Windows 10: Can Macrium Free do a Windows partitions restore after overriding SATA

The Dell branded motherboard allows the SATA controller to be put in either RAID or AHCI mode. I created a full backup image in RAID mode of all partitions to restore Windows. After the full backup was created, I changed to AHCI mode.
The system is not running two NVMe drives in RAID 0. There's only one NVMe. Im referring to the override of the AHCI protocol on the mainboard my drive controller uses to use Intel's RST drivers. No RAID volume was created.

If I were to restore the Windows partitions image in AHCI, in the boot process, the boot loader would load the windows kernel and critical drivers required to get Windows up and running. But the SATA controller setting was in RAID mode when the system image was created. So this is a new hardware configuration, and the operating system will fail to boot in AHCI, would it not?

The IRST storage controller driver is no longer installed. That was replaced with the Standard Microsoft NVMe Controller during the change to AHCI mode. That IRST driver was called the Intel Chipset SATA/PCLe RST Premium Controller (under Storage Controllers in Device Manager).

Maybe I'm looking at this to be more difficult than it is where it would only require for a successful restore to have the SATA controller in the BIOS changed back to RAID mode before performing the restore? What is the way for a Windows restore to be done so it doesnt end up screwed up?

The setting in BIOS in RAID mode has the side-effect of enabling the Z370 chipset feature of hiding the NVMe device from standard NVMe drivers. This mode forces Windows OS to use Intel's RST drivers. The IRST drivers access the remapped NVMe device through non-standard interfaces on the chipsets SATA controller.

Windows just isn't working the way it used to work in RAID mode. The change even caused the internal secondary HDD and the internal optical drive to swap drive letters.
Does anyone know if it's likely that Windows will change those two drive letters back to what the drive letters originally were on those disk drives if a successful restore is done?

Should I have had purchased the paid Macrium version with ReDeploy to perform this type of backup and restore?

:)

 

Restoring Windows 10 Image using Macrium Reflect


In addition to the above. Here's my suggestion in step by step.
I assume you have Macrium Installed in your current HD and already made a backup copy.

1. Connect your new HD via USB port and boot up.
2. Run Macrium, click on Restore tab then select the Backup Image that you made to restore
3. click on "select a different target disk" then select your new HD as destination
   
   
   
4. Proceed to restore then Shutdown and disconnect the old HD and replace with the new HD
5. Boot up with your new HD.

 

Macrium image restore changes partition layout

Macrium did not do it. You did it, there is a difference between RESTORE and COPY. Restore C drive back to the SSD will put C drive where it was when you made a backup of C drive which in turn override the 16MB MSR partition. What you need is to COPY C Drive back to the SSD.

To Copy:

1. Click on 1 to enable 2
2. Click on 2 to delete C
3. Click on 3 (C drive backup), drag and drop to 1->Next->Finish
4. Click on "Fix the Windows boot problems"

 

Using Macrium to restore mbr image of Win 10 to NVMe GPT

Hello

• I'm running Windows 10 Pro x64 v1903 build 18362.959 on a
• Dell Optiplex 7040 MT w/16GB RAM and 512GB 2.5" SSD
• Win 10 is still MBR partitioned
• I'm adding a 500GB NVMe I purchased from Crucial
• I'm using Macrium Home Edition v7.2.5107 (s/b latest version)

I want to restore my backup image from a USB external drive to the NVMe and convert MBR to GPT partitioning as well. I understand I should disable the SATA 2.5" SSD in BIOS before the restore.

What I'm not sure of: will Macrium restore to new Hardware (the NVMe) and by default also convert from MBR to GPT or are there additional steps to get the partitioning done as part of the restore? Any other tips/info you think might be helpful in the process are welcome as well.

Thanks in advance for the help!