Moving drives to another computer

Support
1

So I have Manjaro installation that works fine. Today I decided to pull out my two SSDs (one “system” and one “data”) and put them in other computer that don’t have any drive. It was unable to boot, it was just displaying black screen with blinking cursor. Do I need to reinstall GRUB like it’s depicted here? I remember I was doing susch things before in Arch wihout problem but then I didn’t had EFI installed… The other computer is fully functional, can boot from flash or other SSD drive.

System:
  Kernel: 6.10.13-3-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 14.2.1
    clocksource: tsc avail: hpet,acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.10-x86_64
    root=UUID=132c7756-e49f-4b54-8031-f60889f27257 rw quiet splash
    udev.log_priority=3
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.1.5 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland dm: SDDM
    Distro: Manjaro base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Gigabyte model: F2A68HM-S1 v: x.x serial: N/A
    uuid: 03000200-0400-0500-0006-000700080009 UEFI: American Megatrends v: F1
    date: 11/14/2014
Battery:
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Keyboard serial: <filter>
    charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: discharging
  Device-2: hidpp_battery_1 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse serial: <filter>
    charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: model: AMD A8-7600 Radeon R7 10 Compute Cores 4C+6G socket: FM2 (P0)
    note: check bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Steamroller level: v2 built: 2014
    process: GF 28nm family: 0x15 (21) model-id: 0x30 (48) stepping: 1
    microcode: 0x6003104
  Topology: cpus: 1x dies: 1 clusters: 1 cores: 4 smt: <unsupported> cache:
    L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x16 KiB; i-2x96 KiB L2: 4 MiB desc: 2x2 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1400 min/max: 1400/3100 boost: enabled
    base/boost: 3100/3100 scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: schedutil
    volts: 1.1 V ext-clock: 100 MHz cores: 1: 1400 2: 1400 3: 1400 4: 1400
    bogomips: 24765
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3 svm
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed mitigation: untrained return thunk; SMT disabled
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; STIBP: disabled; RSB filling;
    PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA GF119 [GeForce GT 520] vendor: ASUSTeK ENGT520 SILENT
    driver: nouveau v: kernel non-free: series: 390.xx+
    status: legacy (EOL~2022-11-22) last: release: 390.157 kernel: 6.0
    xorg: 1.21 arch: Fermi code: GF1xx process: 40/28nm built: 2010-2016 pcie:
    gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: HDMI-A-1
    empty: DVI-I-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1040 class-ID: 0300
    temp: 41.0 C
  Display: unspecified server: X.Org v: 24.1.2 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.2
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting
    alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: nouveau gpu: nouveau display-ID: :1 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x286mm (20.00x11.26")
    s-diag: 583mm (22.95")
  Monitor-1: HDMI-A-1 model: Dell U2419H serial: <filter> built: 2020
    res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 93 gamma: 1.2 size: 527x296mm (20.75x11.65")
    diag: 604mm (23.8") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia nouveau platforms: device: 0 drv: nouveau
    device: 1 drv: swrast gbm: drv: nouveau surfaceless: drv: nouveau x11:
    drv: nouveau inactive: wayland
  API: OpenGL v: 4.5 compat-v: 4.3 vendor: mesa v: 24.2.4-arch1.0.1
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVD9 device-ID: 10de:1040
    memory: 991.2 MiB unified: no
  API: Vulkan Message: No Vulkan data available.
Audio:
  Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] FCH Azalia vendor: Gigabyte
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:14.2 chip-ID: 1022:780d
    class-ID: 0403
  Device-2: NVIDIA GF119 HDMI Audio vendor: ASUSTeK ENGT520 SILENT
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 16
    bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:0e08 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.10.13-3-MANJARO status: kernel-api with: aoss
    type: oss-emulator tools: alsactl,alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.22 status: off tools: N/A
  Server-2: PipeWire v: 1.2.5 status: n/a (root, process) with: wireplumber
    status: active tools: pw-cli,wpctl
  Server-3: PulseAudio v: 17.0 status: active (root, process)
    with: pulseaudio-alsa type: plugin tools: pacat,pactl
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8211/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    vendor: Gigabyte driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: d000 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: enp2s0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-1: br-039b8f783f2f state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-2: br-1fee39f0e525 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-3: br-371a7ffb3b62 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-4: br-3c5198f65278 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-5: br-42bdda6993d1 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-6: br-45d6d6dc23f6 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-7: br-4c8670060d5a state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-8: br-58d8c103547f state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-9: br-592471b51118 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-10: br-60887cfaa3e1 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-11: br-626449f67006 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-12: br-8c5bf3ca6527 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-13: br-ae5c45fbef4c state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-14: br-b223f62599dc state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-15: br-e73ec7bbcc5c state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: unknown
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-16: br-f3ca67385fcf state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-17: docker0 state: down mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-18: veth11d9bdd state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-19: veth183d429 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-20: veth1d9fe44 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-21: veth2aa0e6f state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-22: veth31ccb1f state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-23: veth34f7050 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-24: veth4c597ee state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-25: veth4e290fe state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-26: veth54ed8f0 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-27: veth5a3a07c state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-28: veth5dc556e state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-29: veth6597c17 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-30: veth8db6a5f state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-31: vethb3c981d state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-32: vethb439ad4 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-33: vethbacf67c state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-34: vethcdb4fc5 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-35: vethd69bd06 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-36: vethdf5e262 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-37: vethe1826b7 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-38: vethec1c38a state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-39: vethef524f6 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-40: vethf01300e state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-41: vethf1131f8 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  IF-ID-42: vethf822664 state: up speed: 10000 Mbps duplex: full
    mac: <filter>
  Info: services: NetworkManager, nginx, systemd-timesyncd
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 558.92 GiB used: 455.63 GiB (81.5%)
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: HP model: SSD S650 120GB
    size: 111.79 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B sata: 3.2
    speed: 6.0 Gb/s tech: SSD serial: <filter> fw-rev: 611 temp: 29 C
    scheme: GPT
  SMART: yes state: enabled health: PASSED on: 174d 9h cycles: 748
    read: 1.8 MiB written: 3.5 MiB
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Kingston model: SA400S37480G
    family: Driven SSDs size: 447.13 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B sata: 3.2 speed: 6.0 Gb/s tech: SSD serial: <filter>
    fw-rev: 0107 temp: 31 C scheme: MBR
  SMART: yes state: enabled health: PASSED on: 1y 315d 12h cycles: 1773
    read: 20792 GiB written: 15102 GiB
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 111.49 GiB size: 109.18 GiB (97.93%)
    used: 52.91 GiB (48.5%) fs: ext4 block-size: 4096 B dev: /dev/sda2
    maj-min: 8:2
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat block-size: 512 B dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default) zswap: yes
    compressor: zstd max-pool: 20%
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 4 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    file: /swapfile
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 36.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nouveau temp: 41.0 C
  Fan Speeds (rpm): cpu: 0 fan-2: 1650 fan-3: 0 fan-4: 0 fan-5: 0
  Power: 12v: N/A 5v: N/A 3.3v: N/A vbat: 4.01 gpu: nouveau mV: 900.00
Repos:
  Packages: pm: pacman pkgs: 1793 libs: 528 tools: pamac
  Active pacman repo servers in: /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
    1: https://mirrors.manjaro.org/repo/stable/$repo/$arch
    2: https://ask4.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    3: https://mirror.leitecastro.com/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    4: https://coresite.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    5: https://cofractal-ewr.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    6: https://southfront.mm.fcix.net/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    7: https://repo.ialab.dsu.edu/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
    8: https://mirror.2degrees.nz/manjaro/stable/$repo/$arch
Info:
  Memory: total: 16 GiB available: 15.57 GiB used: 4.31 GiB (27.7%)
  Processes: 377 Power: uptime: 7m states: freeze,mem,disk suspend: deep
    avail: s2idle wakeups: 0 hibernate: platform avail: shutdown, reboot,
    suspend, test_resume image: 6.2 GiB services: org_kde_powerdevil,
    power-profiles-daemon, upowerd Init: systemd v: 256 default: graphical
    tool: systemctl
  Compilers: clang: 18.1.8 gcc: 14.2.1 Shell: Sudo (sudo) v: 1.9.16
    default: Bash v: 5.2.37 running-in: yakuake inxi: 3.3.36
2

