Today let’s dwell on how to install / boot any modern version of Windows (including Windows 7 and Windows 10) on an outdated computer with a BIOS firmware (that does not support the modern ) with a hard disk that use a GPT partition table. The need to perform such a trick has arisen when I tried to install Windows Server 2008 R2 on HP DL380 G8 server (HP DL servers do not support EFI yet) with local disks with a total capacity of more than 4 TB in RAID 5. In a standard Windows installation on an MBR disk, only 2 TB are available in the system.
You cannot allocate or access the remaining 2 TB of the disk space for Windows. The only way to take advantage of all available disk space is to convert disk layout to GPT format. This article describes how to configure Windows to boot from a hard disk that is marked in the GPT partition table on a computer with classic BIOS (non-UEFI) or in the Legacy BIOS mode.
How to install Windows 7 x64 in GPT mode? 'windows cannot be installed to this disk gpt' solved How to install windows 7 x64 bits in the 2nd. Solved Windows 8.1 UEFI install on GPT file.
The Windows operating system can not boot from GPT disks on old BIOS systems. To work around this limitation, we will move the Windows bootloader (BCD) to a separate small USB flash drive (or HDD drive) with the MBR partition table. This flash drive will only be used to start the Windows bootloader, which then must transfer control to the main Windows image located on the disk with GPT partition table. The instruction is universal and should work both in Windows 7 and Windows 10 and in any other supported x86 and x64 Windows editions. Contents:. Advantages GPT over MBR What advantages does GUID Partition Table (GPT), a new format of table partitioning on a hard drives, gives? GPT allows to bypass a number of limitations of the classic MBR Partition Table.
Let’s highlight the major points:. Support for hard drives over 2.2TB (maximum available GPT disk size is 9.4 ZettaBytes (9.4 x 1021 byte));. Support for up to 128 partitions on the disk (only 4 partitions in MBR available);.
High reliability achieved by duplicating the partition table at multiple locations on the disk and verifying the partition table using cyclic redundancy check (CRC). Thus, the disk partition structure will not be lost if the first disk sectors are damaged;. No need to use logical partitions subject to various errors. Booting Windows from a GPT disk According to the official Microsoft documentation, all its OSs starting from Windows Server 2003 SP1 support volumes with GPT markup as the data disks. However, only 64-bit Windows versions installed on motherboards supporting the new UEFI specification (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) are able to boot from a GPT volume. Thus, it will not be possible to install or boot Windows from a GPT disk on older computers with classic BIOS firmware. There are several workarounds that allow you to boot Windows 10 / 7 x64 on the BIOS computer from a GPT disk.
To do it, you have to use a boot disk containing DUET (Developer’s UEFI Environment) emulating EFI. In this configuration, the BIOS starts booting from the installed SYSLINUX, which loads the UEFI emulator (DUET). DUET, in turn, calls the standard Windows bootloader – bootx64.efi. Also, it is possible to convert your disk into hybrid MBR mode (hybrid mbr) with the Linux tool gdisk. However, in both cases the procedure is rather complicated and requires advanced knowledge of Linux. Let’s note an important fact that you always have to keep in mind: it is possible to boot Windows x64 from a GPT disk only on the UEFI-based system.
Thus, if your PC is BIOS-based and you need to have a disk containing a GPT partition table, the easiest way is to add another MBR hard disk (standard or SSD), install Windows on it and then boot from this disk. We’ll try to slightly modify this technique. To do it, we will need a small USB flash drive or an SD card (64 MB at least) with MBR markup, on which small Windows Boot Manager (bootmgr) is placed. This bootable USB flash drive provides initial boot and transfer control to the bootloader of the main system located on the GPT volume. Your BIOS should support boot from a USB flash drive or an SD-card. So, booting of any (both x86 and x64!!!) Windows version in BIOS-based systems (without EFI) is supported. Installing Windows on a GPT disk on a BIOS PC Suppose we have a computer with BIOS (not-UEFI firmware), which hard disk using a new GPT partition table.
When you are trying to install Windows on a GPT drive of such a computer, the Windows Setup returns an error: Windows cannot be installed to this disk the selected disk is of the GPT Partition Style. You can convert a drive partition table from MBR to GPT with all data loss by pressing Shift+F10 on the Windows Setup screen. Run the following commands: Diskpart select disk 0 if there is one hard disk in the system clean clear disk contents convert gpt convert the partition table to GPT In this case, it is possible to install Windows 10 /8.1 / 7 to a GPT disk only in the UEFI mode through UEFI emulation using DUET. But this mode can be used to install only 64-bit Windows versions, and the whole procedure is quite complicated as already mentioned.
