Understanding the process of duplicating an MBR system drive onto a GPT SSD.
Understanding the process of duplicating an MBR system drive onto a GPT SSD.
It didn't work as expected. I think I made a mistake. After installing Win10 fresh on the NVMe GPT SSD, I used MTPW to: remove the c: partition from the NVMe drive and then copy the c: partition from the sATA MBR drive onto the NVMe drive. When I tried to boot from the NVMe drive, the BIOS didn't recognize UEFI, which is unusual and likely caused the issue. I'll try the alternative: clone the sATA MBR onto the NVMe MBR drive and convert the NVMe from MBR to GPT. Good luck!
Changing MBR to GPT is easy, but can pose risks if the operating system isn't properly configured with the necessary tools (like Intel RST, SCSI, RAID drivers). My observations suggest this issue tends to arise more often during upgrades (Windows 7, 10, or 10 to 11).
That's why I recommended macrium or Aomei, because sometimes you need to perform a boot fix after copying partitions. Macrium offers a tool called Macrium Boot Fix that handles this automatically. I haven't used MTPW, so I'm unsure how well it performs the task.
I can start the cloned NVMe disk while it remains in MBR mode, but converting it is possible. When attempting the conversion, C:\WINDOWS\system32>mbr2gpt /validate /disk:1 /allowFullOS MBR2GPT triggers a validation step. The system fetches the disk layout, confirms the sector size is 512 bytes, and reports a validation failure for disk 1. Note that disk0 functions as a data drive on this machine—it was originally MBR but can be converted to GPT via Disk Management. mbr2gpt would produce the same error for disk0 if it were still in MBR state.
I attempted to link the MBR NVMe storage to another computer and transform it into GPT format. I used MTPW because Disk Management refused to proceed (some options were hidden). It didn’t work: once the GPT drive was reinstalled, it stopped booting. The BIOS didn’t show any UEFI options for startup. Turning off CSM still leaves no disks detected.
I retried... Installed a fresh UEFI on the NVMe GPT drive. I used Macrium Reflect Free to remove the c: partition from this drive and transfer the c: partition from the sATA MBR drive. However, I’m still unsure how to delete or copy partitions in MRF—it only supports backups and restores.
Testing Aomei PA now... The cloning system includes partitions that allow a bootable target drive, which is also a paid feature in Aomei PA.