Can’t Copy Or Migrate Drive, Program Reports Sector Size Mismatch

Not sure what /// refers to.

Are the drives the same size? Also are they using the same sector format (i.e. 512/512e vs 4k)?
Is the cloning software trying to resize the old drive contents to fit the new drive (hopefully just doing to main volumes and not hidden ones)?
One possible scenario is that the amount of clusters the file system would need using the same cluster/sector size would be higher than is allowed - e.g. FAT32 has a limit of just over 65000 clusters. NTFS has a 16TB volume size limit if using (a usual default) 4KB cluster sizes.

You can try the following from the command prompt: fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo x:
(where x is the drive letter on that disk)

Here's an example output:
NTFS Version : 3.1
LFS Version : 2.0
Total Sectors : 934,729,766 (445.7 GB)
Total Clusters : 116,841,220 (445.7 GB)
Free Clusters : 72,284,047 (275.7 GB)
Total Reserved Clusters : 724,364 ( 2.8 GB)
Reserved For Storage Reserve : 713,774 ( 2.7 GB)
Bytes Per Sector : 512
Bytes Per Physical Sector : 512
Bytes Per Cluster : 4096

So in this scenario, I could migrate the volume but if the software is trying to expand it at the same time it would never be allowed to go bigger than 16TB.
Also, as this is an old SATA SSD using 512 sectors, so is the file system. If your drive is using a much smaller cluster size then it is possible you could run in to a limit using normal consumer size disks available. Also, there may be a sector count limit - most material refers to cluster limits but it wouldn't surprise me if the amount of sectors also has a distinct limit.

If your cloning software is trying to do something stupid like resize the FAT16/32 GPT / EFI system partition then due to its limited size support it will easily not allow resizing - I'd like to think that's not the cause of the issue.
If you are trying to clone the drive I would recommend cloning the contents as is without any resize to see if that works (assuming you have that control in the program). Or maybe try another (unfortunately a little more complicated) tool like clonezilla.

NOTE: Cloning tools have the ability to loose your data - advice is taken at own risk.
 
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Vincero said:
Not sure what /// refers to.

Are the drives the same size? Also are they using the same sector format (i.e. 512/512e vs 4k)?
Is the cloning software trying to resize the old drive contents to fit the new drive (hopefully just doing to main volumes and not hidden ones)?
One possible scenario is that the amount of clusters the file system would need using the same cluster/sector size would be higher than is allowed - e.g. FAT32 has a limit of just over 65000 clusters. NTFS has a 16TB volume size limit if using (a usual default) 4KB cluster sizes.

You can try the following from the command prompt: fsutil fsinfo ntfsinfo x:
(where x is the drive letter on that disk)

Here's an example output:
NTFS Version : 3.1
LFS Version : 2.0
Total Sectors : 934,729,766 (445.7 GB)
Total Clusters : 116,841,220 (445.7 GB)
Free Clusters : 72,284,047 (275.7 GB)
Total Reserved Clusters : 724,364 ( 2.8 GB)
Reserved For Storage Reserve : 713,774 ( 2.7 GB)
Bytes Per Sector : 512
Bytes Per Physical Sector : 512
Bytes Per Cluster : 4096

So in this scenario, I could migrate the volume but if the software is trying to expand it at the same time it would never be allowed to go bigger than 16TB.
Also, as this is an old SATA SSD using 512 sectors, so is the file system. If your drive is using a much smaller cluster size then it is possible you could run in to a limit using normal consumer size disks available.

If your cloning software is trying to do something stupid like resize the FAT16 GPT / EFI system partition then due to its limited size support it will easily not allow resizing - I'd like to think that's not the cause of the issue.
If you are trying to clone the drive I would recommend cloning the contents as is without any resize to see if that works (assuming you have that control in the program). Or maybe try another (unfortunately a little more complicated) tool like clonezilla.

NOTE: Cloning tools have the ability to loose your data - advice is taken at own risk.
Click to expand...
I appreciate your help.

But I Kinda Gave up on this, But I will explain

bleeb.png

This is not for windows, it is a back-up for my game Because I keep testing Mods and the game keeps crashing
 
Well, technically MBR and GPT partitions are treated differently - different partition ID's and functional terminology.
Never tried to move a partition from MBR to GPT - it probably can be done with right software. Also, technically you want to delete partition/volume 2 and move partition 1 to that drive then resize it.

