How to Install Windows 11/10 on GPT Partition in 2021 - Qiling  

How to Install Windows 11/10 on GPT Partition in 2021

Quick Guide to Install Windows 11/10 on GPT:

1. Connect a Windows 10 USB to your PC and boot the PC.

2. Boot the system into the BIOS (for example, using F2 or the Delete key)

3. Locate the Boot Options Menu.

4. Set Launch CSM to Enabled.

5. Set Boot Device Control to UEFI Only.

6. Set Boot from Storage Devices to UEFI driver first.

7. Save your changes and restart the system.

8. Reboot the system and install Windows 10 on GPT.

Are you looking for an efficient way to install Windows 10 on GPT disk without any issues? Check out the quick navigation, and follow tutorials below in each part, you'll successfully install Windows 10 on GPT partition on your own:

Workable Solutions Step-by-step Troubleshooting
Part 1. Prepare GPT Disk for Windows Installation Confirm computer supports UEFI boot mode > Prepare GPT disk ready for Windows 11 installation...Full steps
Part 2. Install Windows 10/11 on GPT Disk

Step 1. Connect Windows installation USB to PC and reboot it into BIOS;

Step 2. Set PC boot from USB and install Windows 10 on GPT...Full steps
Part 3. Protect GPT Partition Data Create a regular backup of vital data > Execute operation carefully > Clean up virus...Full steps

Can I Install Windows 10 on GPT Partition?

Don't worry if you are having the following problems while trying to install Windows 10 on a GPT disk:

Case 1 - Your computer reports that it can't install Windows 10 on GPT partition with the error message "Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style".

Case 2- "I have upgraded from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10, and now I wish to do a clean install. Then I burnt Windows 10 to a disk. When I was trying to do it, I get a problem with an error message 'Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.' Is there any way to fix the issue and install Windows 10 on GPT partition with success?"

The reason why you get this error is that your PC is booted in UEFI mode, but your hard drive is not configured for UEFI mode. On the following, we'll cover the complete process for you to follow and install Windows 10 on GPT disk without losing any data. No error message like "Windows cannot be installed" error will be prompted.

Let's get started to install Windows 10 on your computer now.

Part 1. Prepare GPT Disk for Windows Installation

Applies to: Prepare GPT disk for Windows 10 installation.

To obtain a successful Windows 10 installation process, here are two things that you need to get them done in advance:

#1. Confirm Computer Supports UEFI Boot Mode

Note that if the motherboard of your computer doesn't support UEFI, it only supports BIOS. It won't allow you to install Windows 10 on a GPT partition.

Therefore, you should first check out and confirm if your computer supports UEFI boot mode:

If the motherboard only supports Legacy BIOS boot mode, we are sorry that you have to stop here. As your computer doesn't support UEFI boot mode, you can't install Windows 10 on GPT disk which requires UEFI boot mode.

If you see the UEFI boot option in BIOS as shown below, exit BIOS. And you can continue with the following steps.

Also read: Fix UEFI Boot Errors in Windows 10/8/7

#2. Prepare GPT Disk for Windows 10 Installation

It's vitally important that you make the target disk ready before installing Windows 10 to a GPT partition. Here are the tips that you can follow to make the disk ready:

As the way to set a disk ready varies, we suggest you follow the right way to configure your disk based on your own needs.

# For a New Disk - Initialize to GPT

1. Install the new disk to your computer. You may refer to How to Install a New HDD/SSD for help.

2. Configure and initialize your disk to GPT

If you are an experienced user, you can directly open Disk Management and initialize the disk to GPT.

If you have 0 experience in disk management, we suggest you download reliable partition manager software - Qiling Partition Master and follow the steps here to initialize your new disk to GPT:

Step 1. Open Qiling Partition Master. Connect the hard drive or SSD to PC.

Step 2. Select the target HDD or SSD in the "Disk management" page and click "Create" or "Initialize to GPT" accordingly.

Step 3. Tick "MBR" or "GPT" for disk type accordingly. Click "Proceed".

# For an Old Disk - Convert Disk to GPT, Backup Data

1. Convert Disk to GPT

If your disk is with the MBR partition style, you need to convert it to GPT disk. And Qiling Partition Master can directly convert MBR disk to GPT disk without data loss.

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

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

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

2. Backup Vital Data

If you have vital data saved on the old drive, we suggest you back up the data to another disk or an external hard drive first.

3. Format GPT Partition

It's suggested that you format the used target GPT partition (with at least 20GB capacity) in advance so as to install Windows 10 on it.

If you don't format the GPT partition, all files on the partition will be reserved, which will take huge space on your system C drive. It's obviously not a smart choice.

After that, you can now move to Part 2 on this page and start installing Windows 10 on the GPT disk.

