How to Solve "The Selected Disk is of the GPT
Partition Style" Problem With the Simplest Way?
Tips: AOMEI Partition Assistant is an all-in-one and reliable MBR/GPT disk converter and
management software, Which enables you to convert disk partition style between MBR and
GPT without losing data.
When will we meet with this situation?
There are many discussions about this in PC forum. Now I take some for examples:
I'm trying to install Windows 7 on a separate 100GB partition beside my Windows 8
partition (dual boot). The disc boots fine, but I can't select my partition (Disk 0 part 5)
because of the error: "The selected disk is of the GPT partition style".
I tried to install Windows Server 2008 R2 on my partition. When I select the partition, I got
the error message: "Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the
GPT partition style".
While trying to Wipe Windows 7 and install Windows 8 on my Zenbook, I have encountered
an annoying error message: "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is
of the GPT partition style". No other information is given.
Now we see people will come to the question about "the selected disk is of the GPT partition
style" when they reinstall Windows system. Before we analyze this problem, we have to
clarify some definitions. First, we need to know that there are two partition styles: GPT and
MBR.
About GPT and MBR
MBR and GPT are the format of hard disk. MBR is the abbreviation of master bootable
record, and it only supports the maximum capacity with 2TB, up to four primary partitions,
or three primary partitions plus one extended partition. Most of personal computer’s
motherboard only supports BIOS and it is installed with MBR, so, for many users, they
always install windows system on the MBR disk.
GPT is abbreviation of GUID partition table. It is a part of EFI, which is port between
operating system and platform firmware. GPT can make use of a very large space that is
more than 2TB limit of MBR disks. GPT disks allow an almost unlimited number of partitions.
Each GPT partition has a unique identification GUID and a partition content type. And you
can have more primary partitions. However, the Windows implementation restricts this to
128 partitions.
In terms of the description above, it seems that GPT disk is better than MBR, Unfortunately,
the seldom of computers have EFI motherboard, not even mention make use of GPT disk. In
the context of specific case, that may be the greatest of shortages in GPT disk. As
mentioned above, many people can’t install windows system on GPT disk.
Why does such question happening? Based on what we analyze above, in order to boot
Windows from GPT, our motherboard should support UEFI (EFI-boot & BIOS-boot),
otherwise we should use MBR to boot from. More information please
visit: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc738081(WS.10).aspx
How to Solve This Problem with the Simplest Way?
Notice that I said "the Simplest Way". Although there are many solutions we can find from
the forum, I’d like to suggest you use the simplest way: convert GPT to MBR disk.
Convert GPT to MBR with Diskpart
In some technology or computer forum, some technicians give some advice that convert
GPT to MBR with Diskpart, which is run by program code. The specific steps are following
below:
Enter system installing interface by using Win 7 disc or USB hard drive boot. and then press
“Shift”+”F10” to open the command prompt.
Input “Diskpart” (do not input quotation mark, the following as well), and then press
“Enter”to enter operating interface.
Input “list disk”: to check hard disk properties. Pay more attention to capacity of hard disk
to select. Usually, disk 0 is hard disk, and disk 1 is the usb dirve where wins 7 install.
Input “select disk 0”: to select disk 0 as the disk that is operating.
Input “clean”: to clean up current hard disk’s partition.
Input “convert mbr”: to convert GPT into MBR.
Input “create partition primary size = xxx”: to create the size of primary partition.
Input “format fs = ntfs quickly”: to format disk to NTFS quickly.
Input “exit”: to finish operating.
Input “exit”: to shut down the command prompt.
After finishing operating, shut down the command prompt and install windows system on
computer in normal way. The steps seems be concise, but the greatest shortage is that all
data and files will be clean up. If you don’t have backup files in GPT disk, you will be crying
and anxious for that. And if you don’t have some professional knowledge about program,
this way is not recommended.
Convert GPT to MBR with the third-party software
To some users who is a lack of computer professional knowledge, it is a good way that
convert GPT to MBR with a third-party software. Of many kinds of third-party software,
AOMEI Partition Assistant is a not bad tool to help user to convert disk. It’s the greatest
strengthen is to convert disk from GPT to MBR without data loss.
How? With the help of AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional Edition, it is easy to do.
Because AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional Edition has a powerful feature named
“Convert GPT to MBR or MBR to GPT”. Step by Step Guide to convert GPT to MBR:
Step 1: Download, install, and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. (see picture, below)
Step 2: Select the disk we want to convert, right click and select “Convert to MBR Disk”.
Click “OK” in the pop-up window:
Step 3: Back to the main menu, we can see the pending operations and click “Apply” to
commit the changes.
Wasn't this process a piece of cake? With this powerful partition converter, we can optimize
our partition easily. We can convert primary to logical partition, convert FAT/FAT 32 to
NTFS, migrate OS to SDD and so on. We can even make a portable Windows 8 by using the
function of “Windows To Go Creator”. What’s a powerful disk partition converter it is !
