Convert BIOS / MBR to UEFI / GPT without reformatting - MBR2GPT tool | Prepare for Windows 11

[@MSFTMechanics]

Have a question about Windows 10? Ask the experts on the Microsoft Tech Community: techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-10/ct-p/Windows10 And to find even more information on the MBR2GPT disk conversion tool, check out this link: aka.ms/Mbr2Gpt

[@jeremytaylor8919]

This guy deserves a medal 🥇. Can't believe this isn't the first search result for fixing this issue. Worked like a charm

[@MSFTMechanics]

Agreed. Glad it helped!

[@ashish9urun9]

True. After couple of days i am finally able to solve this issue.

[@InklanUtterfield]

He's staring into my soul.

[@SirSoffrito]

It took me longer to create the windows PE bootable usb than it did to run the mbr2gpt tool. I was like, "no way its done that fast." Swapped my wife's motherboard over to UEFI mode and boom, booted right up to Windows 10. Everything validated in both SystemInfo and by PC Health Check tool. Plus, I kinda like this guy. He's clearly an engineer and not an actor. Straight to the point. The muzak is perfect. This video is gold and has saved my live. This is my first introduction to this channel. I think I"ll subscribe for content like this.

[@kingzach74]

How did you create the Windows PE bootable and or where did you find the download?

[@panagiotis3183]

It was really helpful, thnak you. I converted it while I was already running Windows 10 OS. I just wanted to convert it without losing data or format my PC. Also an action that disables CSM from BIOS helped me to switch to UEFI from Legacy and now I'm able to run Windows 11 installation.

[@MSFTMechanics]

Happy to help

[@DenisDamulira23]

Wasted a whole day and this gave me the answer in a few min.Thx

[@jan_h]

Wow! That's really cool. I accidentally installed Windows with MBR and it was a hassle to get it to use GPT. I don't have that machine anymore, but I wish I had this feature back then.

[@sovereign1160]

Thank you for making a video that is no nonsense and straight to the point with clear instructions and relevant graphics.

[@Gender1979]

i like this guy he gets to the point

[@wayneosman8971]

It is now November 2021 almost five full years since you made it, without a doubt the best tutorial I've seen, used and continue to. Thank you. P.S I "Subscribed", clicked the "Bell", choosing "All" your videos

[@chocosek]

I know this video is old but it saved me a lot of time. I was already willing to wipe my hard drive and reinstall whole windows and recover from backup. Thank you so much 😊

[@WastedMoment]

Works perfect on a virtualized Server 2019. I did get a message after booting up that I needed to reboot OS to repair disk. It repaired super fast, and I have no experienced any issues at all. Make sure to change BIOS to EFI (vsphere edit vm settings > VM options > Boot options > change firmware to EFI, and enable Secure boot).

[@mateofantasma]

Thank you for this video. You saved me like 40usd in software and/or a few hours of work. I used your tips to convert my OS disk on Win 10 and worked like a charm. Much appreciated!

[@robd99]

Thanks a billion. All over the net there are (usually companies trying to sell you their sw) saying you CANNOT convert a drive with partitions / data between GPT and MBR. Just worked fine to get me out of a fix restoring an old MBR image to a new GPT /UEFI computer.

[@Gr8Dane78]

Looks like a great way to finally convert my Win10 machine (which was in-place upgraded from Win7) to UEFI boot mode. Thanks for creating a tool that makes it easy.

[@johnrieley1404]

Great my friend, excellent presentation. Was ready to buy third party partitioning tool to do the conversion from MBR to UEFI on a refurbished OptiPlex before finding your video. Thanks much.

[@meditatingstuff]

Worked for me with "mbr2gpt /convert /disk:1 /allowFullOS (after /validate disk number). Thanx a lot!

[@VarunKumar-oz2uj]

Thank You very much for the clear instructions on converting partition styles. I was about to reinstall Windows as I've already backed up my data. This has made the process so much easier. Thank you once again.