Before conversion, we strongly recommend to copy all critical data to the different external drive. Though I have never seen a failure of the gptgen tool that results in the total crash of the file system, I do recommend all users to save important data before partition table conversion. Download gptgen and unpack it to any directory (e. G., c: tools gptgen-1.1). Run the command prompt with the Administrator privileges;.
Run the command: diskpart. Under diskpart, display all drives in the system: list disk In this example, there is one 40 GB disk with 0 index (Disk 0) in the system. As you can see, this disk has a standard MBR partition table (GPT column is empty);.
Convert the partition table of Disk 0 from MBR into GPT using the command gptgen.exe -w. Physicaldrive0 While running the command, you will face a warning that the developers do not guarantee that you will be able to boot from this partition when the conversion to GPT will be finished. 0 at the end of the physicaldrive shows that disk 0 should be converted. Gptgen.exe: Partition table converter v1.1 Boot: 1, Type: 0×7, Start: sector 2048, Length: 204860 sectors Boot: 0, Type: 0×7, Start: sector 206858, Length: 83685636 sectors WARNING: Boot partition(s) found. This tool cannot guarantee that such partitions will remain bootable after conversion.
Do you want to continue? Y/N y Writing primary GPT and protective MBR to LBA address 0 Writing secondary GPT to LBA address 83786657 Success! Thus, the conversion of partition table into GPT has been successful! Moving the Windows Bootloader to the USB Flash Drive Restart the computer and make sure that the BIOS can not boot from the hard disk with the GPT table. Plug in a small USB flash drive or an SD card.
Boot from the Windows installation (DVD/USB) media with (suitable Windows 10 or Windows 7 installation image), and press Shift+F10 on the Windows Setup screen to open the command prompt:. Run the command: diskpart. Display the list of the disks in the system: list disk. Now there are two disks in the system: Disk 0 is a 40 GB hard disk with the OS installed (. in the Gpt column shows that this disk contains the GPT partition table) and Disk 1 is a 1 GB USB flash drive.
Let’s dwell on the disks and assigned letters. Select your HDD: select disk 0 and display the list of volumes on it: list volume According to the size of volumes, you can see that the system is installed on the Volume 2, which has letter D: assigned (it can differ from the letter of the system disk, displayed by Windows itself). Create a partition on the USB flash drive: select disk 1 select a USB flash drive clean clear disk contents create partition primary size=1000 create a main partition on the USB flash drive, 1 GB in our case format fs=fat32 (format the partition in the FAT32 file system. Do not use the NTFS file system for USB flash drive, because the system will not be able to boot from such partition) select partition 1 select the first partition on the USB flash drive active mark it as active list volume display the list of volumes again.
In this example, you can see that the volume that we have created is No. 3 select volume 3 select it assign letter=G assign any free letter to it, e.g., G list volume make sure that the partition on the flash drive is assigned the letter G: exitExit diskpart. Copy the Windows boot environment files from the system volume to the USB flash: bcdboot d: Windows /l en-us /s g:. Write the boot code to the USB flash drive to provide bootmgr (Windows Boot Manager) startup: bootsect /nt60 G: /mbr /force.
Restart. Go to BIOS and change the boot order so that your USB flash drive or SD card come first.
Save the changes. If you have done it right, the system should boot correctly. You can make sure your Windows is located on the GPT drive. Open Disk Manager ( diskmgmt.msc) and select system disk properties. In the Volumes tab, you can see that the type of the partition table is GPT (Partition style – GUID Partition Table). This method of Windows Boot Manager transfer to a separate USB flash drive allows to use all GPT advantages and make use of the whole size of your hard disk (over 2.2 TB) in BIOS-based systems (without UEFI).
This trick can be performed with the following (even x86) Windows versions:. Windows 10 / Windows Server 2016. Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 / 2012 R2. Windows 7, Vista, Windows Server 2008 / 2008 R2. Windows Server 2003 SP1 / 2003 (x64).
Windows XP x64 You also need to understand that every time you turn on / reboot your device, your USB flash drive with the MBR table and the bootloader on it must be plugged into the computer, otherwise Windows will simply not boot. According to the available information, some models of older computers with BIOS cannot work with GPT drives at all, such disks are simply not recognized during CMOS. Yeah, so in Linux, create 2 new partitions formatted as NTFS, one small (100MB) and one for holding Windows itself. Then burn and enter windows setup through normal BIOS. After reaching the point where you have to select “Install Windows” or “repair windows”, choose the second option. Press Shift + F10 which opens a command prompt. Then type diskpart and Enter.
