Fix Clonezilla Fails with MBR and GPT Mismatch with 3 Ways

Clonezilla: this disk contains dismatched GPT and MBR partition

There are many users report that when they try to clone or restore from a backup using Clonezilla, they receive error message saying “This disk contains mismatched GPT and MBR partition”. Just like the following case:

Why does it come up? Most likely, you originally installed an OS with GPT partition style, and later overwrite it with another OS in MBR partition style. The MBR editor cannot recognize GPT, neither can it overwrite the GPT partition style completely, thus the error arises. 

Then, how to fix Clonezilla error the disk contains dismatched GPT and MBR partition? You can try gdisk or sgdisk command with Clonezilla or use a professional cloning software, such as Qiling Disk Master Professional. Click the anchor text below and learn the corresponding method. 

• Method 1. Fix "this disk contains mismatched GPT and MBR partition" with gdisk
• Method 2. Fix "this disk contains mismatched GPT and MBR partition" with sgdisk
• Method 3: Avoid Clonezilla fails with MBR/GPT mismatcg using Qiling Disk Master

#1. Fix "this disk contains mismatched GPT and MBR partition" with gdisk

Clonezilla supports single partition table, GPT or MBR, so you can choose to keep only one of partition type.  In this part, I’ll show you how to fix clonezilla error with gdisk.

Note:✎...

the following operation may result in data loss, please backup files at first.

How to destroy GPT partition table with gdisk:

1. Proceedzilla live and enter command line prompt. After that, type the command in the following.

sudo gdisk /dev/sda (/dev/sdx is the disk containing mismatched GPT and MBR partition)

2. See disk information shown as below, and select the disk partition style.

If you are sure that your disk is GPT, then choose 1. If it is MBR, choose 2. Do not select 3 because it will delete all partitions on your disk.

Found valid MBR and GPT. Which do you want to use?

(1 – GPT

(2 – MBR

(3 - Create blank GPT

3. Type “x” to select the disk containing mismatched GPT and MBR partition.

4. Type “z”to enter Expert mode.

5. Type “y” when you are asked if you want to wipe out GPT/MBR data. 

6. Type "n" if you asked to blank MBR.

6. Finally, create one or more partitions with free space.

#2. Fix "this disk contains mismatched GPT and MBR partition" with sgdisk

Beside gdisk, sgdisk is another command line that can solve this problem. The steps are very similar. You just need to enter command line prompt in Clonezilla, then replace gdisk with sgdisk.

To wipe GPT table with sgdisk:

1. Enter Clonezilla Command line prompt.

2. Type the following commands in order.

sudo -i

sgdisk -z /dev/sda (Please make sure /dev/sda is the disk that contain mismatched GPT and MBR partition)

3. Reboot your computer.

#3. Avoid Clonezilla fails with MBR/GPT mismatcg using Qiling Disk Master

Just like Clonezilla, Qiling Disk Master also provides imaging and cloning features for Windows 11/10/8/7 that completely support GPT and MBR disks.

For its compatibility, you will never encounter any problem like Clonezilla this disk contains mismatched GPT and MBR, when you use Qiling Disk Master to clone or restore.

Next, I’ll take GPT disk clone as an example to show you the detailed steps. If you want to backup disk or restore disk, you could consider using “Backup” and “Restore” feature in this software.

To clone GPT disk to MBR with Qiling Disk Master, use the following steps:

1. Download Qiling Disk Master Professional, install and launch it.

• Free Download
• Windows 11/10/8/7, 100% Secure

2. Click Clone and Disk Clone subsequently. To backup disk, click Backup and Disk Backup as instead.

3. Select GPT disk as source disk and click “Next”.

4. Select MBR disk as destination disk and click “Next”.

5. Preview the operation and click “Proceed”. Tick "SSD Alignment" to help SSDs reach its peak performance by accelerating the reading and writing speed of SSDs.

If the target disk is blank, you will be asked whether you want to convert MBR to GPT. Click Yes or No. If you are cloning MBR to GPT disk, here you will be asked to convert GPT to MBR or not. 

If the target disk has partitions, it will keep the partition style of target disk, here is GPT disk. If it has more than 4 partitions, this software will convert primary partition and logical partition automatically to avoid data loss.

Notes:✎...

Edit Partition: If you clone disk to larger disk, your target disk space that exceed the original disk may become an unallocated space and you cannot use it for anything. To solve this problem, Qiling provide you “Edit Partition” feature to resize the size of destination disk.

Sector by sector clone: This feature is suitable for users whose destination disk is as large as original disk. And it will copy all the sectors in the original disk whether used or not.

Written in the end

Qiling Disk Master is one of the best alternative software to Clonezilla. It not only provide all imaging, cloning feature, but also solve some potential prolems, such as, cloned hard drive shown wrong size, system image restore fails because of EFI BIOS, etc.

If you want to protect unlimited computers within your company, you can pick Qiling Disk Master Technician. With the inbuilt Qiling Image Deploy tool, you are also allowed to deploy/restore system image file on server-side computer to multiple client-side computers over network.

And it support creating portable version of Qiling Disk Master so as to run this software on the target computer without installing again.

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