Windows Setup Gpt Partition Style

  



Quick Fixes to Windows Cannot Be Installed to This Disk:

Master Boot Record (MBR) disks use the standard BIOS partition table. GUID Partition Table (GPT) disks use Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). MBR disks do not support more than four partitions on each disk. The MBR partition method is not recommended for disks larger than two terabytes (TB). Set up a new disk on Windows 10 or 8.1 and you’ll be asked whether you want to use MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID Partition Table). Today we’re explaining the difference between GPT and MBR and helping you choose the right one for your PC or Mac.

1. Convert to GPT Without Losing Data
2. Reformatting drive to GPT
3. Boot into UEFI mode

Error: 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.'

'Windows cannot be installed to this disk GPT' indicates the error message 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.' This is one of the common errors that might occur during Windows installation. When you try to install Windows 10/8/7 on your computer, be it a desktop or Dell/HP laptop, Windows Setup might report the error 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.' If that happens, you cannot continue installing Windows until fixing it.

Cause of 'The selected disk is of the GPT partition style'

During Windows setup, you must choose to install using the MBR or GPT partition style. When installing Windows on UEFI-based PCs using Windows Setup, your hard drive partition style must be set up to support either UEFI mode or legacy BIOS-compatibility mode. In simple words, when you decide to choose an MBR or GPT partition to install Windows, you must know clearly what motherboard firmware you're using and keep the two terms matched.

  • UEFI → GPT
  • Legacy BIOS → MBR

Read further:UEFI vs. BIOS

If you see the prompt saying 'Windows Cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style', that's because your PC is booted in UEFI mode, but your hard drive is not configured for UEFI mode.

How to take care of this GPT partition style issue? Technically, you got two options:

  1. #1. Convert MBR to GPT partition style to fit the PC's UEFI firmware features.
  2. #2. Keep the existing MBR partition style, but reboot the PC in legacy BIOS mode.

3 Solutions to GPT Partition Style Error 'Windows Cannot Be Installed to This Disk'

Gpt partition style

As the error causes addressed, all computers will boot to one of the two modes: UEFI or BIOS. If your computer is UEFI-based, you will need to install Windows on a GPT disk. Similarly, if your computer is BIOS-based, you will need to install Windows on an MBR disk. Therefore, GPT is incompatible with legacy BIOS and that's why you receive the error message 'Windows Cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.' After figuring out the reasons, the troubleshooting becomes much easier now.

Method 1. Convert MBR to GPT Without Losing Data

As mentioned, the error message indicates that Windows is booted in UEFI mode that requires the system disk to be GPT partition style. The direct solution to 'The selected disk is of the GPT partition style' is to change the MBR disk to GPT. We strongly advise you choose a non-data-destroying method to do the MBR to GPT conversion with EaseUS Partition Master, a third-party powerful partition tool that converts MBR to GPT easily without losing data.

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

Step 2. Right-click the MBR disk that you want to convert and choose 'Convert to GPT'.

Step 3. After that, find and click the 'Execute 1 Operation' button on the toolbar and choose 'Apply' to start the conversion. You need to restart your device to enable this change.

Having trouble booting your computer system? No problem. With EaseUS partition manager, you are able to create a WinPE bootable media packaged with EaseUS Partition Master on a USB, CD, or DVD. Then you can boot the computer from the device and convert the GPT disk to MBR disk with simple clicks using the tool. (You need another working computer to create the WinPE bootable USB/CD/DVD.)

Method 2. Convert MBR to GPT by Reformatting the Drive

Since you are attempting to install Windows on the disk, you must have a Windows installation DVD or USB, with which you can also convert to GPT. However, this method needs you to manually wipe a drive and convert it to GPT. Reformatting will erase all the data on the drive. Hence, if the data matters, feel no hesitate to preserve your data and convert to GPT using EaseUS Partition Master, or at least create a full backup before reformating the drive.

Step 1. Turn off the PC and put in the Windows installation DVD or USB.

Step 2. Boot the PC from the DVD or USB.

Step 3. In Windows Setup, press 'Shift + F10' to start Command Prompt.

Step 4. Enter the following command in order:

  • diskpart
  • list disk
  • select disk
  • clean
  • convert gpt
  • exit

Step 5. Close Command Prompt.

Step 6. Continue the Windows installation.

Click to copy the command you'll need to convert MBR to GPT throughout the process:

After the conversion, the drive will appear as a single area of unallocated space. Choose the unallocated space and click Next. Windows will begin the installation without sending the same error.

Method 3. Boot to UEFI Mode

This solution is not universally applicable. Why? That's because not all computers have the firmware with both UEFI and BIOS-compatible. Although most of the desktops and laptops running Windows 10 have UEFI-based motherboard with legacy BIOS-compatibility mode, there are some expectations. Older computers running Windows 7 only support legacy BIOS mode and the latest Surface Pro allows only UEFI mode.

When you receive 'Windows Cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style', it suggests that your computer is currently booted in legacy BIOS. To boot to UEFI, you need to check whether the firmware supports UEFI in BIOS and then change to it if the mode is available.

Step 1. Completely shut down your computer.

