Solved Macrium Restore WIN 10 to 2nd SSD on a WIN 11 Dell XPS

I have a new Dell XPS with WIN 11 on the C: drive. I have a ‘clean’ SSD D: drive (500 GB) and a Macrium image (Laptop Jan 2022-00-00.mrimg 168 GB) of my old WIN 10 system. I want to restore the WIN 10 image to my SSD D: drive, then make the Dell XPS a dual boot to WIN 11 and WIN 10.

First, Do I have to format or 'clean' the SSD D: drive, or will the restore do that?

Second, Can I run the Macrium restore by running Macrium program in WIN 11? Or do I need to use a bootable macrium rescue media?

Third, when the WIN 10 is restored, will it screw up the drivers already installed by the WIN 11 system? Or are they independent, meaning I’ll have to update the drivers when I boot to the WIN 10 system?

I recently did the same thing. Just used the MR gui in WIN 11, select image to be copied, select target drive. Then I used EasyBCD (free version) to add it to my boot menu.

This process will wipe the target drive. If this Windows 10 was installed on your laptop prior to Win11 there should be no issues with the drivers.

First, Do I have to format or 'clean' the SSD D: drive, or will the restore do that?
>>>Yes, you need to format the SSD

Second, Can I run the Macrium restore by running Macrium program in WIN 11? Or do I need to use a bootable macrium rescue media?
>>>Yes, you can use the Macrium on Win 11

Third, when the WIN 10 is restored, will it screw up the drivers already installed by the WIN 11 system? Or are they independent, meaning I’ll have to update the drivers when I boot to the WIN 10 system?
>>>You will probably need to install some drivers, maybe not

But more importantly, you will need to activate the Windows 10 OS using your microsoft account if you have a digital license linked to Windows 10 on your MS account.

badrobot said:

First, Do I have to format or 'clean' the SSD D: drive, or will the restore do that?
>>>Yes, you need to format the SSD

Second, Can I run the Macrium restore by running Macrium program in WIN 11? Or do I need to use a bootable macrium rescue media?
>>>Yes, you can use the Macrium on Win 11

Third, when the WIN 10 is restored, will it screw up the drivers already installed by the WIN 11 system? Or are they independent, meaning I’ll have to update the drivers when I boot to the WIN 10 system?
>>>You will probably need to install some drivers, maybe not

But more importantly, you will need to activate the Windows 10 OS using your microsoft account if you have a digital license linked to Windows 10 on your MS account.

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1. No, you do not need to format the SSD, Macrium Reflect will take care of that for you.

Lastly, if the Windows 10 is the same edition as the Windows 11 on the new computer (such as Home or Pro) it will activate automatically, you will not need the digital license linked to your Microsoft account, it will use the digital license that was established for Windows 11 on that computer.

Also, you do not need to use EasyBCD to set up dual booting, a simple BCDBOOT command will do that for you.

The drivers for the Windows 11 and the Windows 10 OS's will not interfere with each other.

NavyLCDR said:

1. No, you do not need to format the SSD, Macrium Reflect will take care of that for you.

Lastly, if the Windows 10 is the same edition as the Windows 11 on the new computer (such as Home or Pro) it will activate automatically, you will not need the digital license linked to your Microsoft account, it will use the digital license that was established for Windows 11 on that computer.

Also, you do not need to use EasyBCD to set up dual booting, a simple BCDBOOT command will do that for you.

The drivers for the Windows 11 and the Windows 10 OS's will not interfere with each other.

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I think it is not about the Windows edition. The activitation will be required for the new hardware that the Windows 10 is now running on.

badrobot said:

I think it is not about the Windows edition. The activitation will be required for the new hardware that the Windows 10 is now running on.

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You would be mistaken. It is entirely about whether or not the same edition of Windows 10 or 11 (Home or Pro) has been installed and activated on that computer before. I can put Windows 10 or 11 Pro on an external hard drive and it will automatically activate on any computer I boot it from so long as that computer had Windows 10 or 11 Pro activated on it before and has a digital license established.

NavyLCDR said:

You would be mistaken.

Click to expand...

The Win 10 was from an old system with license registered to the original hardware.

badrobot said:

The Win 10 was from an old system with license registered to the original hardware.

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And you clearly do not understand how Windows 10 and Windows 11 digital licensing works. If you move Windows 10 or 11 to a new computer, it will see that it has been moved to a new computer, it will de-activate, then it will automatically go online and contact Microsoft activation servers and send a unique Hardware ID for the new computer along with which edition of Windows 10 or 11 it is. If there is a digital license matching the new computer and the edition of Windows 10 or 11, it is returned from Microsoft to the local computer and Windows activates itself - all automatically in the background and completely transparent to the user.

As I stated before, I have a full Windows 11 Pro installed on an external USB SSD. I can plug it into any computer in my house and it just "stays" activated, although not really - it actually re-activates every time it is moved, because every computer in my house a digital license for Windows 10/11 Pro established on Microsoft activation servers - and this has NOTHING to do with any Microsoft Account.

NavyLCDR said:

And you clearly do not understand how Windows 10 and Windows 11 digital licensing works. If you move Windows 10 or 11 to a new computer, it will see that it has been moved to a new computer, it will de-activate, then it will automatically go online and contact Microsoft activation servers and send a unique Hardware ID for the new computer along with which edition of Windows 10 or 11 it is. If there is a digital license matching the new computer and the edition of Windows 10 or 11, it is returned from Microsoft to the local computer and Windows activates itself - all automatically in the background and completely transparent to the user.