[@lFURTIVOl]

thanks a lot, I was about to lost 1 TB of data using the others methods, until I found this video and finally I was able to reinstall Windows.

[@TheStevenWhiting]

2:39 If you're getting Failed to retrieve geometry for disk -1 then you maybe scanning the USB instead of the drive you want. Just do: diskpart list disk Then work out which one is your boot disk. Then exit Then mbr2gpt /disk:0 /validate In my case it kept trying to validate the USB stick instead of the system drive so you tell it which drive to check with the disk:0 bit as my system drive is disk 0 You also want to point to it in the convert so mbr2gpt /disk:0 /convert

[@adeo1231]

This saved me a LOT of time, thank you.

[@clestra.]

+Microsoft Mechanics Mr. Desmond Lee, thank you sir so much for such a clear explanation of this wonderful & free tool. This saved me a lot of trouble; I greatly appreciate it.

[@johnrdykstra]

Perfect. I kept finding conflicting information about data loss with MBR2GPT. This gave me the confidence to try it and it worked. Besides, this actually fixes the UEFI booting problems with a new Dell laptop.

[@KINGFLX]

/Validate works fine. /Convert it says Cannot find room for the EFI system partition (I have 130GB free on C:) I have tried some unallocated space and tried to convert that into EFI & NTFS & New Volume & left it blank. Tried in windows PE environment & disabling reagentc. Layout is: System reserved - C: - Recovery (3 or less as required) I have asked ChatGPT Google watched ITArmy on KZbin I still cannot get this to work out and I don't know why. 🤯🤔🤨🤬

[@BorisWine]

C:\WINDOWS\system32>mbr2gpt /validate /allowFullOS MBR2GPT: Attempting to validate disk 0 MBR2GPT: Retrieving layout of disk MBR2GPT: Validating layout, disk sector size is: 512 bytes Cannot find OS partition(s) for disk any ideas?

[@BorisWine]

ok, found the solution: Create A New Recovery Partition Note: here we take Windows 8 for example. Step 1: Download your Windows ISO directly from Microsoft, which will require your product key to install. (Note: In many cases, this is included with your Windows computer.) Step 2: Use Microsoft’s tool to create installation media for Windows. Step 3: Look for the Sources folder, where you’ll find install.esd. This is the recovery partition, basically, but in its current state it is useless. To make it work for you, you have to first move it from the ISO or DVD to a location on your hard disk. Next, you need to convert it from install.esd to install.wim via some converters like WimConverter tool, and then copy the install.wim file to a new folder on your C:\ drive, labeled C:\Win81-Recovery. The next stage is to register the file so that Windows knows it is there and can create a recovery drive. Step 4: Right-click the Windows Start screen button and select Command Prompt (Admin) on the desktop. Next, in the command line, enter: REAGENTC /SetOSImage /Path C:\Win81-Recovery\INSTALL.WIM /Index 1 Tip: This will register the INSTALL.WIM file as your PC’s recovery image. Step 5: Type: REAGENTC /Info. Step 6: Type: exit.

[@NEROGIL1]

That tool is so awesome! Works perfectly. love you Microsoft

[@Veto2090]

Thanks man. Just got an extra 2tb from my 4tb hard drive because of this!

[@YoloMerra]

Of all the videos I watched this one actually worked.

[@drwhave]

this video saved my Friday evening troubleshooting

[@noicerone]

Whoa ahead of time!!!

[@mohitsingh19_30]

if my windows was on legacy mode then can i change it to UEFI?

[@sukradi]

At present I run Windows 10 in MBR. In my PC in the BIOS setup menu, I do not have UEFI option at all. How do I go about? My plan is to install Windows 11.

[@MP-wb5yd]

Quite amazing tool, video and step by step process, thank you for that !

[@Shrek_Boi5155]

Thanks you. This fixed my issue. I was able to enable secure boot in the bios and now my pc is compatible with the windows 11 update

[@66777jason]

No way it was that easy 🤦‍♂️ I formatted my drive and it still didn't work until I tried this. You don't even need to leave Windows 10 for it to work, you can run it within the OS and just reboot into bios, enable UEFI and thats it.