Welcome to Manjaro forum @benke

If a drive is moved to another system, it might have a different UUID on new system and GRUB would not be able to boot system if the UUID has changed:
root=UUID=132c7756-e49f-4b54-8031-f60889f27257

To check the UUIDs on new system

sudo blkid

Edit the mountpoints in /etc/fstab to use the correct UUIDs for new system

sudo nano /etc/fstab

And update GRUB bootloader

sudo update-grub

Fstab - Manjaro Wiki
fstab - ArchWiki

3

UUIDs are same on new system.

4

Does the new system have a different brand of GPU? Sounds like you may need to change the graphics driver.

You may also need to change the microcode for the CPU.

5

Just inserted old graphics card and it is still the same.

6

That’s not what I said, but it should’ve worked if it was the right graphics driver and card combo and the card was selected in the UEFI.

So where in the boot process does this happen?

Have you set the boot priority properly?
Have you checked the logs?

7

One thing that comes to mind is that you need to make sure the EFI BIOS has secure boot disabled, as i know Manjaro won’t work with that set.

I’m not sure about the grub reinstall; I have to admit my knowledge of EFI is minimal, say the least. But I’d suggest at worst if shouldn’t do any harm.

8

Boot priority is good. I left only one drive attached, system/boot, and now I am getting message:

Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device and press a key

9

Here’s where some system information might be beneficial.

Please provide the output of the following command for both the old computer and the new computer, and indicate which is which:

inxi --admin --verbosity=8 --filter --no-host --width

Thanks.

10

Ordered new SSD of same model, booted from flash and inslalled fresh Manjaro. Tested booting from new SSD and it works fine. Then booted again from flash, mounted both old and new SSD and copied all files from old SSD to new. Rebooted again from new SSD and so far everything works good. Not what was my first idea but result is same. Thanks everyone for helping.