Lenovo Hard Drive came initilized in GPT format, i need to clone it to a MBR SSD

bgray96

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Jun 3, 2015
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For some stupid reason Lenovo has started sending out their computers with hard drives as GPT, that are under 2.19TB. I need to clone this GPT drive to a new SSD that I am installing for a client. I tried cloning it with 3 different programs, all failed as the computer couldn't recognize the OS on the new SSD. How do I successfully clone a GPT drive to an MBR drive?
 

McHenryB

Admirable
Why not clone it as a GPT drive? There are no disadvantages that I am aware of and it is far more flexible than MBR. Any decent cloning program should be able to do this.

Booting issues with cloned drives are normally because of other issues. (E.g. people clone just the C: drive partition and not the hidden partition and so end up with an unbootable drive.)
 

bgray96

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Jun 3, 2015
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So convert the MBR SSD to GPT format first?

 

McHenryB

Admirable


Well, yes - that's what cloning the whole disk will do as it clones all sectors of the disk.

Cloning a disk copies the whole thing, partition table and all. Are you sure you are cloning the disk not just copying a partition?
 

bgray96

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Jun 3, 2015
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I know that. These systems were sent with Windows 7.

 

bgray96

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Jun 3, 2015
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Yes I am cloning the whole disk over, I have cloned thousands of successful times. The computer can not find the partitions on the cloned disk, first it gives me the "Cant find active partitions" error, then when I go into Boot It Bare Metal and set the Win7 OS partition to Active, it says it cant find the OS. The Windows 7 Recovery/ERD Commander cant recognize an OS, even though I can see the partition on the drive.