Part 2. How to Install Windows 11/10 on GPT Partition

Applies to: Guide you install Windows 10 on GPT disk partition.

Things could be easier if you already have Windows 7 or 8.1 installed, you can directly upgrade to Windows 10.

But if you are looking for a to installing or reinstall a fresh version of Windows 10 on a GPT partition, you are in the right place. Follow the steps below to learn how to install Windows 10 on a GPT partition:

Step 1. Create a Windows 10 installation media on an empty USB (min 8GB).

Tip

You need to prepare:

(1). An empty USB (8GB min)

(2). Download Windows 10 ISO file

(3). Get a Windows product key (activate after the installation) before you start the steps.

Step 2. Connect the Windows 10 installation USB to your PC and boot the system into BIOS.

Restart PC and press the Esc, F2, F8, F12, Del, or another key to enter the BIOS boot menu.

Step 3. Locate the boot options menu and enable the UEFI mode.

Step 4. Set the USB UEFI OS Boot option is at the top of the Boot Priority List.

Step 5. Save your changes and restart the system to start installing Windows 10 on the GPT disk.

1. Choose which media to use - USB flash drive.

2. Click "Install Now", then set the language and other preferences.

3. Skip entering a product key and select "Install Windows only".

Select to install Windows 10 to the GPT partition, wait for the process to complete.

4. Your computer may restart several times during this process. And the installation may take several minutes, about half an hour or more, just wait patiently.

Step 6. When you complete the installation, reboot the PC and enter BIOS.

Set the computer to boot from the new GPT disk with Windows 10. Save the changes and restart the PC.

Step 7. Confirm that Windows 10 is installed on a GPT partition.

After Windows 10 finally boots up, you can now check up if Windows 10 is installed on your GPT disk partition by following tips here:

Step 8. Activate Windows 10 with Product Key

After the Windows installed, you'll be asked to activate it with your product key.

Go to Settings > Update & Security > Activation > Enter a product key to enjoy full features of Windows 10 on your PC:

After this, you can enjoy all the full features in Windows 10 on your computer. It will make your life and work easy and enjoyable.

Part 3. How to Protect Your GPT Partition Data (Extra Tips)

If you have data on your GPT partition, this part would do you a great favor. Here's a list of tips that you can follow to protect your data efficiently:

1. Create a regular backup of vital data

If you often make changes to your disk data, it's important that you create a regular backup of vital data on your GPT disk partition.

To ease your burden, you can try free back up software - Qiling Backup Free to create a full back up your data every day by creating an automatic backup plan.

Refer to: Schedule Backup Software for Automatic Backup

2. Delete files, format drive partitions, wipe a disk with awareness

It's essential that you should always be careful with operations that will remove data and files on your computer. For example, you need to make sure that you don't delete wrong files, format a false storage device, or wipe a wrong hard drive or partition.

3. Run antivirus software to clean up virus, malware regularly

As we know that viruses or malware infection may cause unexpected data loss issues on your storage devices, like GPT disk partition. We suggest you always install reliable antivirus software to scan and clean up your computer and devices regularly.

Conclusion

On this page, we included the whole process to guide you to install Windows 10 on a GPT disk partition. To complete the whole process, you need to execute the following operations:

#1. Prepare GPT Disk

#2. Download Windows 10 ISO and Create Windows Installation Media to USB

#3. Configure PC Boot Mode to UEFI, and Boot from USB

#4. Start and Finish Installing Windows 10 on the GPT Disk Partition

#5. Reboot PC and Set Windows to Boot from New GPT Partition

#6. Activate Windows 10

During the process, If you are faced with "The selected disk is the GPT partition style" error, you can refer to Part 1 to convert the disk to GPT with the help of reliable partition manager software and continue installing Windows 10.

By the way, to avoid data loss, it is also of great importance to create a regular backup of your GPT partition data.

People Also Ask

If you have more questions about Windows installation, check out the questions and answers as listed below:

1. Can you install Windows 10 on GPT?

Normally, as long as your computer motherboard and bootloader support UEFI boot mode, you can directly install Windows 10 on GPT.

If the setup program says that you cannot install Windows 10 on the disk because the disk is in GPT format, it is because you have UEFI disabled. The solution is to enter BIOS (by pressing a key during startup, either F1 or F10-F12 depending on your computer model), find the option to enable UEFI.

Then you can continue installing Windows 10 on the GPT disk.

2. Should I install Windows 11/10 on MBR or GPT?

To use MBR to GPT to install Windows 10 is highly depended on your disk capacity and the motherboard on your computer:

Also read: MBR VS GPT

3. How many partitions are created when you install Windows 10 on a GPTdisk?

If you want to manually create more partitions, you can manage GPT partitions on your own. In short, GPT disk support to create up to 128 partitions.

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