[@Spice5000]

Absolute godsend of a video now that I have to convert my SSD to upgrade to Windows 11. This guy get's straight to the point and everything is visualized in a great way. All thumbs up!

[@MSFTMechanics]

Thanks

[@rapatouille]

glad i found this before pulling the trigger to repartition and reinstall windows!

[@Daumex]

Can this be done from booted OS or do i have to restart and use recovery mode in Win10?

[@rheinmetallskorpions3737]

Thank you for the information but I have encountered a problem while converting. The error code: 0x00003687 occurred while trying “creating the EFI system partition”. My system disk has 115 GB of free space when attempting. Please help me find out how to solve this problem. Thanks

[@TurielTyrael44-bf1ld6zu6s]

Microsoft please keep the same quality this video has as your company motto for coming years 💙💙

[@tothbalint1]

You are an absolute lifesaver It worked like charm Very easy and understandable explanation, no need to be a hacker to do it Thank you so much

[@rodryguezzz]

This is very useful. It was quite complicated to convert MBR to GPT without formatting the disk.

[@sarys73]

Sir you are a gentleman and a scholar.

[@Seanmm8855]

Hello im not that tech savvy ..windows pe ...is this already on my pc or do i need a windows boot disc to get to it

[@MSFTMechanics]

Windows PE is actually the environment where Windows setup runs, so if you have a Windows install disk, that works.

[@MrRavenArrowz]

You just saved me a lot of trouble. Now I don't have to reformat my entire PC. I'm preparing my Win 10 PC for Upgrading to Win 11.

[@bobwallett]

makes something that sounds really complicated to a real easy fix. cheers

[@YAUUN]

Thanks! clear, straight to the point and understandable enough for an enthusiast like me, even though its aimed at professionals.

[@CrossedSabresCOD]

Wow, this works! Thank you so much. My boot up time is like 5 seconds now.

[@spywhale]

There is so much info here.will have to watch this vid many times

[@TheRancher03]

Work perfectly. The mbr2gpt validate did fail due to 4 partitions but just offloaded-deleted a partition and reloaded after the successfully converting..

[@antoniocasillas569]

How do you remove the existing bitlocker protectors and recreate them?

[@none1615]

I was thinking that would avoid getting infected by ransomware attacks as they modify MBR , however looks to me it's not the case , even you have UEFI you are still exposed to ransomware like recent Petya ... Correct ?

[@cyndinn]

When I tried to convert, it didn't select disk 0, it had displayed disk 1 and then said OS partition is not found

[@AlexChama]

EXTREMELY helpful! Thank you!

[@tomthumb0]

Thanks for explaining it so well. Here's my issue: I am trying to convert my primary drive with the OS on it from MBR to GPT (NVMe drive). It has another partition on it that stores my programs. No matter what I try, I cannot convert my OS drive to GPT. What needs to be done in order to be successful? Am I going to have to make a back up of sorts for the programs or move them to the main OS drive, remove the partition, and then try mbr2gpt again or is there a workaround for this?

[@Blacksadify]

Came here for the great info. Stayed for the sense of humor.

[@MiniReyux]

What a great video!! It was so helpful thank youuuu!!!

[@FRAMANDUDE]

Am I the only one to notice the date of 2017 and it saying "Prepare for Windows 11". I know it was probably changed afterwards, but got me confused for a bit

[@MSFTMechanics]

We added that to help with preparing for Windows 11, as it requires UEFI and GPT partitioning

[@AnimozPC]

Wow - that was awesome! So fast and easy - thanks a lot!

[@عزالدينمسلم-و6ش]

why this message show for me and failed >>> Disk layout validation failed for disk 0 , plz tell me

[@DogeCharger]

Absolute Legend, thanks for this!

