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Q: "Clone failed - can't find matching partition."

Q: "Clone failed - can't find matching partition."

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mjt2789
Senior Member
483
09-22-2026, 10:57 PM
#1
I'm trying to copy my wife's hard drive to another one using a Macrium tool with a USB stick. But something went wrong and it said "Clone Failed-Unable to Match Partition - Drive 1. Start Sector..." Even though I checked the drive for bad sectors and ran some repair commands without seeing errors, I think the problem is that the new drive has old partition tables that don't match what my tool expects. Since this drive was already used to clone from other computers, maybe I just need to wipe out all those partitions on the new drive before trying again? Should I delete everything and make a fresh copy, or are there more steps I'm missing? Please help me figure this out. The picture above shows what happened right when I started copying.
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mjt2789
09-22-2026, 10:57 PM #1

I'm trying to copy my wife's hard drive to another one using a Macrium tool with a USB stick. But something went wrong and it said "Clone Failed-Unable to Match Partition - Drive 1. Start Sector..." Even though I checked the drive for bad sectors and ran some repair commands without seeing errors, I think the problem is that the new drive has old partition tables that don't match what my tool expects. Since this drive was already used to clone from other computers, maybe I just need to wipe out all those partitions on the new drive before trying again? Should I delete everything and make a fresh copy, or are there more steps I'm missing? Please help me figure this out. The picture above shows what happened right when I started copying.

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LaniBooster
Senior Member
344
09-26-2026, 03:39 PM
#2
I'm not sure if that will work, but wiping the target drive might not be a bad idea either. Using Macrium instead of cloning could also help. Sometimes one method works better than the other depending on what you have.
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LaniBooster
09-26-2026, 03:39 PM #2

I'm not sure if that will work, but wiping the target drive might not be a bad idea either. Using Macrium instead of cloning could also help. Sometimes one method works better than the other depending on what you have.

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slammajamma28
Junior Member
36
10-02-2026, 01:30 PM
#3
Yes, I thought about deleting all my data, but I needed some advice first. When it comes to cloning versus imaging, I'd rather stick with cloning so that if or when her hard drive breaks down because it's old, I can simply take the cover off her computer and put in a bootable copy of it. Then I'll be back on track right away.
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slammajamma28
10-02-2026, 01:30 PM #3

Yes, I thought about deleting all my data, but I needed some advice first. When it comes to cloning versus imaging, I'd rather stick with cloning so that if or when her hard drive breaks down because it's old, I can simply take the cover off her computer and put in a bootable copy of it. Then I'll be back on track right away.