Windows 10: changing a disk drive from mbr to gpt

If you have Windows 10 loaded on an MBR disk drive can that drive be changed to a GPT disk drive?

:)

 

clone MBR HD to bootable GPT partition?

Hi,

1. You cannot convert mbr to gpt without data loss. otherwise, you can follow directions here:

FROM WINDOWS RECOVERY CONSOLE:

To change a master boot record disk into a GUID partition table disk using a command line

• 
  Back up or move the data on the basic master boot record (MBR) disk you want to convert into a GUID partition table (GPT) disk.
  
• 
  Open an elevated command prompt (right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator) and type diskpart. If the disk does not contain any partitions or volumes, skip to step 6.
  
• 
  At the DISKPART prompt, type list disk. Make note of the disk number you want to convert.
  
• 
  At the DISKPART prompt, type select disk <disknumber>.
  
• 
  At the DISKPART prompt, type clean.
  

2. I'd suggest converting your vista drive to a virtual machine, load that up on your windows 10 system and use a program like virtualbox to run it.

 

Convert only one partition on the disk from MBR to GPT

Step 2
Convert MBR to GPT without data loss

 

Converting a MBR disk to a GPT disk

When installing Windows I was asked which drive to install it on and selected the 3TB drive, whereupon it stated it couldn't install it on there as it had a MBR and needed a GPT drive.

-> OK, with such a large disk you must use the GPT partitioning scheme.

I then tried converting it to a GPT drive using diskpart etc through the Cmd prompt with Admin privileges. But when I got to selecting the disk it told me I couldn't select it because it had a Paging
File.

-> I am not surprised.

Went online to get MS Technician to help me and he said go into the BIOS, press Ctrl-Shift-Delete keys and then Diskpart etc to convert the disk to GPT.

-> What he probably said is that you need to set the "BIOS boot mode" to UEFI.

The Windows installation process gives you the option of partitioning and formatting your disk. It probably lets you choose the partitioning scheme too, MBR or GPT. I do not know for sure since I do not
have a disk > 2 TBytes that I could test. If not then you can do this:

• Boot the machine with your installation medium.
• Select Repair Mode, then the Command Prompt.
• Use diskpart.exe to partition & format the disk.
• Install Windows.

You might ask yourself if you really want a 3 TByte System Partition. I would go for a 100 GByte System partition and a 2.9 TByte data partition.