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well, the way I see it, it is 2 different installation and the Windows 10 came from a different system. Yeah, I could be wrong.
But it could also be seen as the same OS on 2 different drives which makes sense that it can get activated.
The only question is if the license is OEM which cannot be transferred from one machine to another.

Thank you all for giving me the confidence and know how to proceed. I’ll let you all know the outcome in a day or two, hopefully sooner than later.

badrobot said:

The only question is if the license is OEM which cannot be transferred from one machine to another.

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It is not a question of if the license is OEM or not. Windows 10 and 11 will activate themselves based upon the existence of a digital license stored on Microsoft Activation Servers for the computer it is booted on. You still completely do not understand how digital licensing in Windows 10 and 11 works. Once a specific edition of Windows 10 or 11 is activated on a computer, it gets a digital license based upon only the Unique Hardware ID identifying that computer (motherboard) and the edition of Windows that was activated (Home, Pro, Education, Etc.). After that digital license is established on Microsoft Activation Servers, ANY Windows 10 or 11 of the same edition (Home, Pro, Education, Etc.) booted on that computer will activate on that computer by sending the same Unique Hardware ID and edition of Windows 10 or 11 to Microsoft Activation Servers, and the digital license that was previously stored there will be retrieved, and Windows will activate itself. This is completely 100% different behavior than Windows 7 and earlier where activation was based upon product key matching. Windows 10/11 does not match product keys. Windows 10/11 matches Unique Hardware ID + edition to a digital license stored on Microsoft Activation Servers. Once Windows 10/11 is activated on a computer, the product key (whether it be retail or OEM) becomes 100% completely irrelevant.

My point is, the Windows 10 is not a clean install. It is a Macrium Restore from another machine which already has license keys tied to its original hardware. If you are saying that the original key will be replaced by Windows 11 key from a different hardware, that is what I am not sure about. If you are right, then I stand corrected.
But if it is a clean install, I totally agree it will get activated with the same edition.

I'm not sure why this is so hard to understand. When Windows 10/11 Pro, for example, is moved from computer A to computer B, and it is booted, it calculates a Unique Hardware ID based upon the computer it is booted on. Since computer A does not equal computer B, Windows 10/11 says to itself, "Hmmmm......this is a different computer. I wonder if there is a digital license for this new computer that I just booted on?" Then it sends the Unique Hardware ID it just calculated for computer B to Microsoft Activation Servers and it asks Microsoft, "Hey! I just booted on a new computer and here is its Unique Hardware ID. Is there a digital license stored there at Microsoft for Windows 10/11 Pro for this computer?" Microsoft replies, "Why yes, we do have a digital license for that computer for Windows 10/11 Pro here. Let's upload it to you!" Windows 10/11 receives the digital license for Windows 10/11 Pro matching computer B's Unique Hardware ID and Windows 10/11 Pro says, "Why thank you, Microsoft for that digital license! I am now going to activate myself with it!"

If there is no existing digital license for Windows 10/11 that Microsoft returns, then that Windows 10/11 is going to complain, "Hey! Mr. User...Windows 10/11 Pro has never been activated on this computer before, would you be so kind as to provide a product key that I can send to Microsoft and I promise they will create a digital license for Windows 10/11 Pro and we won't ever have this problem again on this computer." Digital licenses for Windows 10/11 do not have OEM or retail attributes assigned to them. I can change from retail to OEM and back again depending upon which generic product key I tell Windows 10 use.

badrobot said:

It is a Macrium Restore from another machine which already has license keys tied to its original hardware. If you are saying that the original key will be replaced by Windows 11 key from a different hardware, that is what I am not sure about.

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When you use a key to install W10 or W11 on a PC that key is only ever used the once, to create a digital license linked to the hardware ID of the PC and stored on the Microsoft activation servers. That is the ONLY purpose of using a key.

From that point on Windows will never use that key again. Should it find itself running on new hardware (as in a Macrium restore to another PC) it asks the activation servers if this PC's hardware ID has a digital license for this edition of Windows (Home or Pro) and if it does then it activates. The digital license doesn't even care if it's W10 or W11, Microsoft call it a digital license for 'Windows 10/11' now.

ils said:

Second, Can I run the Macrium restore by running Macrium program in WIN 11?

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Yes. Click Existing backups, right-click on the image you want to restore and select Restore Image. On the next screen select your target disk and proceed.

Thank you all. I restored WIN 10 to my 500 GB SSD using the Macrium program and the image I had made previously. (I didn't have to clean or reformat the SSD; Macrium did it all.) But, to get the SSD to boot, I had to make a Macrium Rescue Disk (MRD) on a USB stick, then get the BIOS to boot on the stick first. (BIOS itself didn't recognize that the 500 GB SSD had a windows operating system.)
Once the MRD loaded, the instructions to get the MRD to make the WIN 10 SSD boot were not obvious. But with the help of a few youtube videos, I got WIN 10 to boot. It also installed the dual boot mode on the PC. Also, WIN 10 ran without asking me for any information (name, rank, serial number, etc . . .)

One observation: When I logged on to WIN 10, it had made renamed the disks: WIN 10 was disk C:, the HDD (data) was disk D:, System reserve was disk E: (578 MB) and WIN 11 was Disk F: When I logged back into WIN 11, the disk names were what I originally named them.
Question: What is the System reserve disk?

PS. My WIN 11 system has become screwed up since I had last used it (in February). I only noticed it after returning from a three week vacation. But I'll bring up the problem in a new post.

The System Reserved partition is what the old computer booted from in legacy BIOS (CSM) mode.