Windows 10: How to make active@boot disk bootable on uefi/gpt?

On MCT, should I select 'USB flash drive' or 'ISO file' for my bootable USB drive?

My ASUS motherboard supports UEFI, but my HDD is just 500 GB, so I don't see why I should use GPT, as I have been using MBR happily for years.

 

I choose Iso file, so you can create the usb stick or a dvd whenever you want, and you now have the Iso file permanently.

It`s so much easier to let Rufus create either type of installer.

I use MBR too, I`ve seen no benefit to using UEFI on a boot drive, and I like 1 single partition.

 

I have a Windows partition and a data partition, so all personal files will remain there after clean installation.

 

If ya only have 1 drive then that`s all ya can do *Smile

 

The bootsect commands are not required to make a USB flash drive bootable under legacy BIOS either:

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...(v=ws.11).aspx

 

But your link says nothing about legacy BIOS. How do you know it applies to legacy BIOS?
I think post #7 in this thread already illustrates the following:

 

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/...(v=ws.11).aspx

Read the important note under step 9. The procedure is written for legacy BIOS, and if the computer has UEFI, than the important note under step 9 says to format it as FAT32 instead of NTFS to make it UEFI compatible. The procedure is obviously meant for legacy BIOS because regular step 9 without the note has you format the flash drive as NTFS which is NOT UEFI compatible.

And I have several bootable USB flash drives that boot on legacy BIOS created with that exact procedure and not used the bootsect command on any of them. The bootsect command is only required to make HDDs and SSDs bootable. They are all formatted as FAT32 so they will also boot under UEFI.

 

If I use AOMEI Partition Assistant to convert MBR to GPT, will the HDD data be erased?
Having read post #28. I am considering whether to go over to UEFI.

 

It should keep your data. Are you wanting to convert a bootable drive, or just a drive with a data partition? If you are wanting to convert a drive that already has a bootable install of Windows on it, then you also need to establish an EFI system partition on it after the conversion to make it bootable under UEFI.

 

1. My MBR HDD has a bootable install of Windows on partition C and a data partition on D.
2. My AOMEI Partition Assistant can convert MBR to GPT (but I never tried that before).
3. I have just created a bootable USB drive.
4. Allegedly, Redstone 2 will be released next month.

Assuming I want to use the USB drive to clean install Redstone 2 in the UEFI mode without data loss on partition D, what should I do?

 

When the ISO file is available for the Creator's Update in April, make a new bootable USB flash drive of Windows 10 using the new ISO file.

Replace the \Sources\boot.wim file on the new Windows 10 flash drive with the \Sources\boot.wim file from Kyhi's recovery tools:
Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk

Boot from the modified Windows 10 USB flash drive which should now boot into Kyhi's recovery tools. Use AEOMI Partition Assistant to delete all the partitions on the hard drive except for your data partition. If your data partition is not at the far right end of the drive, move it to the far right end and adjust it's size if you want to change the size. After those operations you should have an unallocated space at the front of the drive followed by your data partition at the end of the drive.

Then convert the drive to GPT using partition assistant.

Then start setup.exe on the USB flas drive from file manager in Kyhi's Recovery tools to launch Windows setup. Select the unallocated space on the hard drive and click next to let Windows set up the rest of the drive and install Windows.

 

1. Boot from the HDD containing installed Windows and use AEOMI to covert MBR to GPT. Shut down Windows.
2. Boot from the USB drive containing Windows setup files in the UEFI mode.
3. Clean install Windows.

Does that work?

I just found that someone had lost all the data after converting MBR to GPT using AEOMI.
See How to Convert GPT to MBR or Convert MBR to GPT without Losing Data?
Scroll down to Muh Wahyudgi's post.

 

No. You would be trying to convert a system drive to GPT and most programs (including AEOMI, I believe) won't let you convert a system drive to GPT. You have to do the conversion when booted from another drive other than the one you want to convert.

Who knows how he lost his data. I doubt it was only from converting from MBR to GPT. It's always a good idea to have a backup of data before doing anything major to the drive it is on.

 

Do you think the following works in my case? I have a Linux live DVD containing GParted.
How to convert MBR partition table to GPT without data loss

 

I used Partition Wizard to convert all my data drives from MBR to GPT and had no issues.