Step 2. Power on the system. Once you see the logo appears, press the BIOS key, be it Esc, Delete, F1, F2, F10, F11, or F12, to enter BIOS. (Generally, the computer screen will show you what the BIOS key is.)

Step 3. Use the arrow key to select and enter the 'Boot' tab.

Step 4. Use the down arrow to select UEFI.

Step 5. Save the changes and exit BIOS.

Step 6. Continue Windows installation.

If there is no UEFI mode available, it means that your computer only allows for BIOS mode. In such a situation, you can only change GPT to MBR to fix the 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk' error.

GPT Partition Style Related Questions

There are other issues related to the GPT partition style that many users are concerned about:

'What Is GPT Partition Style?'

GPT is part of the UEFI standard, which means a UEFI-based system should be installed on a GPT disk. GPT partition style allows you to create theoretically unlimited partitions on the disk and enables you to fully use disks that are larger than 2TB. Besides, compare GPT and MBR, GPT is safer and has better compatibility with modern hardware.

'Why Windows Cannot Install GPT?'

[Windows Cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style] means that your PC is booted in UEFI mode, but your hard drive is not configured for UEFI mode.

'How do I get rid of GPT partition style?'

You cannot 'get rid of' a GPT partition style. A partition style is necessary for Windows to access the data on the device. But you can change the GPT partition style to MBR by conversion.

'How do I create a GPT partition?'

The partition style of the disk is decided when you first initialize it. When you initialize a disk, you need to choose GPT or MBR as the partitioning method. If you need to, you can change an MBR disk to GPT disk or vice versa.

'Can Windows 10 be installed on GPT?'

As long as your computer is UEFI-based, you can install Windows 10 on a GPT disk. In addition to Windows 10, earlier versions like Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 can also be installed on a GPT disk.

Related Error: 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table.'

Similar to 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk GPT', if your computer is booted in UEFI mode but the hard drive is MBR, which is not configured for UEFI, you will receive the error message 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks.'

With the knowledge introduced above, you know that you can change the boot mode to convert the disk to solve the problem. However, since it's clear that the computer firmware is UEFI-based, you can only convert MBR to GPT to cope with the issue since legacy BIOS is not supported by the computer.

The Bottom Line

A PC uses either of the boot methods: UEFI-GPT or BIOS-MBR. Whether installing using the MBR or GPT depends on your computer firmware. If you get a BIOS-based computer, you can only install Windows on an MBR disk, If you get a UEFI-based PC, choose GPT instead, while if your computer firmware supports both UEFI and BIOS, choose GPT or MBR according to your needs.

With that in mind, you will be clear about how to fix 'Windows Cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.'

GPT or MBR? Boot to UEFI Mode or legacy BIOS mode?

As for Windows 10, it’s better to use GPT disk and boot to UEFI mode for flexible partition managing and more security features

To be more precisely:

  • The GPT disk has no partition limitations, you can create as many partitions as you want, but on MBR disk, you can only have 4 primary partitions, the fifth partition, if you’d like to create, has to be created on an extended partition, and has to be a logical drive, which force us to convert one primary partition to logical, and in Disk Management, we can’t make the conversion without losing original data
  • The maximum supported capacity on MBR disk is 2TB, which means if the disk you’re using is 4TB, only the first 2TB can be used. BUT the GPT disk has no such limitation
  • UEFI mode provides faster boot and shutdown speed with additional security advantages

In order to make sure Windows 10 successfully install and boot to UEFI mode, we need to make sure the following conditions are True:

  1. The Disk is GPT style (use diskpart command to confirm)
  2. UEFI USB bootable ISO file (use Rufus to create)
  3. Boot mode set to UEFI (set this in BIOS)

Windows Setup Gpt Partition Style Windows 10

Check if the disk is GPT

Insert the Windows 10 installation media and reboot, press Shift+F10 to open the command prompt tool after the install screen shows

Then type the following commands to check:

If the listed disk has an Asterisk under the “GPT” column, it means the disk is currently GPT style, that’s what we want.

You can do this step after we created the UEFI USB boot ISO file in Rufus if you don’t have the Windows 10 install media right now

Note: the clean command will remove everything from the disk

Windows Setup Gpt Partition Style Mbr

Create UEFI USB bootable ISO file

Download Windows 10 ISO file from the official site on another computer, download Rufus, run it and in the main interface choose “GPT partition scheme for UEFI” from the ‘Partition scheme and target system type’ drop-down list, then select the ISO file and click “Start” to burn

Change BIOS setting

Plug in the USB device and boot from it, make sure the boot mode switched to UEFI

When PC reboots, there’s a prompt saying press the corresponding key (F2, F10, F11, F12 or check the different ways of access BIOS guide to enter BIOS), then on the boot device menu, select UEFI: USB Device instead of BIOS: Network/LAN

If the device you’re using only support one mode, then activate the UEFI mode requires the security features be disabled, we can manually operate this by navigating to the Security tab and disable it in the Secure Boot option

Then Save the changes and reboot, now we can have a clean install of Windows 10 on a GPT disk and boot to UEFI mode

Gpt Partition Style

Tip:

Microsoft suggests us to remove the bootmgr file if we want to boot only when in UEFI mode from the root of Windows PE or Windows Setup media

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