bug#38783: GPT case that parted can't handle

[Jason Mancini]

Install Windows to a 1TB drive but only partition the first 63GB.  Most of the disk is empty.

Clone the first 63GB to a 512GB drive.  This misses the trailing GPT table.  Windows will boot and run fine.  Windows Disk Management is happy.

But no Linux partitioning tool will touch this disk, or see any partitions.  I suspect they all die on the first table's pointer-to-backup that goes past the end of the disk.

The situation is easy to correct from within Windows, simply add and delete a partition without assigning a drive letter or formatting.  It rewrites both tables correctly.  But this is dependent on having free space to add a partition.  And dependent on booting Windows.

Can we improve things on the non-Windows side of the tools?  There seems to be no tool that can be manually directed to only use the first or second table.

Thanks!

Jason Mancini