Windows 10: Want old Windows HDD with Window 7 Home &new Win10 Home on new compute

MBR is a partitioning type for physical drives (SSD or HDD). It is used on Legacy BIOS systems. GPT is the partitioning type that is used for UEFI systems. You can "run as administrator" command prompt in Windows 7 and run:

diskpart
list disk

If there is asterisk * in the GPT column, then the drive is GPT and will boot in an UEFI computer. If there is no * then the drive will only boot in Legacy BIOS mode. On a UEFI computer, you can boot a Legacy BIOS drive by enabling CSM mode in the UEFI setup.

UEFI is the replacement firmware for BIOS.

In any case (GPT or MBR), Windows 7 does not support secure boot so to boot Windows 7 you must also turn off secure boot in the UEFI setup.

 

I started the laptop and ran as administrator, and typed diskpart. When that showed up I typed listdisk. I got 2 columns. The left column seems to be a list of commands, alphabetized (some of which I recognize from long ago). On the list, I see:

GPT -Assign attributes to the selected GPT partition.

I don't see any * anywhere.

I then typed EXIT and the DOS window closed.

How do I get to UEFI (formerly BIOS)?

This would be on the desktop with no OS other than FreeDOS which I assume is stored on the SSD.

Thank you again! You are helping so much!

 

Did you type listdisk or list disk. The proper command is list disk with a space in between.

Here's a manual that will help you:
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/portal/sit...tte.cachetoken

To get into UEFI setup:

 

Didn't put the space in. Just did and got what is below. I do not know why it says Free 0 B because there are GBs of space free.

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
Disk 0 OnLine 931GB 0 B

Diskpart>

 

It says 0B free because the entire drive is partitioned. There is no unallocated space. There are GBs of free space inside the partition(s), but there is no free space to create a new partition in.

 

I looked at the drive on the laptop. It says:
Local Disk C Total space 973.8GB, used space 530 GB, free 376 (more than I thought)
Recovery D total space 20.3 GB, used space 18.1GB, free space 2.1GB
HP Tools E total space 4.25GB, used 2.88, free 1.07

Under Recovery D, it says:
Recycle Bin
Boot
factory update
HP
preload <<< This is the biggest thing on there - 17.2 GB
recovery
RM_Reserve
System Volume Information