Firstly, why not format / use NTFS (or ReFS, or whatever you want) on drive partition 2? FAT32 will have 4GB file size limits - with today's games that's actually possible to run in to (or movie downloads, etc.).
Secondly, why not just robocopy from one drive to the other? Once the copy is done you can just change the drive letters in Windows and the games / apps should just run...

Or, depending on the games / if using Steam, set up a storage area on partition 2 and make it move the game from one to the other (still recommend using NTFS due to file size limits)?
 
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Google / The Internet is your friend.

learn.microsoft.com

Robocopy

Reference article for the robocopy command, which copies file data from one location to another.
learn.microsoft.com

But a simple example would be (using your picture example), from the command prompt (I recommend using an administrator command prompt to help ensure no file access issues):

robocopy "W:\Games Folder" "E:\OLD Games Folder" /E
OR
robocopy "W:\Games Folder" "E:\OLD Games Folder" /mir

NOTE: You do not need to specify file names to copy - just the drive / folder location.

The difference is the first will copy all files and folders from the source even if empty. The second does the same but will purge anything from the location being copied to - so if copying in to a folder with other contents DO NOT use the /mir flag.
If you run in to issues you may need to also use the /zb option (although it should be unlikely) - be sure to exit and shut off any games related software such as Steam / Epic / GOG / Riot / Blizzard / etc store apps. Don't forget some games (e.g. Valorant) use an anti-cheat client which runs as a system application - usually they will be installed to 'C:\Program Files' so shouldn't be impacted, but you can never be sure so stop them also.

NOTE: Advice taken at own risk - robocopy can remove data from locations. Also be sure and do a small syntax test on a test folder area.
You should set up the destination folder first if you need to apply any folder / sharing permissions on it.

Other options:

just do the whole drive to the other:
robocopy W:\ E:\ /mir

Or mix it up with the whole drive to a folder on E:
robocopy W:\ "E:\OLD Stuff" /E
 
Last edited:
Vincero said:
Google / The Internet is your friend.

learn.microsoft.com

Robocopy

Reference article for the robocopy command, which copies file data from one location to another.
learn.microsoft.com

But a simple example would be (using your picture example), from the command prompt (I recommend using an administrator command prompt to help ensure no file access issues):

robocopy "W:\Games Folder" "E:\OLD Games Folder" /E
OR
robocopy "W:\Games Folder" "E:\OLD Games Folder" /mir

NOTE: You do not need to specify file names to copy - just the drive / folder location.

The difference is the first will copy all files and folders from the source even if empty. The second does the same but will purge anything from the location being copied to - so if copying in to a folder with other contents DO NOT use the /mir flag.
If you run in to issues you may need to also use the /zb option (although it should be unlikely) - be sure to exit and shut off any games related software such as Steam / Epic / GOG / Riot / Blizzard / etc store apps. Don't forget some games (e.g. Valorant) use an anti-cheat client which runs as a system application - usually they will be installed to 'C:\Program Files' so shouldn't be impacted, but you can never be sure so stop them also.

NOTE: Advice taken at own risk - robocopy can remove data from locations. Also be sure and do a small syntax test on a test folder area.
You should set up the destination folder first if you need to apply any folder / sharing permissions on it.

Other options:

just do the whole drive to the other:
robocopy W:\ E:\ /mir

Or mix it up with the whole drive to a folder on E:
robocopy W:\ "E:\OLD Stuff" /E
Click to expand...
It's working thank you so much you are the best

bllol.png
 
Type the following command to copy the updated folder:
```robocopy source destination /MIR /XO`
- "source" is the path of the main folder and "destination" is the path of the destination folder where you want to copy the updated folder.
- The /MIR option ensures that the destination folder is an exact mirror of the source folder, including all subfolders and files.
- The /XO option excludes files in the destination folder that are older than the corresponding files in the source folder. This ensures that only the updated folder is copied and not the entire main folder.

Also ,GUI alternatives like FreeFileSync and Gs Richcopy360 can do this task easily and quickly with just few steps
 
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