mbr (or) gpt for new drive if I plan to clone to it after?

[lyphe]

Hi,

I just bought a new SSD that I plan to use as my main drive. The plan is to use acronis true image to clone my current HDD drive over to the new SSD.

After plugging in my new drive and turning on the computer, I visited disk management ( in W10 ) to format it. But it is asking me if I want it set up as MBT or GPT.

I originally assumed GPT, but this drive will become my main system and boot drive after I clone my old drive to it. Which means I'm confused and staring at a screen trying to decide which to choose.

Any advice appreciated and ty.

 

[Rogue Leader]

While the main benefit of a GPT disk is the fact you can use drives that are larger than 2.2 TB , for a new drive there is no reason not to use GPT.

Here is a good article about GPT's advantages:

http://www.howtogeek.com/193669/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive/

Yes you can clone an MBR to GPT so go ahead and do that.

 

[lyphe]

Tyvm and cheers

 

[Rogue Leader]

Tyvm and cheers

One thing to keep in mind before you do this, do you have a UEFI BIOS? If you don't know post your motherboard make and model and I can tell you.

 

[mbarnes86]

Hi

If going to clone the old hdd to ssd then you should not be partitioning and formatting ssd in disk management
Leave that to cloning program

Or are you just copying windows partition to ssd due to size differences between ssd & hdd

What size is the ssd and old hdd as it is difficult to clone if old hdd much bigger than new ssd

If existing hdd uses gpt then clone all the partitions over to the ssd

You should see what partitioning exists on old hdd

Several very small ones at begining and end of disk indicate gpt

Finally gpt is vital if windows boot disk bigger than 2TB which is unlikely on ssd

Regards
Mike Barnes

 

[ArtPog]

I tend to agree with Rogue Leader that the advantages of the GPT partitioning scheme are sufficiently substantial so that all things being equal a PC user should opt for that partitioning scheme rather than the MBR scheme, even for all disks regardless of disk-space capacity.

But there's a problem in your situation. A clone is a clone is a clone. So when you clone the contents of your source HDD which I assume contains the MBR partitioning scheme, that MBR scheme will be carried over to your SSD destination disk, regardless of the fact that you may have partitioned it GPT prior to the disk-cloning operation.

On the other hand if the source disk was GPT partitioned then there's no problem.

As I'm sure you know Disk Management will not permit converting a MBR disk to GPT if data is present on the disk. Now there are third-party programs that presumably will effect the disk conversion from MBR to GPT without data loss but I've yet to find one that works reliably.

 

[Rogue Leader]

I tend to agree with Rogue Leader that the advantages of the GPT partitioning scheme are sufficiently substantial so that all things being equal a PC user should opt for that partitioning scheme rather than the MBR scheme, even for all disks regardless of disk-space capacity.

But there's a problem in your situation. A clone is a clone is a clone. So when you clone the contents of your source HDD which I assume contains the MBR partitioning scheme, that MBR scheme will be carried over to your SSD destination disk, regardless of the fact that you may have partitioned it GPT prior to the disk-cloning operation.

On the other hand if the source disk was GPT partitioned then there's no problem.

As I'm sure you know Disk Management will not permit converting a MBR disk to GPT if data is present on the disk. Now there are third-party programs that presumably will effect the disk conversion from MBR to GPT without data loss but I've yet to find one that works reliably.

You can clone an MBR to a GPT, just not the other way around. You first need to set up the drive as GPT.

http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

Will do it. I have actually done it before.

My only concern here is if he doesn't have a UEFI bios, I made the unfortunate assumption he did, but if he doesn't he is not going to be able to boot from a GPT drive.

 

[ArtPog]

I tend to agree with Rogue Leader that the advantages of the GPT partitioning scheme are sufficiently substantial so that all things being equal a PC user should opt for that partitioning scheme rather than the MBR scheme, even for all disks regardless of disk-space capacity.

But there's a problem in your situation. A clone is a clone is a clone. So when you clone the contents of your source HDD which I assume contains the MBR partitioning scheme, that MBR scheme will be carried over to your SSD destination disk, regardless of the fact that you may have partitioned it GPT prior to the disk-cloning operation.

On the other hand if the source disk was GPT partitioned then there's no problem.

As I'm sure you know Disk Management will not permit converting a MBR disk to GPT if data is present on the disk. Now there are third-party programs that presumably will effect the disk conversion from MBR to GPT without data loss but I've yet to find one that works reliably.

You can clone an MBR to a GPT, just not the other way around. You first need to set up the drive as GPT.

http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

Will do it. I have actually done it before.

My only concern here is if he doesn't have a UEFI bios, I made the unfortunate assumption he did, but if he doesn't he is not going to be able to boot from a GPT drive.

Just to confirm I clearly understand you...
You're stating that if one's source disk has been MBR partitioned and the user has created a GPT partitioned disk that will serve as the destination disk for the disk-cloning operation, then the clone created by that easeus program will also be GPT partitioned without any loss of data. Do I correctly understand you?

Admittedly I have not used the easeus disk-cloning program, however, I haven't found ANY disk-cloning program that I've used that can accomplish that feat.

 

[Rogue Leader]

I tend to agree with Rogue Leader that the advantages of the GPT partitioning scheme are sufficiently substantial so that all things being equal a PC user should opt for that partitioning scheme rather than the MBR scheme, even for all disks regardless of disk-space capacity.

But there's a problem in your situation. A clone is a clone is a clone. So when you clone the contents of your source HDD which I assume contains the MBR partitioning scheme, that MBR scheme will be carried over to your SSD destination disk, regardless of the fact that you may have partitioned it GPT prior to the disk-cloning operation.

On the other hand if the source disk was GPT partitioned then there's no problem.

As I'm sure you know Disk Management will not permit converting a MBR disk to GPT if data is present on the disk. Now there are third-party programs that presumably will effect the disk conversion from MBR to GPT without data loss but I've yet to find one that works reliably.

You can clone an MBR to a GPT, just not the other way around. You first need to set up the drive as GPT.

http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html

Will do it. I have actually done it before.

My only concern here is if he doesn't have a UEFI bios, I made the unfortunate assumption he did, but if he doesn't he is not going to be able to boot from a GPT drive.

Just to confirm I clearly understand you...
You're stating that if one's source disk has been MBR partitioned and the user has created a GPT partitioned disk that will serve as the destination disk for the disk-cloning operation, then the clone created by that easeus program will also be GPT partitioned without any loss of data. Do I correctly understand you?

Admittedly I have not used the easeus disk-cloning program, however, I haven't found ANY disk-cloning program that I've used that can accomplish that feat.

Yes thats exactly what I am saying, and not only that, not just EaseUS partition master will do it, Acronis and Clonezilla which are both popular here will as well. Also Macrium even has this procedure in their instructions:

http://www.macrium.com/help/v5/How_to/Conversions/Convert_an_MBR_disk_to_a_GPT_disk.htm

 

[ArtPog]

Thanks for the info. I work nearly exclusively with the Casper disk-cloning program which does not have the capability of successfully cloning the contents of an MBR partitioned disk to a GPT partitioned disk and which would retain the GPT partitioning scheme on the cloned disk. At least it hasn't worked for me.
I thought I did give the Easeus disk-cloning a program a try some time ago with the same unsuccessful results. Haven't worked with the Macrium program as I recall with respect to this issue.
However, based upon your post I'll most certainly give these programs another try. Again, thanks for the info.