

Step 2

Type "diskpart" and press the "Return" key. Diskpart will now launch. While Diskpart is active, the traditional command-line prompt will be replaced by a Diskpart prompt, indicating that any command you enter will be processed by that application.

Step 3

Enter "list disk" and press the "Return" key. Note the number assigned to the drive which contains the partition you wish to make bootable. You can find that number in the first column.

Step 4

Type "select disk X", replacing "X" with the number assigned to the relevant drive. Press the "Enter" key.

Step 5

Enter "list partition" and press the "Return" key. Note the number assigned to the partition you want to make bootable.

Step 6

Type "select partition X", replacing "X" with the number of the partition you want to select. Press the "Enter" key.

Step 7

Enter "active" and press the "Return" key to instruct Diskpart to mark that partition as an active, bootable partition.

Step 8

Type "exit," followed by the "Return" key, to exit Diskpart. Close the Command-Line Prompt window.

Reference <https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-make-...;

Disclaimer: There are links to non-Microsoft websites. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the sites that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research
any product advertised on the sites before you decide to download and install it.

 

Fix for boot partition and system partition on separate drives

Run: https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-11#pchealthcheck

Windows 11 System Requirements - Microsoft Support

Post images or share links into this thread using one drive, drop box, or google drive.

If you're planning a supported Windows 10 to Windows 11 upgrade then an option is to make a backup image and restore only the primary or data partition after a clean install.

The clean install is performed after modifying the BIOS so that the new partition architecture is already GPT (BIOS: UEFI; Drive GPT). The backup image was made while Legacy / MBR. Restoring the image of only C: into the GPT partition is followed by a startup repair as needed.

Some third party software (Macrium) have features to make backup images and restore only one partition.

For example restore only C:.

Macrium use to be free.

Other backup imaging software may or may not have this feature: Acronis, EaseUS, Paragon, etc.

1) Backup the whole disk drive (all partitions) > save to another disk drive

2) Find a flash drive that you can format (> or = 8 GB).

3) Find a working Windows computer

4) Using the flash drive that you can format (> or = 8 GB) create a bootable Windows 11 Media Creation Tool (MCT) (Windows 11 iso):

Download Official Windows 11 ISO file from Microsoft Tutorial | Windows 11 Forum (elevenforum.com)

Download Windows 11 (microsoft.com)

5) Detach all drives except the drive for the new Windows installation

6) Boot to the BIOS > Modify settings: Legacy > UEFI native (without CSM)

7) Boot to the MCT

8) Delete all partitions making an unallocated disk drive

9) Clean install Windows 11

10) Restore only the C: partition

11) Perform a startup repair as needed