Windows 10: Windows 10 install reverts a GPT disk back to MBR

Having been frightened into ditching Windows 7 for Windows 10, I decided to buy a Western Digital 1TB SSD and perform a clean install of Windows 10 Pro using the MS Media Creation Tool onto a USB drive. I assumed that, as I was using a virgin SSD, Windows would default to creating a GPT disk. I ended up with a MBR disk. After some research I was convinced that GPT, being more modern, was a better bet. I therefore used Diskpart to clean the disk and convert to GPT. Using the List function I confirmed that the SSD was now a GPT disk. Having reinstalled W10 I find that Windows has converted my drive back to MBR before installing. My motherboard is about 6 years old but working fine. Using F2 on startup I get to the UEFI setup utility so it is a UEFI board. There is no option of choosing legacy or UEFI booting but a slightly confusing set of options including UEFI: TSSTcorp CDDVDW or AHCI P1: TSSTcorp CDDVDW (though I only have 1 DVD drive). The SSD is marked as AHCI P4: WDC etc.
I read somewhere else on this forum that Windows will create a MBR or GPT drive depending on what type of drive the installation software is booted from. I also read that you cannot make a USB pen drive GPT which seems to imply that it is impossible to use GPT if you insall from a USB drive. So, I have two questions: How can I get Windows to install onto a GPT drive and, secondly, is it really worth all the bother?
Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks, Phil

:)

 

GPT vs MBR for SSD OS Disk ? (win7 install)

So

I've got a new PC coming and this time it's the first time I will be using UEFI, i have read all the big stuff but I don't have the hardware yet so It's still kind of half baked but I'll do dig deep into it once I start building in the coming days.

I've read the win7 install guides, MS GPT FAQs (not fully yet), etc,

But I wish to know if:

I can use UEFI as an upgraded bios without having to use GPT disk format?

GPT disks can have any sort of partition cloning for full operational OS backup ?

Will GPT format improve performance on SDD or improve reliability in terms of data integrity or error rate?

When isntalling win7 with MBR but using UEFI, will it work normally without needing to uefi-boot the window7 install?


If I cannot backup my OS in a 100% clone that will boot normally when recovered, i will probably not use GPT, that shit is a step backward.

 

GPT vs MBR for SSD OS Disk ? (win7 install)

If I have UEFI BIOS, I'm going to use GPT. Only reason why I wouldn't is because the drive is shared between new and old computers (MBR has broader compatibility support). I wrote a guide how to install Windows on GPT here:
Installing Windows Vista/7 on a GUID Partition Table

No. Either you install on GPT via EFI boot or you intall MBR via BIOS boot. You can't install Windows and change it later.


Not only does GPT support booting to partitions larger than 2 TB, it also means the computer is booted using EFI which means it has a lot more memory to work with during startup. It should theoretically mean startup is quicker on EFI/GPT than BIOS/MBR.

 

GPT vs MBR for SSD OS Disk ? (win7 install)

I do not understand.

GPT is designed almost exclusively to allow huge arrays. The genesis of windows useable GPT drives goes back to Windows XP x64.

UEFI does not require GPT to boot. UEFI is the BIOS, functionally. It runs before any disk is touched.

As far as booting, stick with MBR on your SSD. There is no 2TB+ SSD on the market, and you're unlikely to have a RAID 0 array that large. Windows 7 defaults to MBR, for so many good reasons it isn't funny.


I haven't the slightest idea about where you linked UEFI and GPT. If you've got a large array as your boot drive you might have to cross this bridge, but given the difficulty I'd stay as far away from it as possible. MBR isn't old, it's still the primary windows drive formatting for a darn good reason.