Booting from a previously cloned Windows 10 installation

I have a cloned drive as a backup and my computer is stolen. This computer was probably MacBookPro 11,2.

Now i have an old MacBookPro 6,2, i installed my backup drive as an internal drive to this one.

I can boot to my old OSX Sierra and happy about it.

The second partition has a Windows 10 installation in it. I can't see this partition in option-boot screen. I can reach my Windows 10 partition from OSX.

How can i install or modify the necessary software to make this partition bootable again? I know i need the drivers for this particular computer and i have downloaded them from boot camp. If i can boot to my partition i install them and continue using my old operating windows, am i right?

Thank you.

Solution 1:

Note: There is no guarantee that if successful, Windows 10 will remain activated on the Mac. In other words, you may need to purchase a Windows 10 license for your Mac.

The Windows 10 install you wish to restore to your Mac used the EFI boot method (as used by most Macs since 2012). Since the drivers you have downloaded require a BIOS boot method (the legacy method), you will need to convert the restored Windows from an EFI boot method to a BIOS boot method.

You will need to make sure your internal drive is using a Hybrid GPT+MBR partition scheme. See this answer for details.

You will need to boot the computer using a Windows 10 DVD or bootable USB, select the option to repair the installation, open a Command Prompt window and enter the following commands. A bootable USB may require High Sierra (macOS 10.13).

Note: You can also open a Command Prompt window, by pressing the shift+F10 key combination after booting from the DVD or USB.

bootsect  /nt60  c:  /mbr
attrib  -r  -h  -s  c:\boot\bcd
del  c:\boot\bcd
bcdboot  c:\windows  /s  c:  /f  BIOS

This will repair the files used to boot Windows.

Note: You can ignore any error messages produced by the attrib and del commands.

After booting to Windows 10, you should install the Windows Support Software that you downloaded from Apple.