Is there any disadvantage to converting my 2TB Windows 10 drive from MBR to GPT?

Cyber Akuma

Cyber Akuma

Gawd
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Jan 3, 2009
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I want to upgrade from a 2TB drive to a 4TB drive in a few months, and I just want to have everything setup and ready so when I get the drive I can just image my 2TB drive over to the 4TB one and get going without much fuss. (To be technical, it's two 1TB SSDs in RAID0 that I will be replacing with 2TB versions).

I know that you need GPT for a drive over 2TB, and that Windows 10 has tools to convert a MBR drive to GPT, but is there any reason to leave a drive that's 2TB or under on MBR? I know that older 32bit operating systems won't work on it, that's not an issue as I only have Windows 10 64bit on it, are there any other downsides or disadvantages to using GPT on a drive below 2TB or can I just convert it to GPT to prepare it for when I eventually will image it to a 4TB drive? And would that RAID I mentioned get in the way of it in any way?
 
Do a full back and redo the system from scratch, without Raid 0. Converting a Raid 0 array from MBR to GPT sounds like a bad idea, in my opinion. Or, leave the Raid 0 array alone and just add a 2TB SSD for more space.
 
Or skip RAID 0 completely because it's a bad idea for a system volume and offers no perceptible real-world gain for such, and dramatically increases the chances of an issue taking out the volume.

If you need more space for games/media/etc. just use a separate, non-RAID volume and set Steam/whatever to use that.
 
Can we please not get into an anti-RAID argument? That does not help me figure this out at all.
 
GPT hasn't any disadvantages comparing to MBR. But using RAID0 is a bad idea - if one SSD fails, the data on both devices will be corrupted.
 
I know, but there isn't really any important data on these drives, and I still back them up. It's just the drive I have my OS and install my applications and games to.
 
Cyber Akuma said:
Can we please not get into an anti-RAID argument? That does not help me figure this out at all.
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The biggest help you can get is to advice you never to raid-0 your windows boot drive. You _will_ regret it. As for your question - there will be zero advantage. Only potential for trouble just as with raid0.

Your consumer hardware doesn't probably even have a real raid controller and you will see practically zero benefit in speed you only lose a huge chunk of reliability. If either one of your drives fail, you can't restore the data by any reasonable means and your chance of failure more than doubles with raid0.

Your fake raid will require drivers to function under Windows. With the history of Microsoft randomly disabling drivers and/or forcing system updates that may cause a temporary problem, your chances of having an unbootable Win10 under raid0 are astronomically higher compared to having a non-raid OS disk.
 
I wouldn't take a chance of doing it on a drive or array with data on it unless you are absolutely sure you have great backups. It's your money to waste, so I won't go into the anti-RAID argument, but it is a valid one. So many other options that would allow you to spend some of the money elsewhere without losing performance.
 
First, make a good backup of your drive - should be a given, but is important enough to bear repeating. I've had very good luck with Macrium Reflect Free Edition - you can even backup your array as a compressed series of files on an external USB drive and restore from that if necessary. That being said (and avoiding debate of your RAID choice):

I'd install the new array alongside the existing array, and then use Macrium Reflect from within Windows to clone the old array to the new one. After the cloning, remove the old array and see if that gets you there. This has the benefit of avoiding troubles with having to load RAID drivers on your backup software's bootable restore image - Reflect will have everything it needs already loaded and ready to go. Note that after cloning, you * may * need to expand your partition to fill the unused space on the new array. This can be done using Windows' own Disk Management tool.
 
B00nie said:
The biggest help you can get is to advice you never to raid-0 your windows boot drive. You _will_ regret it.
Click to expand...

It's been 7 years and I have not regretted it, my raid is fine, you are just attacking my setup rather than even trying to answer my question just because it's not something you would do.

mvmiller12 said:
First, make a good backup of your drive - should be a given, but is important enough to bear repeating. I've had very good luck with Macrium Reflect Free Edition - you can even backup your array as a compressed series of files on an external USB drive and restore from that if necessary. That being said (and avoiding debate of your RAID choice):

I'd install the new array alongside the existing array, and then use Macrium Reflect from within Windows to clone the old array to the new one. After the cloning, remove the old array and see if that gets you there. This has the benefit of avoiding troubles with having to load RAID drivers on your backup software's bootable restore image - Reflect will have everything it needs already loaded and ready to go. Note that after cloning, you * may * need to expand your partition to fill the unused space on the new array. This can be done using Windows' own Disk Management tool.
Click to expand...

Yes, don't worry, I will have multiple layers of backups before I will attempt this.

A little clarification though, it's not from one RAID array to another, it's from a single drive to a RAID array. The cloning the data is not the issue so much as I was asking about the GPT conversion.
 
Cyber Akuma said:
It's been 7 years and I have not regretted it, my raid is fine, you are just attacking my setup rather than even trying to answer my question just because it's not something you would do.



Yes, don't worry, I will have multiple layers of backups before I will attempt this.

A little clarification though, it's not from one RAID array to another, it's from a single drive to a RAID array. The cloning the data is not the issue so much as I was asking about the GPT conversion.
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In that case, just let Reflect handle it. I have only once ever had a problem with a Reflect clone operation, and I have backed up single drive to RAID before with it just fine...
 
Cyber Akuma said:
It's been 7 years and I have not regretted it, my raid is fine, you are just attacking my setup rather than even trying to answer my question just because it's not something you would do.
Click to expand...

You have been just lucky but if you want to push your luck for near zero returns, be my guest.
 
Cyber Akuma said:
It's been 7 years and I have not regretted it, my raid is fine, you are just attacking my setup rather than even trying to answer my question just because it's not something you would do.



Yes, don't worry, I will have multiple layers of backups before I will attempt this.

A little clarification though, it's not from one RAID array to another, it's from a single drive to a RAID array. The cloning the data is not the issue so much as I was asking about the GPT conversion.
Click to expand...

We are not attacking your setup, we are straight up saying that converting a RAID 0 array from MBR to GPT, a bootable one at that, is not going to happen and not even possible. Backup, wipe and redo, that is the only option you have. Use RAID 0 or not, I do not give two hoots but, having a RAID 0 means conversion is not going to happen.
 
Cyber Akuma said:
It's been 7 years and I have not regretted it, my raid is fine, you are just attacking my setup rather than even trying to answer my question just because it's not something you would do.



Yes, don't worry, I will have multiple layers of backups before I will attempt this.

A little clarification though, it's not from one RAID array to another, it's from a single drive to a RAID array. The cloning the data is not the issue so much as I was asking about the GPT conversion.
Click to expand...

I am now completely confused, are we converting a RAID 0 array or a single bootable drive?
 
My disk have all been GPT for years. The only time you may have an issue is if you use 3rd party tools that may be older and not support GPT.
 
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