HDD in GPT and SSD in MBR

[tazmo8448]

I got a new SSD and would like to clone it from my HDD but I noticed in the Disk Manager that the HDD is in GPT and the SSD is in MBR and right clicking on each partition I can only change one from the other not to the other. Will this (I'm sure it will somehow)make a difference or is there another way I can get the two to agree and line up with each other to be able to clone. I am using the Macrium Reflect v5.2 and have Win7x64 OS.

 

[tazmo8448]

Addendum: Should I just change the SSD to GPT? When I right click the '' 1 '' which is the SSD (''0'' is the C:\ OS) it only offers to convert to Dynamic Disk the other options are grayed out.

 

[Pinhedd]

GPT is newer and superior to MBR. If you have a newer motherboard with an UEFI based firmware (as opposed to the older BIOS based firmware) and a 64 bit version of Windows GPT is the preferred partition layout. If you have an older motherboard with BIOS based firmware, or are using a 32 bit version of Windows, MBR will still be used by default.

If your motherboard and OS support GPT, you should be able to convert any drive initialized with MBR to GPT; doing so will erase the disk.

Side note: Cloning a partition from an HDD to an SSD is risky. Partitions need to be aligned along the SSD block boundaries. Some partition migration software support this, but many do not. It is always wise to do a full reinstall of the operating system, especially if you are installing Windows 8 which will automatically optimize itself for SSDs.

 

[tazmo8448]

Thanks Pinhedd for your timely answer. According to the video I watched about Macrium you can choose each partition one at a time and clone it to the new volume. I have three partitions on my old HDD Disk 0 has the 100mb System Partition the second has the OS (C and the third has HP_Recovery (D My concern is the HDD is formatted for GPT and the new SSD is formatted to MBR. My OS was just installed at the factory yesterday and is fairly fresh and what I want to do is clone Disk 0 to Disk 1 and then remove the HDD then install two other 1 TB HDD's along with the 120 GB SSD. But I am concerned that 0 is GPT and 1 is MBR is this an issue or do I need to change 1 to GPT and if so how do I go about doing it?

 

[tazmo8448]

Addendum: Disk 1 is blank to answer the erase thing but as stated when I right click Disk 1 the only option I have is Convert to Dynamic Disk the option Convert to GPT Disk is grayed out. Disk 0 Convert to MBR Disk is grayed out...BTW Pinhedd looking at your rig and setup...very nice.

And yes I do have the UEIF based bios firmware.

Is Converting to Dynamic Disk the same as changing to GPT? And when you say doing so will erase the disk are you talking about the new disk or the old one? Or does transfering/migrating over automatically change the new disk to GPT?

 

[Pinhedd]

Addendum: Disk 1 is blank to answer the erase thing but as stated when I right click Disk 1 the only option I have is Convert to Dynamic Disk the option Convert to GPT Disk is grayed out. Disk 0 Convert to MBR Disk is grayed out...BTW Pinhedd looking at your rig and setup...very nice.

And yes I do have the UEIF based bios firmware.

Is Converting to Dynamic Disk the same as changing to GPT? I hate to jump in blindly start doing these things, in the past I have caused more trouble for myself than you can shake a stick at by doing so.

The fastest way to deal with this may be to zero out the drive using the ATA internal secure erase command. This will revert the SSD to its uninitialized state almost instantly. Afterwards, you will be asked to pick a partitioning scheme next time you open up Disk Management. The most optimal one will be chosen for you if you install the OS on it. You can do this using the bootable linux based LiveCD called PartedMagic. At the same time you may want to look into upgrading the firmware before wiping it.

note: make sure that you actually use the internal ATA secure erase command. Do not use a software method which writes zeroes, this just wastes write cycles and takes up time.

Here is a handy visual guide from Corsair. The process is the same for all ATA SSDs

http://www.corsair.com/applicationnote/secure-erase

If the OS was just installed yesterday, I recommend reinstalling it rather than migrating it. All you need is the key. The Windows 7 installation ISOs can be found below

http://www.w7forums.com/official-windows-7-sp1-iso-image-downloads-t12325.html

 

[tazmo8448]

Thanks again Pinhedd. While waiting for an answer I found info on how to convert diskpart to GPT using the elevated command prompt here's a link if you'd like to see and tell me what you think. BTW it did change it to unallocated and in GPT format.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725671.aspx

 

[Pinhedd]

Thanks again Pinhedd. While waiting for an answer I found info on how to convert diskpart to GPT using the elevated command prompt here's a link if you'd like to see and tell me what you think. BTW it did change it to unallocated and in GPT format.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725671.aspx

I saw that too but I was hesitant to recommend it since it was grayed out in Disk Management. If it worked, great. I'll keep that in mind for the future. You should still check for firmware updates for your SSD though.

 

[tazmo8448]

Well all is well in Mudville. The Command Prompt worked, the Macrium worked and got the FirmWare update from Samsung put it on a USB and Booted to it in BIOS settings and now have a 7.3 WEI. (the FX-6120 CPU is the lowest rated) The SSD is 7.5 other than that the others are 7.9. Funny thing is the Magician Software would'nt even recognize it's own SSD, kept getting an error message to that effect even though it listed it perfectly as being my C:\ OS...weird, to say the least. After 10 hours of fiddling around with this I'm hittin' the sack. Thanks for your time and patience.