How can I quickly copy a GPT partition scheme from one hard drive to another?

Question

On a non GPT partition table I can do

sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk /dev/sdb.

But sfdisk doesn't support GPT partition tables. What can I use instead?

I'm looking for a one or two command solution, not just using GNU parted to output the partition sizes and then manually making them again.

Answer 1

Install gdisk which is available in the Ubuntu Universe repositories.

Then use the sgdisk command (man page here) to replicate the partition table:

sgdisk /dev/sdX -R /dev/sdY 
sgdisk -G /dev/sdY

The first command copies the partition table of sdX to sdY (be careful not to mix these up). The second command randomizes the GUID on the disk and all the partitions. This is only necessary if the disks are to be used in the same machine, otherwise it's unnecessary.

Answer 2

I tried and it didn't work for me. The solution that I found is:

sgdisk --backup=table /dev/sda
sgdisk --load-backup=table /dev/sdb
sgdisk -G /dev/sdb

Answer 3

dd if=/dev/sda of=GPT_TABLE bs=1 count=A
dd if=GPT_TABLE of=/dev/sdb bs=1 count=A
partprobe /dev/sdb

where A is:

A=(128*B)+1024
B=parted -ms /dev/sda print |tail -1|cut -b1

Answer 4

I just tried replication with sgdisk and it works just fine - you just have to follow readline syntax rules:

   sgdisk --replicate=/dev/target /dev/source

or

   sgdisk -R/dev/target /dev/source

and everything works.

Answer 5

The manpage of sfdisk says:

Since version 2.26 sfdisk supports MBR (DOS), GPT, SUN and SGI disk labels

So

sudo sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sudo  sfdisk /dev/sdb

will work with sfdisk version 2.26 and higher.