32-bit Legacy Windows 10 to 64-bit UEFI Windows 11

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by Eduardo, Oct 12, 2021.

  1. Eduardo

    Eduardo Junior Member

    Messages:
    14
    Sorry if this has been addressed before. If so, perhaps someone can kindly provide a link to the relevant discussion. If not, I hope some of the experts can provide a few pointers as to the best way to achieve the upgrade, if at all possible.

    To ease the transition, I thought it would be a good idea to convert the Legacy (BIOS) 32-bit Windows VM installation into its UEFI counterpart via mbr2gpt, adding a virtual TPM "chip" to the virtual hardware and allowing EFI and EFISecureBoot in the Windows VM config.pvs. Unfortunately, all four attempts yesterday failed, as Parallels was unable to boot Windows, so I resorted to my latest snapshot to regain functionality. Perhaps I botched a foolproof procedure that should have worked. If so, I don't know where. For the time being, I've come to believe that a 32-bit architecture is incompatible (?) with UEFI, although perhaps I am wrong.

    If the above belief should be confirmed by others, perhaps I should update my 32-bit Legacy Windows 10 installation to a 64-bit Legacy Windows 10 installation, although that probably means losing all my Windows applications (and perhaps my data) and needing to reinstall everything. Then perhaps I could go on to convert that 64-bit Legacy Windows 10 VM into a 64-bit UEFI Windows 10 virtual machine, and then proceed to a Windows 11 upgrade.

    Or, would it be feasible to install the 64-bit UEFI Windows 11 directly on top of my 32-bit Legacy Windows 10 virtual machine, even if that involves recovering data, drivers and applications from a backup?
     
  2. Eduardo

    Eduardo Junior Member

    Messages:
    14

Share This Page