MBR or GPT for new SSD

ankan.email · May 24, 2018

Hi, I just bought a 240 GB ssd and want to move my HDD (which has MBR) system partition to new ssd. Now the question is,i already know the advantage of GPT, if I choose the SSd tb be GPT is there any compatibility issues? I did not able to find which boot mode my pc runig .. Mother Board: Ga.-990fxa-ud3 , amdfx8350 processor and a win 10 64bit. Please help.

reedo_43 · May 24, 2018

How are you going to move it? If you clone it, it will be mbr which is not an issue.

USAFRet · May 24, 2018

ankan.email :

If you clone an MBR partition/drive....the target drive will also be MBR.
That's what cloning does.

ankan.email · May 24, 2018

Which one is good thing to do? Set as gpt and fresh install everything? Or just clone as mbr?

USAFRet · May 24, 2018

ankan.email :

Well, this depends...

Do you want the new drive to be GPT? (you should)
What is the level of pain involved in reinstalling all your software? Trivial, or weeks worth of hair pulling?
How much space is consumed on your current drive?
What do you use this PC for?
What data is on other drives?

ankan.email · May 24, 2018

I use it for video editing and graphic design. System drive consumed size: 180gb. Others files on my Hdd are just project files. And my new ssd is 240 gb.

Paperdoc · May 25, 2018

It probably does not matter. You MUST have a storage device over 2 TB partitioned using the newer GPT system in order to use all its space. And then, in order to BOOT from that device, your mobo MUST have UEFI Support.

With an SSD of 240 GB there is no NEED to use GPT Partitioning, but you can choose which you want. If you leave it as MBR it will work just fine, and your mobo (which DOES have UEFI included in the Ver. 4.0 mobo) will always be able to deal with the simpler MBR Partitioned-device. So, it will work either way. IF you choose to go the GPT route, you will also have to configure your mobo's BIOS to use the UEFI features properly.

One small other thing to note. On many older systems the SATA port used for the HDD was configured to use an option called "IDE Emulation" or something like that. This was a feature included in BIOS back when SATA drives first were introduced and Windows XP did not know how to use them unless you installed its device driver properly. But SSD's really should be used as true AHCI devices, which is what SATA HDD's also are. So, IF your mobo SATA port is already configured to use the SSD as either a true SATA device or an AHCI device, you have no problem. But if the port is set to use IDE Emulation mode, you should change that, and that MAY have an impact on fine details of how the SSD is Partitioned. This does NOT affect the choice of MBR vs. GPT directly, but sometimes a device Partitioned in MBR to be used under IDE Emulation may not work if the port configuration is changed to AHCI, and might need to be re-Partitioned.

USAFRet · May 25, 2018

ankan.email :

If your C drive only has 180GB consumed space, then just clone it over as is...

Thusly:
Specific steps for a successful clone operation:
-----------------------------
Verify the actual used space on the current drive is significantly below the size of the new SSD
Download and install Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration, if a Samsung SSD)
Power off
Disconnect ALL drives except the current C and the new SSD
Power up
Run the Macrium Reflect (or Samsung Data Migration)
Select ALL the partitions on the existing C drive
Click the 'Clone' button
Wait until it is done
When it finishes, power off
Disconnect ALL drives except for the new SSD
This is to allow the system to try to boot from ONLY the SSD
Swap the SATA cables around so that the new drive is connected to the same SATA port as the old drive
Power up, and verify the BIOS boot order
If good, continue the power up

It should boot from the new drive, just like the old drive.
Maybe reboot a time or two, just to make sure.

If it works, and it should, all is good.

Later, reconnect the old drive and wipe as necessary.
Delete the 450MB Recovery Partition, here:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/4f1b84ac-b193-40e3-943a-f45d52e23685/cant-delete-extra-healthy-recovery-partitions-and-healthy-efi-system-partition?forum=w8itproinstall
-----------------------------

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