[@LellePrinter82]

Thanks for a great video and straight on the subject. One of my storage drives in my workstation (2tb) are almost full and are an MBR-partition. If I want to clone the disk to a larger harddrive, I must first convert with mbr2gpt then clone it to a new 6tb drive (as mbr only works up to 2tb and u need gpt for larger drives). Can I do this without data loss?

[@fpedroza]

It worked for me, thanks!

[@tanwenjie7857]

Thanks so much dude really saved so much of my time.

[@5LVRR]

The validate command results in “cannot find os partition(s) for disk 0” any idea why?

[@mostafashebl8670]

Where can i find that tool please?

[@MSFTMechanics]

It's built into Windows 10. Look in "C:\Windows\system32"

[@pl4free]

This still works. Thank you a lot 😄

[@MSFTMechanics]

You're welcome!

[@muhammadhashir7158]

What will happen if power supply to PC go off during this process?

[@ilikeegg518]

Hi, for me when i tried to convert, it kept saying "Cannot find OS partition(s) for disk 0" please help

[@Isaaccummins]

Has anybody ran into an issue with network adapters after running through this process. Our Toshiba laptops and HP desktops were imaged using BIOS (MBR) instead of UEFI. The above process works without an issue in converting the disks to GPT, however, after a Windows 10 upgrade neither the laptops or desktops have any available network adapters. The laptop loses ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. I have tried all the obvious things like downloading the latest Win 10 drivers and also run through dozens of fixes for network issues in Windows 10 but nothing has worked. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated as we are now unable to upgrade any of our computers without performing a clean install.

[@prewinder]

Perfect. One command and it worked.

[@ChandanKumar-im4ed]

can I change MBR to GPT Windows 7 without upgrade to Windows 10

[@MSFTMechanics]

Yes, you can change MBR to GPT in Windows 7. Check out this link for more details: technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc725671(v=ws.11).aspx

[@augustogalvao2661]

Everything worked out very fine! Thank you so much!!

[@MSFTMechanics]

Great to hear!

[@matthewharck-turner275]

Legend!! You saved me a couple of hours

[@sunnny28]

i hve purchased Jumper Ezbook 2. now i want to install the new copy of window 10, but my system is not gona booth woth usb r exernal cd,,,,can you please help me to get its BIOS setting step by step....Bundle of Thanks....

[@MSFTMechanics]

Thanks for reaching out. The best place for you to get support on this would be at the Microsoft Tech Community. Please post your question there to get answers and to help others: techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-10/Shifting-from-BIOS-to-UEFI-with-the-Windows-10-Creators-Update/m-p/60064#M3

[@jibcot8541]

Hmm for me it says Conversion Completed Successfully but then "Failed to update ReAgent.xml, please try to manually disable and enable WinRE" and the disk still shows as MBR type after, I guess I will try and disable WinRE or something.

[@robertferguson7804]

I need to integrate this tool into an SCCM task sequence that can perform the conversion on BIOS systems if need be. Not in-place upgrade, but an SCCM OSD task sequence that can handle bare metal AND "refresh". Can you help me Mr. Lee?

[@HirXeBomb]

Hi, before I try anything I want to know if this would work for my old Dell Inspiron 620. The motherboard bios (version A10) has no option to switch between Legacy and UEFI and in the system details the Bios Mode is set on "Legacy" and Secure Boot State is set on "Unsupported". I want to change it to UEFI because I want to install my RX 560 but win 10 64bit won't start up, and from what I read and see on videos I need to change it to UEFI. So if this is possible with an old Dell computer from 2011, let me know, thank you in advance :)

[@HirXeBomb]

Nevermind I got told and I quote: "Go to your BIOS settings and go to boot devices and see if it has "CSM" or "Compatibility Support Module" If that setting exists, your Mobo supports UEFI otherwise it doesn't"

[@D4rkNFS]

it is possible to convert mbr to gpt disk which i am using windows 8.1. But i am using mbr2gpt in WinPE 1709?

