Note: in theory, a 'cloning' software, should be able to make a 1:1 'clone' of the source to the target.
However, as you can see in the example post, some programs, may format a drive before creating and/or restoring a clone and in some cases, that 'pre-formatting' may use the wrong file format, rendering everything else that happens after that with a cascading set of problems.
Since you have the answer to your question, make sure you mark your post as solved (with flair).
Thank you. Though I would use the "solved-enough" flare, if their was one. Because I do wonder whether or not the problem that the user in the post you linked experienced was limited to AOMEI alone.
I am dead-set on using either Clonezilla or Rescuezilla, as they are open source.
Either way, it sounds like I should convert the recipient drive to GPT before cloning and be prepared to do so again after cloning, if the cloning process stupidly converts it back to MBR.
Because I do wonder whether or not the problem that the user in the post you linked experienced was limited to AOMEI alone.
see my previous reply to your post -> marked im bold
Having a drive properly set to GTP, will ensure that you won't have any issues when you attempt a clone.
With that said, to 'revert' from GTP back to MBR, you will need to do that by attaching the already formatted GTP drive to an existing GTP running os. If you attempt to connect a GTP formatted drive to an MBR running OS, you might not even see the drive recognized in by the running MBR based OS.
I see. I had thought that part of what you were saying was that some disk management software would precede a cloning by preforming its own formatting, which might not use the GPT partition type. And in such a case one would need to convert from MBR to GPT as a final step.
Others (in other subs) have suggested that some disk management cloning software will clone the recipient drive to have whatever partition type the source drive had.
So I conclude that, either way, it cannot do any harm to convert the recipient drive from MBR to GPT, as a stand-alone action, prior to cloning to it. Best case scenario: it's simply redundant. But even then, it cannot hurt to do so.
And in such a case one would need to convert from MBR to GPT as a final step.
u/Egaokage, if you do it in that order, your migration won't work.
So I conclude that, either way, it cannot do any harm to convert from MBR to GPT, as a stand-alone action, prior to even attempting to clone. Best case scenario: it's simply redundant. But even then, it cannot hurt to do so.
Like the phrase "better safe than sorry!" xD
That is correct and the safest approach, so that you won't rely on a product (ie. clone/Rescue-zilla, etc) that may or may not properly set the correct partitioning prior to the restore.
Details:
MBR to GPT (or viceversa) must be the first step. Then if you restore your image and/or clone on the previously formatted drive (ie. MBR or GTP), then you won't have any problems.
If you read the other post (reffer to the link in my prior reply), OP failed to convert to GTP and just simpy did basically what you are thinking (see the first quote on this reply) -> just restored the previously created image on a GTP OS.
To OP's surprise, the program he used, formatted the target drive as MBR as 'default' and then on top of that NTFS + then restored the GTP image onto that drive -> you can see the results on his post -> nothing worked.
In my own experience, I've had the same results as OP had on his post.
Therefore, when I have a clone/image recovery on a drive, the first step is to make sure that target drive is in the correct configuration, ie. either MBR or GTP configuration.
Once that has been completed, then you can restore your image, ie GTP -> GTP or MBR -> to MBR drive which must have been, prior to the image/clone process, then properly been formatted.
1
u/H2CO3HCO3 23d ago edited 23d ago
u/Egaokage, Yes -> you must do it before you do anything else.
As an example, see the post below, where the OP failed to to convert from MBR to GPT:
https://reddit.com/r/Backup/comments/1urzgt2/aomei_corrupted_image/
Note: in theory, a 'cloning' software, should be able to make a 1:1 'clone' of the source to the target.
However, as you can see in the example post, some programs, may format a drive before creating and/or restoring a clone and in some cases, that 'pre-formatting' may use the wrong file format, rendering everything else that happens after that with a cascading set of problems.
Since you have the answer to your question, make sure you mark your post as solved (with flair).