You will need unallocated space on the target that is at least as large as the source partition you are copying.is there any guide or video tutorial you might have? I would like to try this instead of the cmd thing
How to copy partition with the partition manager MiniTool Partition Wizard.
You can shrink your OS partition (from the right ) to create some, if you don't already have unallocated space.
I was about to clone my EFI partition but someone told me that I needed to "use Win 10 utilities BCDedit and/or BCDboot to correct the BIOS boot menu.".
Would that be really the case sir? Cause I'm not familiar with the procedures, but I really want the cloning process. If you spare the time teaching me how to do it. It would be much appreciated but it's your choice also not to, sir.
My case is similar but quite the opposite in a way. I've been using my SSD for years now, from one computer to the next, and I recently obtained a HDD and ordered an optical drive adapter that should be arriving tomorrow in order to install it. I won't bore you with the irrelevant details of what I intend to do once it arrives, so here's the situation:
My SSD is split in 3 partitions:
1. System Reserved, which is a 500MB partition with 350MB used.
2. C: Windows, a 48.8GB partition.
3. D: Games, a 189GB partition.
Now, for whatever reason, D is the first partition, C is the second and the final one is System Reserved.
I have 3 questions. First, is System Reserved the same as EFI partition? If yes, how do I move it to the beginning of my SSD?
Second. Will this ultimately affect anything? For better or worse? In other words, is this worth the possible hassle and the potential risk to all of my files?
Third. I intend to upgrade from MBR to GPT, which is part of the reason I'm doing this. It's my understanding that EFI/System Reserved needs to be the first partition in order to do this.
If it's easier to simply dump my data on my HDD and wipe the SSD clean and set it up properly from the start, let me know. It'll take time but hopefully everything will return exactly the way it was once I copy everything back over.
It is similar, but not the same.
You will gain absolutely nothing by moving the system reserved partition. Partition order has no affect on the performance of an SSD because SSDs do not have tracks and sectors for data. The partition boundary definitions are only there to maintain compatibility with the OS, they mean nothing to the SSD.
Not at all. Microsoft's mbrtogpt might complain about it, but there are other ways to convert. And if you are only looking to boot in UEFI mode, converting the drive to GPT is not required for booting in UEFI mode.
I'm looking to run MacOS, so GPT is definitely required.
MBR2GPT throws an error when validating with absolutely no details. The log files seem to hold nothing relevant, or maybe I'm looking at the wrong log files.
And before anyone asks, all 3 partitions are primary, none logical.
Does that mean I can safely get rid of it for trouble shooting purposes? Does it even need to be at the beginning of the drive anyway?
What do you mean can you safely get rid of the system reserved partition? You can get rid of it, but then the computer will not boot from that drive. And, also, according to Microsoft, mbr2gpt will not convert a drive without an active partition:
MBR2GPT | Microsoft Docs
According to that document, the order of partitions does not matter. It does appear as if some unallocated space is required to do the conversion, either at the beginning or end of the drive. I would try shrinking the system reserved partition to 450 MB in size and leaving 50 MB free at the end of the drive. You'll have to use a third party program such as MiniTool Partition Wizard Free to do that, since it is the system reserved partition.
I tried something else. I backed up all my data to the HDD and tried to convert the SSD to GPT using Partition Wizard. I noticed it tried to take a chunk from my C partition and give it to System Reserved. My C partition is the Windows drive, and it's only 48.8GB. Since my D partition is now empty, I deleted it and tried to extend C to take up all the unallocated space. PW required a restart to complete this process (since the unallocated space is before C, not after). PW started before Windows booted up and did its thing, but now my laptop won't boot. Saying it couldn't find an OS.
I'm currently setting up a boot drive to reinstall Windows and inside PE I'll do everything I need to using diskpart and MBR2GPT. Hopefully I won't get any errors for the latter anymore.
Actually, without seeing a screenshot of disk management, the 500MB "system reserved" partition may not have been the partition was booting from. The boot files could have been moved to C: or D: drive partitions. On a legacy BIOS system the computer will boot from whichever partition is marked as active.
Both System Reserved and C were marked active, but System Reserved was also marked System
Perhaps that's why I always got two boot options, Windows 10 and Windows 10 Pro, even though both booted into the same Pro installation.
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