[2021] Three Ways to Convert MBR to GPT Disk on Windows 10

"What's the best way to convert the drive without losing data in my other partitions (that weren't formatted)?"

Have you been bombarded with an array of "MBR to GPT" information on the search page? In this article, we'll cut through solutions to convert MBR to GPT in 3 methods, together with a third-party partition tool, disk management, and diskpart.

If you choose the Windows built-in tool, both two tools need to delete existing disk volumes. For avoiding data loss, trust us, you can choose the better one, Qiling Partition Master, to change partition style in 3 easy steps.

PAGE CONTENT:

When Do You Need to Convert MBR to GPT
Method 1. Change MBR to GPT with Reliable Partition Tool (Recommended)
Method 2. Convert MBR to GPT Disk with Disk Management
Method 3. Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk Using DiskPart

When Do You Need to Convert MBR to GPT

Both MBR and GPT are the partition styles of Windows. Briefly speaking, the partition style is used to tell Windows how to access the data on the disk. Generally, you can use your disk smoothly regardless of what the partition style is. But there do exist some situations in which you need to convert MBR to GPT or vice versa:

You want more partitions on your hard drive

MBR disks support only four partition table entries. That is to say, it only allows users to create four primary partitions at most. If more partitions are wanted, a secondary structure known as an extended partition is necessary.

Your hard drive is larger than 2TB

GPT (GUID Partition Table) is more robust and allows for volumes bigger than 2TB. Thus, if your hard drive is over 2TB, you may prefer the GPT partition style in order to fully use the disk space. (If the disk over 2TB uses the traditional MBR partitioning method, you can only use 2TB of storage at most.)

You want to perform system clone

As you may know, MBR and GPT disks use different boot mode. (MBR disks support BIOS and GPT disks support UEFI mode.) When you want to clone Windows or migrate OS, you need to make sure both the source disk and the target disk have the same partition style to ensure you can boot your computer from the target disk smoothly.

3 Ways to Convert MBR to GPT Without Data Loss in Windows 10

As mentioned, there are three ways you can apply to convert an MBR disk to GPT disk, including using Disk Management, DiskPart command, or third-party software.

Method 1. Change MBR to GPT with Reliable Partition Tool (Recommended)

If you use the Windows built-in utilities, be it Disk Management or diskPart, to convert your MBR disk to GPT disk, you need to delete all the existing volume on your hard drive. Thus, if you want to convert MBR to GPT disk without losing data, you need to back up the whole disk in advance, which could be time-consuming since a disk always stores gigabytes of files.

Given that, you are recommended to try the trustworthy partition tool - Qiling Partition Master. This software will help you convert an MBR disk to a GPT disk directly without losing data. With Qiling Partition Master, you don't need to delete the disk volumes as using Disk Management or DiskPart. All you need to do is to select the disk and choose "Convert to GPT".

Important

If your disk is a data drive, you can convert it from MBR to GPT directly. However, if it's a system disk, make sure your operating system and motherboard are supported to boot from UEFI mode before converting the disk to GPT since the system GPT disk can only be booted from UEFI mode.

Free Download

To convert MBR to GPT:

Step 1. Download and launch Qiling Partition Master on your Windows computer.

Step 2. Click the MBR disk that you want to convert.

Step 3. Click "More..." and click "MBR -> GPT" to convert partition.

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MBR to GPT: How to Convert MBR to GPT in Windows 10/8/7 [2021 New]

Are you looking for a reliable way to convert MBR to GPT in Windows 10/8/7? Here, you'll get three practical ways to change MBR to GPT, removing 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table' error on your own.

Method 2. Convert MBR to GPT Disk with Disk Management

You need to delete all the volumes on your hard drive before the conversion, or you will see the "Convert to GPT Disk" is greyed out in Disk Management. Thus, if you have files existing on the disk you want to convert, back up all the files at the very beginning. Generally, you can back up a disk by copying files and folders manually, which will undoubtedly take a long time. If you want to make a backup effectively, you can use the free backup software - Qiling Backup, which is much faster than copying and pasting files.

After you keep your data safe, you can now follow the steps below to convert your MBR disk to GPT disk in Disk Mangement.

Step 1. Right-click on "This PC", choose "Manage", then head to "Disk Management".

Step 2. Right-click the volumes on your target disk and choose "Delete Volume..." (If you accidentally deleted a volume in Disk Management, you can recover the partition and the files on it referring to the linked article.

Step 3. When your disk becomes empty (shows as unallocated space), right-click your disk and choose "Convert to GPT Disk".

Now you have successfully converted the MBR disk to GPT disk. In order to use the hard drive for data storage, you need to create new volumes on the disk. (If you use the Qiling partition tool, you don't need to perform these operations. Instead, you can use it directly after the conversion.)

Step 1. Right-click the unallocated space and choose "Create New Simple Volume..."

Step 2. Then you will see the "New Simple Volume Wizard" dialog box, click "Next" to continue.

Step 3. Follow the wizard to specify volume size, assign drive letter or path, and format the partition. Afterward, a new simple volume will be created. You can repeat the process to create more partitions on the disk.

Step 4. You can copy the files you have backed up back to your disk according to your needs.

Method 3. Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk Using DiskPart

DiskPart is a command-line utility in Windows that can be used to manage disk or disk partitions. Thus, you can also apply this tool to convert MBR to GPT disk. However, like using Disk Management, you are also required to delete the volumes on the disk before the conversion, which means data backup is also necessary if you prefer this method.

Step 1. Click the "Start" button and type cmd.

Step 2. Right-click "Command Prompt" and choose "Run as administrator".

Step 3. When you see a dialog box asking you for permission, click "Yes".

Step 4. Enter the following commands one by one to delete the volumes on the disk:

diskpart
list disk
select disk 1
clean

If you mistakenly cleaned a partition, you can undo DiskPart clean to retrieve your files.

Step 5. After deleting the partitions on your disk, you can now convert MBR to GPT:

list disk
select disk 1
convert gpt
exit

The Bottom Line

Actually, the biggest difference between using the Windows built-in utilities and third-party software is whether to delete the disk volumes. As you can see from the details above, using Qiling partition software, which can serve as an MBR to GPT converter, is the easiest way to change an MBR disk to a GPT disk. Besides, the tool can also help you clone disks, merge partitions, shrink partitions, migrate OS... If you want to convert a system disk from MBR to GPT, using a convenient tool is recommended.