Find the drive letter of the 2 NTFS volumes created above, say G and H. On your DVD (say D:) there will be D: sources install.wim. Use something like to apply the image to H drive. You can also use. Then just follow the rest of the instructions on this blog. I just tried to do a clean Win 10 install on an older machine (BIOS but supposedly UEFI capable) with the same USB I used to install my newer (UEFI) machine but the USB won’t boot at all.
I guess this is the method I will need to use (Although planning to use a secondary hd instead of a flash drive for the boot loader). My question is, will this make the windows install a UEFI install or a legacy install on a GPT disk (Assuming there’s more to a UEFI Windows install than just the partition type?). Anything I need to do during install to make it a UEFI install (after fixing the boot loader)? If your machine is suspected to be UEFI capable, then I recommend you test it out with a GPT drive and windows. An installation by this method is a BIOS install, just that it’s able to boot from GPT Functions like booting into the machine firmware configuration (“BIOS Screen”) directly from within windows require actual UEFI firmware.
Nothing else will be required after fixing the bootloader — Windows can be booted via either the BIOS entry point, or the UEFI entry point. Just the bootloader is the missing part in this BIOS-GPT configuration. What will happen or how can MBR be converted to GPT if has more than one Windows? All windows are 32Bits. I use Grub2 to boot each one and hide system partitiojs of the others (isolating windows systems). I also have a Linux 32 bits on that disk. People need to keep in mind that not all bios firmware are able to deal with a GPT drive.
I have a USB Seagate 4 Tb drive that was GPT from the factory and neither of my two computers would boot with the drive plugged into the USB port. The machines will freeze at the F2 Enter Setup F10 Boot menu screen and the only thing that can be done at that point is to turn the power off and turn it back on. Once I converted the drive to MBR which kills about 2 Tb of drive space, both systems will start and boot into the OS as normal with the drive connected. I’m looking for a BIOS patch to rectify this problem.
Thanks a lot!!!! This tutorial helped me to create GPT partition of Windows10, in order to dualboot Hackintosh and Win from the same SSD drive (no UEFI support on mobo). After following all steps, I’ve got this: – To boot macOS I’m using SSD as bootable device, and its been set up as default boot device, so no action required before booting (Clover bootloader installed on EFI partition) – To boot Win10 I’m using USB flash memory as bootable device (with Win bootloader) and I have to call for bios boot menu every time I want to load Win. I’d like to know if there’s a way to have everything as described, but without having to use USB flash.
I guess bootable usb can be somehow coopied to Clover, in order use Clover boot selection menu to choose between macOS and Win. What do you thing?
I did not have the original OEM ISO but was able to install Windows on my new 4TB drive by making a backup of my old 1TB MBR drive using a windows recovery CD and a backup on my external drive. Once I converted the new 4tb drive to GPT, I could not use the recovery CD to get to the recovery dos commands to make a bootable USB key.
I had to put the old 1TB drive back in, then boot into the recovery CD, then make the USB boot key. Then, I swapped back in the 4TB GPT drive, and it all worked! Now, what is the best way to back up the boot partition? And, should I need to restore it, how can I manage it without the original ISO. Thanks Reply.
Unable to boot an UEFI-based computer from Windows 7 installation DVD? Have you received the error “ Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is not of the GPT partition style” during Windows 7 setup? These problems might happen when you downgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 7 or perform a clean install of Windows 7 on an UEFI/GPT computer.
Many new computers are shipping with the option to boot Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) instead of standard BIOS. Secure Boot is a feature on UEFI-based PCs that helps increase the security of a PC by preventing malware from running during the boot procedure. However, it can also prevent PC owners from installing other operating systems – including Linux and older versions of Windows like Windows 7. So if you’re going to install Windows 7 on UEFI/GPT computer, you need to enable the Legacy boot option and disable Secure Boot. Additionally, you might also need to convert your hard drive from GPT partition style to MBR, because Windows cannot boot from GPT disk in legacy BIOS mode. In this article I’ll walk through how to install Windows 7 on an UEFI/GPT computer.
How to Install Windows 7 on UEFI/GPT Computer?. To start off, you need to enter your computer’s BIOS setup.
Disable the Secure Boot option and enable the Legacy boot mode, not the UEFI mode. Check out this article for detailed instructions:. Put your Windows 7 installation DVD in the CD drive and set your computer’s BIOS to boot from CD. After booted to the DVD, you’ll come to this screen. At this screen press (SHIFT + F10) to open a command prompt window. Run the following commands one by one to convert your hard drive to MBR partition style: diskpart select disk 0 clean convert mbr exit. Close the command prompt window and continue the Windows 7 Setup installation.