Reverting from Windows 11 to Windows 10 with Clonezilla image
A partition and disk imaging/cloning program
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steven_shiau
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Like many, unhappy with Windows 11 and want to revert. The Microsoft time window for reversion has passed. I only use Windows for a few programs which won't run in Wine. Haven't tried the virtual drive method as my hardware may not be robust enough for that option.
I attempted to restore W10 from a Clonezilla image made just before upgrading (?) to W11. The result was W11 Home (v22H2) was still there as though nothing had been done. Seemed like the restore process went normally, although I've not reviewed the logs yet. I name the images by machine and version so no confusion there. Been using CZ for years with great success-has saved my bacon many times.
Next try, deleted all partitions on the target drive. Had Clonezilla create the partition table during the restore process-first time I'd done that. CZ did a nice job with the partitioning, but the result was still W11 Home from a W10 Home CZ image file.
The machine is a dual-boot Windows-Linux Mint Intel NUC8i7INH using two drives, one for each OS. The two OS have co-existed without any trouble, before and after this process. Wondering about those hidden Windows partitions (Recovery, etc.) causing this. I've read that Microsoft would rather you not revert. Can MS somehow mark a drive or the BIOS to prevent reversion ??
Should the target drive be wiped after partition deletion ??
Next step may be to do a clean W10 Home install from USB with all other drives removed to see what happens.
"Should the target drive be wiped after partition deletion ??" -> It depends. If you create the partition table which happens to be exactly the same as the previous one, your data on the partition/filesystem will be back since you do not whip them. Hence it's recommended to wipe that.
Steven