Installing Windows 10 giving me fits

Yesterday I went over to a friends home (my computer guru's) and we installed Windows 10 Home. It had a few minor glitches and we thought we had solved those. When I got home things went from bad to worse. I can NOT even describe what all it was doing.

When it booted up, the only thing on the main screen was the background image installed during installation. There was NOT even a Recycle bin icon. On the task bar there were several icons. When I clicked on say "Edge", it seems to open but did NOT show on the screen. I had no idea how to fix this so I decided to reinstall Windows again.

At some point during the install I got the following error message

Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. n EFI systems, Windows can only be installed on GPT disks.

I did a search and found what I think is a fix for that, but not really sure. It is located at the following link:
Windows cannot be installed to this disk. the selected disk has an MBR partition table - YouTube

I am not sure if this is common problem or not. According to that link it is a lengthy process and fairly complicated. If anyone has better suggestions I am open to any possibilities.

BTW the computer has two hard drives. The Primary is a single partition drive, and secondary hard drive has 3 (data) partitions.

If I can think of anything else I will add to this post. I hope someone has reasonable explanation for this even.

Thanks

At the very first screen of Windows setup, press Shift+F10 to open a command prompt window. Run:

diskpart
list disk
select disk # <-replace # with the actual number of the disk you want to install Windows to
clean <-this will erase the disk selected above. Make sure to select the correct one! If you have questions, run the command "list part" first so you can see the partitions on the drive.
convert mbr
exit
exit

Then go through the setup, selecting the custom install option. When you get the list of drives and partitions, select the unallocated space on the drive you just erased and click on next.

cereberus said:

ghfn

Shouldn't that be "convert gpt" as pc is uefi?

It can be as an option on a UEFI PC but does not have to be. Using convert mbr makes the string of commands universal between both Legacy BIOS and UEFI PCs (or a UEFI PC that is booting in CSM mode). Once the unallocated space is selected in the step after selecting custom install, if the computer is installing in UEFI mode it will convert the drive to GPT.

Converting between MBR and GPT on an empty drive takes less than 2 seconds, so there is very little time wasted. I like to post help, when I can, that is universal between legacy BIOS and UEFI computers so the commands are the same regardless of which type of computer is being used. That's why I always recommend a FAT32 formatted Windows 10 USB flash drive with the FAT32 partition marked as active (and partitioned with MBR). It's universal for booting in both UEFI and legacy BIOS computers.

One thing I am not sure is select disk # <-replace # with the actual number of the disk you want to install Windows to.
Is that a "select from the list" above or do I actually type in the disk name? I think my disk name is "Drive1 Partition 2". If I have to type it in then I suppose I would use what is listed under "list disk".

There are actually 4 partitions on drive 1. I guess they were created during me trying to install Windows.

Oh and I have found what I consider a very good explanation of what that video showed. The link is:
https://www.diskgenius.com/how-to/the-selected-disk-has-an-mbr-partition-table.php

Just put in the number of the drive from the list;:
select disk 0
For example.

Thanks NavyLCDR. After I had given it thought that what is what I had decided to do.

When I get my nerve up, I am going for it.

Thanks everyone for your inputs.

WOW that whole process worked great. I now have Windows 10 installed and looks really good.
Before I do anything else, I want to get Macrium Reflect installed. My problem with that is I went to their home page but could NOT see how to download the free version. I must blind.

Give this page a try -> Macrium Software | Macrium Reflect Free

At present I am a happy camper. My Windows 10 PC is up and running as I think it should. Now for a couple of days getting things installed. Yeah it is a PITA. NOT so bad when things are working as they should.

Thanks again everyone.