Make new ssd the boot drive

**karlmistelberger** · 28-Feb-2021, 23:40

Originally Posted by Prexy

This is confusing. I tried to write the iso to the usb that has the live boot on it. I got different errors that said I couldn't write to it. Mainly, it was the wrong file system. So, I reformatted it as fat, then xfs and neither worked. The 5.8GB was too big to write. I ended up going into the Windows 7 install and formatting it as NTFS which allowed me to write to it. I went back to TW, copied the file over to the usb and rebooted to Win7. When I clicked on the iso file inside Win7, my only option was to format the disk, not execute the file. What am I doing wrong?

You may use openSUSE Tumbleweed to download and write the Windows 10 iso: https://forums.opensuse.org/showthre...or-Free-Update

**malcolmlewis** · 01-Mar-2021, 06:21

Originally Posted by karlmistelberger

You may use openSUSE Tumbleweed to download and write the Windows 10 iso: https://forums.opensuse.org/showthre...or-Free-Update

Hi
There is no need to write the iso file to any medium to upgrade a windows system, the image written to a device is only needed for a fresh install. Just like in linux you mount the iso image to a loopback device and see the contents, windows 7 does the same, then run setup.exe...

**karlmistelberger** · 01-Mar-2021, 23:31

Originally Posted by malcolmlewis

Hi
There is no need to write the iso file to any medium to upgrade a windows system, the image written to a device is only needed for a fresh install. Just like in linux you mount the iso image to a loopback device and see the contents, windows 7 does the same, then run setup.exe...

Sure. However a fresh install is another option worth considering. It avoids many problems experienced by long term users of Windows upgrading their system. To my experience entering the product key can be postponed.

**mrmazda** · 02-Mar-2021, 00:16

Originally Posted by karlmistelberger

To my experience entering the product key can be postponed.

IME, once the PC has been validated, the product key becomes relevant only when attempting to migrate that installation to some other PC. First time Windows checks home with mommy, mommy confirms or denies whether there is a validation match with her database. (something like that; my word choices might have been better)

**malcolmlewis** · 02-Mar-2021, 06:20

Originally Posted by karlmistelberger

Sure. However a fresh install is another option worth considering. It avoids many problems experienced by long term users of Windows upgrading their system. To my experience entering the product key can be postponed.

Hi
Yes, but you need to move the windows activation from 7 to 10, which the easiest way is to upgrade, once that's done, then a fresh install is what I do..... a pain bu t a necessary evil...

**karlmistelberger** · 02-Mar-2021, 06:29

Originally Posted by malcolmlewis

Yes, but you need to move the windows activation from 7 to 10, which the easiest way is to upgrade, once that's done, then a fresh install is what I do..... a pain bu t a necessary evil...

This is really bad.

When I did the first install of Windows 10 I was notified that activation was pending, but in the meantime this notification does no longer occur.

**Prexy** · 02-Mar-2021, 21:51

It was a long road getting here and I didn't end up where I hoped, but I'm better off than when I started. I don't want to forget to thank all of you for all your suggestions.

As it stands, I went back to my "old" pc. BUT, I have a working dual boot of Tumbleweed and Windows 10 on the ssd!!! Ideally, I would have gotten this on my "new" pc with the much larger hdd but I am pretty sure that either the nvme was damaged by me or the sata adapter is defective (I'm returning it.)

Getting Windows to work was maddening. The ssd had an install of Win 7. There is a driver problem and it wouldn't work with my network card. I couldn't access the web to upgrade to Windows 10 because I couldn't access the web to update the drivers. I actually copied the drivers from the working install of Windows 10 from the working copy on the hdd. But they didn't work. I went so far as to use an ancient disk with Win 7 to do a reinstall of 7 so I could reach the internet and upgrade to 10. The disk no longer worked. I downloaded the Win 10 upgrade file, and the Windows Media tool to extract it, several times in both Windows 10 and Tumbleweed. Sometimes the media tool worked, sometimes it didn't. Sometimes Tumbleweed could extract the contents of the upgrade file, sometimes it couldn't. When I finally had everything in order, I tried to upgrade from inside Win7. Windows says my copy is not activated, something that happens with hardware changes, so it wouldn't let me proceed with the upgrade. I have 3 different Windows licenses but none of them worked! I finally got Microsoft tech support on a robo help call, got activation numbers and got my free upgrade. The upgrade program had no trouble accessing the internet with my network card.

I have rebooted several times and every option is working (Tumbleweed and Win10 on each drive.) I have to edit the grub menu to show the new windows install is Win10 not Win7. I haven't checked, but I think I can move it up from the bottom to just below Tumbleweed. This is just cosmetic and a personal preference, not a necessity.

I do need help with one last issue. I want the new ssd install of Tumbleweed to point to the existing /home on the hdd. I can reach the files there through dolphin with no problem, but I want it to be automatic. I want to use the hdd for all the stuff I can, since the ssd is only 120GB and I believe it has a shorter lifespan than an hdd as well. If it ever fails, I want the minimum hassle to get up and running again.

In conclusion, the speed upgrade is more than I could have imagined. It is a real pleasure to have gotten to this point. Thank you all, again!

