Clone From MBR to GPT? Is it possible?

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jvjakesta

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Jul 6, 2015
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I've just bought a new WD Black 1TB HDD to replace my 5-year old Seagate 1TB HDD.
Basically, my set up has a 120GB SSD as the OS boot drive.
I have my media files, game installations, and everything else on this Seagate MBR 1TB Drive.
I want to clone this drive to switch out for the WD Black drive as the Seagate is starting to show some corrupted sectors.
The new WD Black was formatted as a GPT Drive. Will there be any problems for me when I clone the drive? I want the new drive to act the same as the old one. Same drive letter and everything so that the custom locations I set to save to will remain the same.
 
Solution
LilDog1291
What will you be using to do the cloning? I think programs like Macrium Reflect try to match the format as well as the files so it would reformat your drive as MBR during the clone. Worst case scenario is to hook up both. Copy the content over manually. Remove the old drive. Set up the drive letter and custom locations. Restart the computer and all your programs should work again as normal.
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What will you be using to do the cloning? I think programs like Macrium Reflect try to match the format as well as the files so it would reformat your drive as MBR during the clone. Worst case scenario is to hook up both. Copy the content over manually. Remove the old drive. Set up the drive letter and custom locations. Restart the computer and all your programs should work again as normal.
 
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Solution

Interesting, so because it's not the boot drive, the mbr/gpt partitioning won't even make a difference? I had heard GPT partitioning was the more modern equivalent.
 
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A clone is a clone is a clone. When you clone the contents of your Seagate HDD to the WD HDD the resultant partition scheme will be whatever it was on your source disk, i.e., the Seagate, MBR. It makes no difference if the WD was formatted with the GPT-partition scheme. Capiche?

Now if you want the destination drive, i.e., the WD, to be partitioned GPT-style following the disk-cloning operation you can use a third-party partition management program to accomplish this. As long as the destination drive does not contain a viable OS the conversion should go without a hitch so that you don't lose any data. BUT MAKE SURE YOU DON'T DELETE OR MODIFY ANY DATA ON THE SOURCE (SEAGATE) DRIVE UNTIL YOU'RE CERTAIN THE CONVERSION OPERATION WAS SUCCESSFUL AND ALL YOUR DATA IS SAFE & SOUND, CAPICHE?

I believe the free or trial versions of many partition management programs contain this conversion capability. All their commercial versions certainly do. You can use any of the disk-cloning programs that have been suggested.
 
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Thanks guys. I Capiche. lol
Sounds like a pretty straight-forward process. Was just double-checking before I went in and began the cloning process. Thanks to everyone for this information!
 
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GPT partitioning is newer yes, but with the drive that small, you don't need to worry about the 2TB partition max. Also, GPT partitions are needed for newer EUFI BIOSes, and Apple OS.
 
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Little update to this.
Left it in MBR mode because as stated above, it makes no difference whatsoever to change it. Cloning went without a hitch, and all I had to do was swap the drives and change the Drive letter on the new drive once I restarted. Pretty simple once you sit down and do it. lol
 
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