[@lahmyaj]

I like the cut of this bloke's jib. Subscribed 👍🏻

[@rahulsonti8499]

The /allowFullOS gives an error every time i run the command with MBR2GPT tool with admin priviliges. I checked if my notebook actually allows UEFI, and fortunately it does. Help me out with this man! How do i force it to allowFullOS?

[@adamdelay2874]

MBR2GPT doesn't appear to load after clicking to open it - any idea why?

[@parama_01]

So, can I do this with a Windows 10 1803 bootable USB? And at the end of the process, would 'Windows Boot Manager' appear as a boot entry? Thanks.

[@udapangamek]

in any different cases, donot change to gpt scheme before making sure our bios and motherboard pc support uefi system ,specially old notebook ect .. make sure backup our data first before run any effort

[@edubzplee]

When in Windows PE mode and I am validating the disk, I receive this message "disk layout validation failed for disk 0". Not sure what to do on this part. Is there a fix? I have the latest Windows 10 version and the disk is a Samsung SSD 980 PRO 2TB with 2 partitions.

[@MSFTMechanics]

It sounds like your partitions could not be resized to free up space for GPT partitioning. It could be file encryption related. Are you able to resize/shrink your primary partition with volume C?

[@HienMayCNC]

so microsoft was planning windows 11 before windows 7 even expired?

[@htothearris]

I first was getting permanent errors. My bad, needed to run as Admin. It took a bit at "trying to shrink the system partition" but when i checked back it was finished. probaply 1minute max. Very easy understandable tutorial, could improve in saying to run as Admin. else it helped me alot to finally be able to get windows 11

[@highmaddy3910]

Sir, I need your help, i formatted my c drive when i going to install win 10 pro 64 bit in pc and then now it showing that i have to convert to mbr to gtp, but as i have format the c drive i am not able to start my pc. So now what i have to do to install windows in my pc Please help me sir..

[@MSFTMechanics]

Thanks for reaching out. The best place for you to get support on this would be at the Microsoft Tech Community. Please post your question there to get answers and to help others: techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-10/Shifting-from-BIOS-to-UEFI-with-the-Windows-10-Creators-Update/m-p/60064#M3

[@janovitz4478]

Thank you, you saved my life!

[@jesusangelaguinaga4044]

It worked!!! Awesome!!!

[@eddiejackson4227]

One of the best videos. Thanks!

[@MadlockFreak]

Good lord, I was gonna buy a whole new rig if it wasn't for this video.

[@Schnitzer325ci]

Excellent. Thank you so much!

[@alexsmits1960]

i was looking for this!thanks!

[@mAX-ls5uh]

i love you guys great work perfect exoplanation

[@timmywil]

Incredible. Thank you!

[@mohitsingh19_30]

if i have a option in my boot settings to change to UEFI(my machine is already is on legacy), so what is the meaning of “UEFI is now on its way to replacing outdated BIOS”. Since i also do have the choice to set it to UEFI instead of having BIOS.

[@azlanaziz2999]

I have done successfully, but after reboot its no signal. I try reset cmos to make its start uefi but not help. When sent my 1 week desktop pc to dealer they said all hardware shock by esd can recovered. Mobo+gpu+cpu fault, thats my experience.. finally bought new one since warranty not cover. I recommend for beginner read the guide carefully before try..

[@gaardsholt]

I get this error when trying to do the /validate ValidateLayout: Wrong boot partition count, expected 1 but found 0.

[@MSFTMechanics]

Mbr2gpt requires both the system partition and the OS partition to be on the same physical disk. It may be that your system partition is on disk 0, while your OS partition is on disk 1. If you need more in-depth info, we suggest you use the Microsoft Tech Community, where multiple experts have already been answering questions on this subject. Check it out here: techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Windows-10/Shifting-from-BIOS-to-UEFI-with-the-Windows-10-Creators-Update/m-p/60064#M3

[@advert25]

Solid tutorial. THANK YOU