Changing a disc that has several partitions (NTFS or EXT4) from MBR to GPT format
Changing a disc that has several partitions (NTFS or EXT4) from MBR to GPT format
There are utilities for converting Windows discs from MBR to GPT and for handling EXT4 partitions, but if you have both types on one disc, you’ll need to use separate tools and process each partition individually. Since your data is backed up and you’re working with a cloned disc, any mistakes can be fixed by re-cloning it.
If it's a clone, simply erase it and create new partitions again.
Changing the disk format to GPT affects the entire drive. You don’t have to handle each partition individually, even if they use different file systems. I recommend using Linux for this conversion—it usually handles Windows better. Microsoft’s mbr2gpt should work well in that case.
Cleaning a cloned drive returns it to a clean slate? Yeah, you’re getting that idea. I tend to keep things organized and prefer to tweak settings rather than reinstall everything. Only a fresh Linux install every so often.
The guidance you're getting about gdisk seems outdated and confusing. Some comments suggest actions that could erase partitions or mislead you, while Mbr2gpt is reporting a geometry retrieval error. You might need to reinstall Windows 7 first before using mbr2gpt. Since you haven't used gdisk yet, clearing around 630MB of space at the start is a good practice. Don't worry about damaging GRUB or the boot process—just focus on fixing the disk issues.
GPT-Fdisk (gdisk) offers this functionality without any risk or data loss. You can find it on SourceForge, and it's also available alongside other tools you might prefer. If not present, check SuperGrubDisk for a live USB solution that includes similar features.
Gdisk would function just as well! I’m still following old guides and mixed instructions about data loss. Everything is backed up, but I’d rather skip another cloning session if possible.
consider trying a usbstick setup using any disk manager like cfdisk, parted, or gparted. add a few partitions, format them with fat32, place some files on it, then attempt to convert it. check if the system still recognizes everything, especially on another PC. an mp4 file can help confirm this—large and easily corrupted files indicate good success.