Have you purchased a new hard drive but cannot access all of its disk space? Is it limited to only 2TB? Maybe you have a complex operating system installation and need to divide your hard drive into more than four active partitions? You probably need to convert MBR to GPT on your disk. Show
Not a reader? Watch this related video tutorial! Not seeing the video? Make sure your ad blocker is disabled. In this tutorial, you will learn the difference between MBR & GPT partition table schemes and how to convert MBR to GPT. You’ll also learn how to take the next step to actually get Windows to recognize that GPT disk by switching your BIOS to UEFI.
Prerequisites
What Is a Partition Table Scheme?A partition table forms a low-level structure at the firmware level in your hard drive. The storage the hard drives to then has to be presented to an operating system before a disk can be formatted and made ready for data. By default, every hard drive has at least one partition table scheme called Master Boot Record (MBR), but now there’s a new partition table scheme called GPT (GUID Partition Table) with updated and unique features. Identifying Whether Your Drive Is MBR or GPT?Before making any changes to your hard drive, you first need to know which partition table scheme you’re using. So let’s start this tutorial by first covering how to identify which type is already in use. 1. Open the Disk Management tool. You should see a list of all partitions currently set up that Windows recognizes. 2. Right click on Disk 0 and select Properties to open the volume window. Open Disk Management to view the disk properties 3. Click on the Volume tab. Here you’ll see the Partition style. The tutorial’s example volume below has a Master Boot Record (MBR) partition style which indicates the partition table scheme. Review the Partition Style in the disk properties window
Converting MBR to GPT in the GUINow that you have identified which partition table scheme you have, let’s now go over how to convert an MBR partition scheme to GPT via the Disk Management GUI. With the Disk Management GUI, to convert MBR to GPT is a single action. Right click on the disk you’d like to convert and click on Convert to GPT Disk. Convert to GPT Disk in Disk Management Converting MBR to GPT via DiskpartIf the GUI isn’t your thing or you’d like to implement an MBR to GPT conversion in a script perhaps, the command line is your friend. Let’s start out the command line how-tos by covering how to perform the conversion with the Diskpart tool. 1. Open a command prompt as administrator. 2. Type 3. Enter the command 4.
Type 5. Now, type 6. Type
Converting MBR to GPT using MBR2GPTNext up in the command-line lineup for performing partition scheme conversion is the MBT2GPT utility! This innocent-looking utility can punch above its weight when it comes to converting partition table schemes. It’s secret weapon? It converts the partition table without damaging the data that is already on the disk. mbr2gpt available commands
To use the MBR2GPT utility to convert a disk: 1. Open Windows PowerShell as an administrator. 2. Find the disk number to convert. Find the disk number using the Disk Management GUI or the diskpart utility as shown earlier.
3. Run the conversion command but run validation conversion first. The
command below should convert the disk number 0 to GPT using the Since the tutorial used the
Once you’ve confirmed the conversion can take place, now remove the mbr2gpt convert MBR to GPTBIOS to EFI Using Windows settingsEven though you now have a GPT disk, Windows cannot take advantage of it. To allow Windows to use a GPT disk, you must “upgrade” your computer’s BIOS to UEFI.
1. Open the Update & Security applet by clicking on Start —> Settings —> Update & Security. 2. In the Update & Security applet, click on Recovery to access the Advanced Recovery Options screen. Control Panel – Windows Update & Security window3. Click the Restart Now button to restart the PC into safe mode. Windows 10 will immediately restart. Control Panel – Recovery window4. After a reboot, you’ll enter safe mode. From here, click on Troubleshoot. 5. In the Troubleshoot window, click on Advanced options. Menu – Advanced Options6. Now, click on UEFI Firmware settings in the Advanced options window. Menu – UEFI Firmware Settings7. On the UEFI Firmware Settings screen, click on the Restart button to restart the computer and start the firmware change. Menu – UEFI Firmware Settings windowOnce complete, your PC will then boot into Windows again and you will have all of the benefits that come with UEFI such as faster start-up, shutdown, sleep, and resume. You’ll also get the benefit of Secure Boot, Device Guard, and Credential Guard.
ConclusionThis tutorial has taken you from using 1970’s technology to the 21st century by converting your MBR disks to GPT and upgrading your legacy BIOS to modern UEFI. You’ve learned three different ways to convert your hard disks to a modern standard that’ll satisfy even the most demanding of you out there. So now that your PC is running the latest and greatest technology, how do you plan on using your newfound knowledge? Is it worth converting MBR to GPT?The main difference between MBR and GPT is that MBR has some limitations for modern usage. Namely, MBR can only handle four primary partitions and 2TB of drive space. GPT has no partition limit, so you can have ten partitions if you want and up to 9400000000 TB of SSD/HDD space.
Will I lose data if I convert to GPT?For a long time, converting from an MBR drive to a GPT drive meant wiping the drive as part of the conversion process. But now, there are two tools you can use to safely convert from MBR to GPT without any data loss. Note: There is no going back unless you wipe your drive. MBR to GPT is a one-way transformation.
How do I change from MBR to GPT without losing data?With the help of the AOMEI Partition Assistant, it is quite easy to change a disk from MBR to GPT, or GPT to MBR without losing any data. To convert MBR to GPT without losing data on Server 2012/2016/2019, you need to turn to the Server Edition, which designs for both Server and Windows OS.
What happens if I convert GPT to MBR?convert mbr
Converts an empty basic disk with the GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition style to a basic disk with the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition style.
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