512 bytes HDD to 4k bytes SSD clone

Sebastian_Eibinger · May 20, 2022

Hello LTT Forum,

i am trying to clone a old drive to a new one.

My problem is that the old drive has a sektor size of 512 bytes and the new ssd has a standard 4k bytes sektor size.

My cloning programm (Ease Us Todo Backup) is not willing to clone due to different sektor sizes.

Is there a programm/way to clone the old drive to the new one by altering the virtual sektor size to 512 bytes on the new one.

If anyone has any help it is much appriciated.

wseaton · May 21, 2022

Yeah....that's an old one but annoying one to deal with.

I think what I did to get around it is make an image of your source drive.....which is basically a backup, and then restore it to the new SSD. This process ignores the original drive geometry. You might need another drive like an external to save it to.

I like Ease US, but Macrium Reflect is a little more robust in terms of imaging and also has a free version.