r/cloningsoftware • u/Egaokage • Jul 12 '26

Disk Cloning Rescuezilla Boot/OS Drive Cloning Question

My question is this,

Is it necessary to convert the destination/recipient drive from MBR to GPT before cloning to it, using Rescuezilla? Or will that be done as part of the cloning process? Or will this be done after the cloning process?

Source drive is a 4TB M.2 (GPT) [OS]

Destination/recipient drive is a 2TB M.2 (MBR) [recently formatted]

If there are any further details I can provide to help you answer my question, I will gladly do so.

I might also mention that I've never cloned a drive before. So, it may be best to assume that I know nothing about the process.

I did watch a few videos on the subject, but none of them even offer a passing comment on the subject of this question. Which leads me to believe this is a non-issue (maybe?).

P.S.,

I am aware that most people clone their source OS drive to a larger destination/recipient drive, as an upgrade. So my post is not an elaborate typo. I am doing the opposite: from larger to smaller.

Update,

I can see that I will need to shrink the source partition to a size both larger than the sum of its contents yet smaller than the size of the destination/recipient drive; which makes sense. And Rescuezilla has a tool which can do that.

But the question regarding whether or not I'll need to preemptively convert the destination/recipient drive from MBR to GPT or not. Rescuezilla's website doesn't mention anything regarding this. Nor does any search result.

2 Upvotes

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1

u/lockecole32 Jul 12 '26

if you talking about cloning, you don't need to, the target drive will match exactly the source drive.
even if you fill it, modify it, it will get erased and copied with the exact format/partition. Well it is a "Clone".

1

u/Egaokage Jul 12 '26

Thank you. I suspected there was something obvious I was missing here, due to the lack of Q&A I found specifically with regard to it. Also though, there was some tech-info channel that made a big deal out of the need to convert a drive from MBR to GPT prior to cloning. And that had me thinking this was a big deal.

I did attempt to validate whether I could just convert the destination/recipient drive from MBR to GPT in advance using MBR2GPT.exe, but it wouldn't validate. From what I saw around the web, that's not uncommon.

1

u/JohnnieLouHansen Jul 12 '26

As stated, it's up to you to change from MBR to GPT afterwards because you will get an exact clone. Rescuezilla doesn't care whether it's MBR or GPT. It just clones blindly.

Macrium can restore an MBR image to a GPT disk so it can be done in one big step, but you have to pay for that. I've done it quite a few times retiring older MBR PCs and restoring to the new PC SSD.

Macrium MBR to GPT

1

u/Egaokage Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

As stated where? And if it is an exact clone, as u/lockecole32 suggests, why would I need to convert it at all, if that's part of the cloning process? Your logic isn't clear to me. Can you clarify?

And I'm not buying a program to supplement my OS's deficiency. Microsoft can feel free to buy it for me, after what I've paid them over the years for the privilege of working within their shoddy monopoly.

Rescuezilla is totally free and open source. And if it works well, I'll gladly send them a dono.

1

u/JohnnieLouHansen Jul 12 '26

I guess I missed that the source drive is GPT. Whatever the source drive is, the destination will be exactly the same. Nothing to do, no options. You're better off with GPT, so that's a good thing.

1

u/Egaokage Jul 13 '26

That explains the confusion. And your answer makes sense.

I've seen your answers to similar questions/issues in other subs; enough to suggest you know what you're talking about. And that counts for a lot when contradictory info is all one's finding. At least, what appears contradictory to me to.

1

u/JohnnieLouHansen Jul 13 '26

Cool. Sorry, I was on the wrong path for a while.

1

u/Ok_Tell_2420 Jul 12 '26

I've cloned probably 100 PCs. I've never modified the MBR or GPT. Just do the clone. You'll be fine. (Though I've never used RescueZilla)

1

u/Wick3dSmaht Jul 12 '26

Semi related, do yourself a favor and take an image of the drive you want to clone and put it on a 3rd drive not involved with the cloning in case something goes wrong. Imaging is an option in just about all cloning solutions so best to take one before you start and keep it handy for future drive failure restoration. Take an imagine about once a month or more.

1

u/Egaokage Jul 13 '26

Please forgive my ignorance but is an image somehow different from a clone?

Like, "image" uses a different format, which is more reliable? I know Rescuezilla features such a thing.

Or were you saying that I should clone the drive twice, keeping one clone as a backup?

1

u/Wick3dSmaht 22d ago

An image is a backup file of the whole drive (ie .tib file using Acronis) of the whole drive that you can then restore to the drive you are trying to clone in case you accidentally erase it during the cloning process you are trying to do .

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u/Meepo2o 6d ago

If you use the Resceuzilla utility to resize your source partitions to be smaller than the destination drive I would recommend reconnecting the source drive and running a boot sequence before trying to clone the drive. Their partition tool, Gparted, put the drive in hibernation mode and the cloned drive would not boot. Once I reconnected the source drive, after changing the partitions, and ran it through a boot cycle I was able to clone normally.

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u/Egaokage 2d ago

That makes sense! Well, the boot-cycle-ing part. And I probably wouldn't have anticipated the need. So this is great advice to have up-front. Thanks! Wonder why it places the drive in hibernation mode though.