Cloning a GPT Partitioned Disk

Hi All,

I Know this post is "off the topic", but after over a week of misery, I thought I should share what I've learned in the hope that it saves at least one of you some grief, and this section of the forum is the one most folks check.

I’ve been using Acronis True Image software to painlessly create bootable backup clones of my drives since Windows XP, and when I got my new Lenovo Windows 8 laptop, I thought that cloning its drive would be a walk in the park using their latest software.

Well, I didn’t factor in that the newer GPT Partition system might not be supported for cloning by them or by a whole host of other software companies, especially those that seemed trustworthy and offered comprehensive software packages.

To make a long story short, I went through a number of convoluted workaround backup suggestions from Lenovo, Acronis and others, none of which worked for one reason or another.

Then I stumbled across Paragon’s Hard Disk Manager Suite 12 http://www.paragon-software.com/ which made a perfect GPT bootable clone on my first attempt, using their really easy "Copy Hard Disk Wizard".

(Unfortunately their free trial doesn’t allow you to clone a disk, but there are always some deep discount coupons on the web.)

Note: As recommended, for my target drive I used an identical drive to the one that's in the computer mounted in an external USB3 enclosure, and when I was setting the clone parameters, I didn't check "use exclude masks", I did check the "HDD raw copy" check box, and also checked the "shut down when finished" check box.

Now that I've got 2 tested, working, bootable clones of my new Hard Drive, I can get back to breathing easier and working harder.

Hope this help somebody.

Best,

Gerald Kornbluth