Trouble installing Win 10 64 bit, MBR/BIOS. Partition needs to be GRT

The problem I'm having is that I receive the error message: “Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is not of the GPT partition style”, when trying to install Windows 10 64 bit onto the current Windows 10 32 bit system.

The current state of the drive I want to install to is...

DISKPART> detail disk

Samsung SSD 860 EVO 1TB
Disk ID: A956F8A1
Type : SATA
Status : Online
Path : 2
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1F02)#ATA(C02T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : Yes
Pagefile Disk : Yes
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : Yes
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 2 C Samsung SSD NTFS Partition 796 GB Healthy System

My System Info.
OS Name Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise
Version 10.0.18363 Build 18363
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name ROGERPC-V6QO2A4
System Manufacturer System manufacturer
System Model System Product Name
System Type X86-based PC
System SKU SKU
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 3401 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 4102, 9/9/2013
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Embedded Controller Version 255.255
BIOS Mode Legacy
BaseBoard Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer INC.
BaseBoard Product P8Z68-V LE
BaseBoard Version Rev X.0x
Platform Role Desktop
Secure Boot State Unsupported
PCR7 Configuration Binding Not Possible
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume4
Locale United States
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "10.0.18362.752"
User Name ROGERPC-V6QO2A4\roger
Time Zone Mountain Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 6.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 3.48 GB
Available Physical Memory 433 MB
Total Virtual Memory 7.73 GB
Available Virtual Memory 2.49 GB
Page File Space 4.25 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys
Kernel DMA Protection Off
Virtualization-based security Not enabled
Device Encryption Support Reasons for failed automatic device encryption: TPM is not usable, PCR7 binding is not supported, Hardware Security Test Interface failed and device is not Modern Standby, Un-allowed DMA capable bus/device(s) detected, TPM is not usable
Hyper-V - VM Monitor Mode Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Second Level Address Translation Extensions Yes
Hyper-V - Virtualization Enabled in Firmware No
Hyper-V - Data Execution Protection Yes

Or just select the custom install option in setup. When you get to the list of partitions on the drive, just delete every partition until it is one big unallocated space. Highlight that unallocated space and click next. This is assuming there is no data on the physical disk that you want to keep.

Well, let me clear up a couple of things. I do want a windows.old folder created during the install. I believe this is why I was asked if I was doing a clean install or a custom install. So, if I'm going to do a custom install a windows.old folder will be created, is that correct? It also seemed to me that there were two separate issues. One is that there needed to be a GRT partition created on the Drive I'm installing to and also it seems there is a conflict with my bios settings? In the case of my bios settings and maybe I'm wrong but does it need to be changed, after reading many articles about doing an install with a legacy bios or with a UEFI bios. My bios is currently set to legacy mode. Should this be changed before of after creating the new GRT partition???

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So, if I want to keep info/data from my current installation then I should create a separate GRT partition to install new OS, which is an upgrade I suppose? I'm trying to install Windows 10 64 bit onto my current drive that is running a Windows 10 32 bit version.

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Caledon Ken said:

Hi Roger. Welcome to TenForums @rogertsch


Is there anything on disk that you are trying to install to? (anything needed to be kept ?)


Not sure what you mean when you say "when trying to install Windows 10 64 bit onto the current Windows 10 32 bit system"


Is the install an upgrade or are you attempting a clean install?

Hey Ken, yes I do want to keep info from my current Windows 10 32bit version and be able to access that info after I install a version of Windows 10 64bit.

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Caledon Ken said:

Hi Roger. Welcome to TenForums @rogertsch


Is there anything on disk that you are trying to install to? (anything needed to be kept ?)


Not sure what you mean when you say "when trying to install Windows 10 64 bit onto the current Windows 10 32 bit system"


Is the install an upgrade or are you attempting a clean install?

Hey again Ken, you know what I would really like to do is install the new OS Windows 10 64 bit on my SSD drive which currently has Windows 10 32bit running on it and have a Windows.old created on a separate drive so I could install the new Windows version on the clear and clean SSD drive and then be able to access the old Windows 10 32 bit version from the separate drive, is that possible?

As @Kyhi pointed out... you won't be able to upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit Windows and have a Windows.old folder created. To go from 32 bit to 64 bit it has to be a completely clean install that will not save anything from the old system. If you want to keep anything from the old system, it needs to be moved to a second drive first, before the install of Windows 64-bit is started.

Also, @rogertsch, you can't just create a GPT partition. GPT v. MBR refers to the manner in which the entire physical disk is partitioned. The entire disk must be either GPT or MBR, not individual partitions on the disk.

On a computer that has UEFI BIOS, Windows 64 bits can be installed as Legacy - MBR or UEFI - GPT.
- To install as Legacy - MBR you MUST boot the installation drive as Legacy
- To install as UEFI - GPT you MUST boot the installation drive as UEFI.

For what I see from post #1, you have a windows 32 bits installed as Legacy-MBR and you are booting the installation drive as UEFI. When you try to install as UEFI on a MBR drive you get the message “Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is not of the GPT partition style”.

To install Win 10 64bits on the MBR drive and create the Windows.old folder, you must boot the installation drive as Legacy, not UEFI.

Megahertz said:

To install Win 10 64bits on the MBR drive and create the Windows.old folder, you must boot the installation drive as Legacy, not UEFI.

Since the old system is 32-bit and the new install is 64-bit, that won't work. It's impossible to create a Windows.old folder going from 32-bit to 64-bit.

Yes, 64-bit Windows can certainly be installed on an MBR drive, but Windows.old folder cannot be created.