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Toxic

Converting an MBR boot disc to GPT without trashing it

21 posts in this topic

Now I have been asked by Krazy1 to post this    :D

 

She has a PC that has a 4TB drive as the boot drive but it is set up as an MBR drive.  The PC has a UEFI BIOS so it will support GPT discs.

 

I know it is possible to convert a non boot MBR disc to a GPT drive without trashing the partitions using MiniTool :

 

http://download.cnet.com/MiniTool-Partition-Wizard-Free-Edition/3000-2094_4-10962200.html

 

but I don't know if it is possible to do it with a boot disc (without trashing partitions).  Can anyone help?

Edited by Toxic

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Tiddy-bits:

Now I have been INSTRUCTED by Krazy1 to post this    :D

 

Krazy1: he says >>>  I know it is possible to convert a non boot MBR disc to GPT without trashing the partitions.  I am not sure you can do it to a boot disc though.

Tucker933: make a support topic on OC

Krazy1: I have instructed him to do so ;P

Krazy1: and he is laughing at me that I said instructed

Tucker933: =p

 

*** I guess I could have used 'asked' or 'requested'  *rolls eyes*

 

WaeV likes this

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Is it incidentally bootable, or do you have an OS on it that you're expecting to be able to migrate between computers?

Bootability is just a flag you can toggle, as far as I know (not my specialty). But you're asking for a bumpy ride if you're trying to migrate an OS to different hardware.

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The PC has a UEFI BIOS so it will support GPT discs.

Hang on, this should only be important if you're trying to boot from the drive.

This is a regular old SATA drive, right? Have you tried just plugging it in (and also the power cable) to see if it works as-is?

Edit: Your C: partition is 2047 GB, and you have 1678 GB unallocated? That's a lot of unallocated space. (Different from free space; you can't store things in unallocated space)

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So as long as the stuff on the partitions can still be accessed, it's okay if the OS doesn't still boot afterwards?

Her intent is to have access to the remaining almost 2tb of space on the drive, and still be able to use the original 2tb she's currently running on.


Oddly, this is familiar to you... as if from an old dream.  

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Her intent is to have access to the remaining almost 2tb of space on the drive, and still be able to use the original 2tb she's currently running on.

OH. I thought we were transferring an old drive to a new computer.

The first option is to just create a new partition in the unallocated space, which is easy to do but then you have to deal with two separate partitions.

In Disk Management (shown in the attached screenshot), right-click the unallocated space, and choose whatever looks most like "Create a partition here". Walk through the steps and make sure it fills all the remaining space.

Alternatively you can extend the existing partition, so you end up with one large partition. But that's sometimes tricky.

DiSiAC likes this

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The first option is to just create a new partition, which is easier but you have to deal with two separate partitions. In Disk Management (shown in the attached screenshot), right-click the unallocated space, and choose whatever looks most like "Crete a partition here". Walk through the steps and make sure it has all the remaining space.

Alternatively you can extend the existing partition, so you end up with one large partition. But that's sometimes tricky. 

That's what doesn't appear to be working out, or at least by means of Disk Manager in Windows. Toxic should probably supply more info though, as he has a better handle on what's going on with her setup.


Oddly, this is familiar to you... as if from an old dream.  

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MBR has a limitation of four primary partitions, or three primary partitions plus one extended partition with many logical partitions inside it. (That's confusing, so here's a diagram)
 

247976f0-c5f1-420f-8c54-2fe8aaceb6f0.gif

 

If you've already used up the four MBR "slots", then you can't make any new partitions. This could be the reason why creating a new partition doesn't work.

 

However from the screenshot it doesn't look like there are four partitions on that disk, so it ought to have worked?

 

What does the error message say?

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