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  1. Using Clonezilla on a thumb drive to create a system image, in order to clone disks from it;
  2. Clonezilla threw an error: "mismatched GPT and MBR partition" and refused to proceed;
  3. Searched SuperUser for an answer on how to proceed, found Clonezilla fails at cloning with mismatched GPT and MBR partition ;
  4. Trusted the reply there, that I should remove the GPT partition to end the conflict;
  5. Did it, only to find that the disk is now unbootable. Can't enter Windows 10 nor Ubuntu 22.04. There is only a blinking cursor on the screen, no error message, and the disk read LED blinks once very quickly and turns off.

How to fix this disk in order to be able to retry cloning it? Cloning an unbootable disk is useless.

Byt using Clonezilla shell (Linux) I could gather this information:

cat /proc/partitions:

major minor #blocks     name
8        0  468851544   sda
8        1      51200   sda1
8        2  156231680   sda2
8        3  156282880   sda3
8        4  156283203   sda4
8       16    7818152   sdb
8       17    7817128   sdb1
7        0     273516   loop0

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda:

Disk /dev/sda                   : 447.13GiB, 480103981056 bytes, 937703088 sectors
Disk model                      : ADATA SU630
Units                           : sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical)  : 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal)      : 512 bytes/ 512 bytes
Disklabel type                  : dos
Disk identifier                 : 0xa890d888

sudo parted -l:

Model                           : ATA ADATA SU630 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda                   : 480GB
Sector size (logical/physical)  : 512B/512B
Partition table                 : msdos
Disk Flags                      :

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags 1 1049kB 53.5MB 52.4MB primary ntfs boot 2 53.5MB 160GB 160GB primary ntfs 3 160GB 320GB 160GB primary ntfs 4 320GB 480GB 160GB primary ext4

sudo gdisk -l /dev/sda:

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.8

Partition table scan: MBR: MBR only BSD: not present APM: not present GPT: not present


Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format in memory.


Disk : /dev/sda: 937703088 sectors, 447.1 GiB Model : ADATA SU630 Sector size (logical/physical) : 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier (GUID) : BC24557A-DABA-41A5-BAF3-318AA6D37C5C Partition table holds up to : 128 entries Main partition table begins at : sector 2 Main partition table begins at : ends at sector 33 First usable sector is : 34 Last usable sector is : 937703054 Partitions will be aligned on : 2048-sector boundaries Total free space is : 5094 sectors (2.5MiB)

Number Start (sector) End (sector) Size Code Name 1 2048 104447 50.0MiB 0700 Microsoft basic data 2 104448 312567807 149.0GiB 0700 Microsoft basic data 3 312567808 625133567 149.0GiB 0700 Microsoft basic data 4 625133568 937699974 149.0GiB 8300 Linux file system

2 Answers2

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Reinstalling GRUB did fix the boot problem:

  1. Open the live version of Ubuntu (either burn the LiveCD or install the image to a bootable USB device using Startup Disk Creator);
  2. Open terminal and run sudo fdisk -l to see where Linux is installed on;
  3. Run sudo mount /dev/sdxY /mnt where x is altter and Y a number you have found in the previous step;
  4. Run sudo grub-install --root-directory=/mnt /dev/sdx to install grub;
  5. Run sudo update-grub to update grub;
  6. Run sudo shutdown -r now to reboot.

Source: How do I reinstall grub2? [duplicate]. Black Block @ Ask Ubuntu. November 26, 2011.

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update-grub will not work on modern UEFI systems w/ TPM 2.0. It will return a "Unable to set EFI" error. Furthermore, even attempting to re-install Ubuntu from a live USB seems to still be unable to fix the boot sector, and the drive is pretty much bricked. At least in my experience on a MSI B660a & i9 12900K