Repartition Secondary Hard Drive (MBR to GPT)

[mattsnowboard]

I have Mavericks setup with Clover as follows:

 

SSD (disk0) "OS X" 128GB with Mavericks install (GPT, HFS+, EFI) 32GB used

HDD (disk1) "Data" 1TB (MBR, HFS+) 83GB used

 

Data also holds the main user directory (I moved it with a guide like http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/relocate-your-home-folder-to-another-drive-or-volume--mac-48822 )

 

And there are a few larger applications installed on Data

 

 

So I want to install Windows 8.1 with EFI onto the Data drive. But I need to change it to GPT instead of MBR. I was trying to resize the Data partition and move it to the end of the disk then use gdisk in a LInux live CD to convert. But when I moved the partition, it got into a bad state and something went wrong. It is no longer aligned with the start of the disk and gparted can no longer move/resize it. The partition works fine from Mac.

 

I'm thinking my best option is to backup everything on Data and then repartition and restore.

 

What's the best way to back everything up without breaking the user account or the installed applications?

 

The /Data/Users directory is 39GB and /Data/Applications is 19GB. The remaining data on that drive is small or redundant so I can probably just worry about these two folders. I'm thinking of doing the following:

1) Boot into recovery and using terminal and "ditto", copy Data/Applications and Data/Users to a temp folder on the SSD

2) Use disk utility in recovery to repartition the drive

3) Use ditto in the recovery terminal to copy the backed up Applications and Users back from the SSD to the Data partition

4) Delete the backup on the SSD and reboot into the Mavericks install, everything should be okay

 

Will that work or is there an easier way?

I have an external drive but wasn't able to save an image from disk utility because that drive is FAT.

[mattsnowboard]

As a follow up, that seemed to work