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A disk is a separate physical hard drive. This will show you how to convert a GPT (GUID - Globally Unique
Identifer) disk to a MBR (Master Boot Record) disk in Windows Disk Manager or in a command prompt. By
default Windows uses MBR disks.
While all Windows can boot from a MBR disk, you can only boot from a GPT disk if you have a operating
system (see below) that supports GPT and your motherboard has a EFI BIOS and is enabled. Windows 7 and
Vista does support booting from a GPT disk.
Brink
You can still have a separate GPT disk as a data disk if your operating system (see below) supports reading a
GPT disk, even if your system disk that Windows is installed on is still a MBR disk.
Note
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OPTION ONE
Through Disk Management
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1. Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click on the Administrative Tools icon, then close the Control Panel window.
2. Click on Computer Management in Administrative Tools, then close the Administrative Tools window.
3. If prompted by UAC, click on Yes.
4. In the left pane under Storage, click on Disk Management. (See screenshot below)
5. In the disk (ex: Disk 1) that you want to convert to a MBR disk, right click on each partition and volume on the disk and click
on Delete Volume until the whole disk is unallocated space. (See screenshot above)
6. Right click on the disk (ex: Disk 1) that you want to convert to a MBR disk, and click on Convert to MBR Disk if available.
(See screenshot below)
7. You can confirm that the disk is a MBR disk if you right click on the disk and it has Convert to GPT Disk instead now. (See
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7. You can confirm that the disk is a MBR disk if you right click on the disk and it has Convert to GPT Disk instead now. (See
screenshot below)
8. You can now create partitions on the now MBR disk if you like.
9. When done, close Disk Management.
OPTION TWO
Through a Command Prompt
1. Open an elevated command prompt, and go to step 3 below.
OR
2. Open a command prompt at boot, and go to step 3 below.
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3. In the command prompt, type diskpart and press enter. (See screenshot above)
4. Type list disk and press enter.
NOTE: Make note of the disk number (ex: Disk 1) that you want to convert to a MBR disk.
NOTE: Substitute # with the actual disk number that you want to convert to a MBR disk. For example, select disk 1.
NOTE: This is the easiest method. It will wipe the disk clean all at once leaving it as unallocated space afterwards.
A) In the command prompt, type clean and press enter.
B) Go to step 9 below.
NOTE: This method has you manually delete each volume on the disk before converting the disk to MBR.
A) Type detail disk and press enter. If the disk does not have any volumes listed, then you can go to step 8E
below.
NOTE: This will give you a list of all the volume numbers on the selected disk number that you will need to delete
in steps 8B and 8C below.
B) Type select volume # and press enter.
NOTE: Substitute # with a volume number listed in step 8A. For example, select volume 3.
C) Type delete volume and press enter.
D) Repeat steps 8B and 8C for each volume # listed in step 8A until you have deleted all volume #'s.
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#1
nonpasaran
vista
86 posts
My System Specs
.
#2
Brink
Hello Nonpasaran,
Maybe I'm just blind this morning, but could you point out the mistake? I do not see one.
Dixon Butz
Win7 x64 Ultimate,
#3
Good turorial. I somehow manage to have GPT partitons a few years ago. Had to figure out how to convert them.
One question?
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One question?
My System Specs
19 Jul 2010
#4
Brink
Hello Dixon,
No, it would be for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows 7 and Vista.
#5
Dixon Butz
Win7 x64 Ultimate,
Win7 x86 Ultimate
Tri Boot, Windows 8
305 posts
sol
Will it be possible to boot to a >2TB GPT partition with Windows 7 x86? Or even 64?
"But most PC platforms available today cannot boot from such a large partition because GPT requires EFI, rather than
the conventional BIOS."
500GB Per Platter: Three Next-Gen 7,200 RPM Hard Drives : 500GB Per Platter Available At 7,200 RPM
My System Specs
20 Jul 2010
#6
Brink
Dixon,
I have never tried it. I suppose that if you had a EFI BIOS (have not seen one that does) instead of the normal
convential BIOS, you may be able to using GPT.
Ex_Brit
Vista Ult SP2/Win 7
Ult SP1/Win 8.1 Pro
w/MC (all x64)
1,461 posts
Toronto, C anada
#7
A question if I may. My 1TB eSATA external drive is GPT, something I wasn't aware of until I happened to call it up
in Easeus Partition Manager.
I also noticed that there was a small hidden partition at the beginning of the disk and not thinking, I deleted it and
then expanded the main partition to occupy the entire disk.
Since doing that I noticed the machine takes longer to boot up and on reading about GPT I believe I may have wiped
some sort of essential file. Is that correct?
If so I can easily back up what's stored on it and follow this tutorial to change it to MBR....if that might make
Windows happier, re: the boot.
I'm not about to partition the disk into more than 4 in any case, if at all, so there's really no need for GPT.
Thoughts anyone?
My System Specs
30 Dec 2010
Brink
#8
Hello Peter,
It seems that the slowness is coming from deleting that partition. GPT should be just as fast as MBR.
If you haven't done anything else with the deleted partition, I believe you may be able to use Easeus Partition
Manager to recover the deleted partition without data loss on it.
If not, then yes you can backup the contents of the drive to another separate HDD, convert it to MBR, then copy
the data back to fix it.
My System Specs
30 Dec 2010
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#9
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Ex_Brit
Vista Ult SP2/Win 7
Ult SP1/Win 8.1 Pro
w/MC (all x64)
1,461 posts
Toronto, C anada
I wonder what the significance of it was? Does GPT rely on some sort of hidden file?
Easeus says nothing to recover, so maybe I should go ahead and convert it to MBR to make Windows happy?
My System Specs
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