**karlmistelberger** · 02-Mar-2021, 23:01

Originally Posted by Prexy

It was a long road getting here and I didn't end up where I hoped, but I'm better off than when I started. I don't want to forget to thank all of you for all your suggestions.

As it stands, I went back to my "old" pc. BUT, I have a working dual boot of Tumbleweed and Windows 10 on the ssd!!! Ideally, I would have gotten this on my "new" pc with the much larger hdd but I am pretty sure that either the nvme was damaged by me or the sata adapter is defective (I'm returning it.)

Getting Windows to work was maddening. The ssd had an install of Win 7. There is a driver problem and it wouldn't work with my network card. I couldn't access the web to upgrade to Windows 10 because I couldn't access the web to update the drivers. I actually copied the drivers from the working install of Windows 10 from the working copy on the hdd. But they didn't work. I went so far as to use an ancient disk with Win 7 to do a reinstall of 7 so I could reach the internet and upgrade to 10. The disk no longer worked. I downloaded the Win 10 upgrade file, and the Windows Media tool to extract it, several times in both Windows 10 and Tumbleweed. Sometimes the media tool worked, sometimes it didn't. Sometimes Tumbleweed could extract the contents of the upgrade file, sometimes it couldn't. When I finally had everything in order, I tried to upgrade from inside Win7. Windows says my copy is not activated, something that happens with hardware changes, so it wouldn't let me proceed with the upgrade. I have 3 different Windows licenses but none of them worked! I finally got Microsoft tech support on a robo help call, got activation numbers and got my free upgrade. The upgrade program had no trouble accessing the internet with my network card.

I have rebooted several times and every option is working (Tumbleweed and Win10 on each drive.) I have to edit the grub menu to show the new windows install is Win10 not Win7. I haven't checked, but I think I can move it up from the bottom to just below Tumbleweed. This is just cosmetic and a personal preference, not a necessity.

I do need help with one last issue. I want the new ssd install of Tumbleweed to point to the existing /home on the hdd. I can reach the files there through dolphin with no problem, but I want it to be automatic. I want to use the hdd for all the stuff I can, since the ssd is only 120GB and I believe it has a shorter lifespan than an hdd as well. If it ever fails, I want the minimum hassle to get up and running again.

In conclusion, the speed upgrade is more than I could have imagined. It is a real pleasure to have gotten to this point. Thank you all, again!

Many thanks for the comprehensive feedback. Would you mind posting your current drives by showing the output of 'fdisk -l' and 'lsblk -f'?

**Prexy** · 03-Mar-2021, 14:55

karlmistelberger, here is fdisk -l

Code:

fdisk -l
Disk /dev/sda: 465.76 GiB, 500107862016 bytes, 976773168 sectors
Disk model: ST3500418AS      
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0xf010f010

DeviceBoot    Start      End  Sectors  SizeIdType
/dev/sda1  *         2048    206847    204800   100M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2          206848 564633026 564426179 269.1G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda3       564633600 565776383   1142784   558M 27 Hidden NTFS WinRE
/dev/sda4       565778432 976773119 410994688   196G  f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5       565780480 570001407   4220928     2G 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6       570003456 653893631  83890176    40G 83 Linux
/dev/sda7       653895680 976752639 322856960   154G 83 Linux


Disk /dev/sdb: 111.79 GiB, 120034123776 bytes, 234441648 sectors
Disk model: Samsung SSD 850  
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x821faa25

DeviceBoot    Start      End  Sectors SizeIdType
/dev/sdb1  *         2048    206847    204800  100M  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2          206848 127377387 127170540 60.6G  7 HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb3       152518656 234441647  81922992 39.1G 83 Linux
/dev/sdb4       127377408 152518655  25141248   12G 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order.

**Prexy** · 03-Mar-2021, 14:59

And lsblk -f

Code:

lsblk -f
NAME   FSTYPE FSVER LABEL           UUID                                 FSAVAIL FSUSE% MOUNTPOINT
sda                                                                                      
├─sda1 ntfs         System Reserved E8981CC8981C9762                                     
├─sda2 ntfs                         F88E1E728E1E29A0                      219.2G    19% /run/media/prexy/F88E1E728E1E29A0
├─sda3 ntfs                         2ECA2B16CA2AD9BB                                     
├─sda4                                                                                   
├─sda5 swap   1                     286def93-0f1c-44fb-8f95-31d65378248b                [SWAP]
├─sda6 btrfs                        50d1254f-cc8f-44dc-9a07-6d9df2324115   19.9G    48% /
└─sda7 xfs                          c9554cbb-f155-4e5b-aef5-51987573e0b1  108.8G    29% /home
sdb                                                                                      
├─sdb1 ntfs         System Reserved D66C9D616C9D3CE5                                     
├─sdb2 ntfs                         E2B69F00B69ED3FF                                     
├─sdb3 btrfs                        795d9510-a37b-422b-bfca-856cc4a68170                 
└─sdb4 xfs                          189626b6-cd9f-4ddd-8cb1-7b1b9ede8f9c                 
sr0