Will formatting a drive in the installation menu make it a GPT drive?

garlicgaming221 · 21 Dec 2021

Ok, well, the title may not be that descriptive due to the size limitations, so here's the full, unadulterated question:

When I am in the windows setup menu (booting from a USB drive, utilizing the Media Creation Tool), I am not allowed to install windows onto any of my drives pertaining to the fact that they are formatted in MBR. If I press the format button, will it allow me to reformat the drive into GPT?

I am doing this to have a complete and utter refresh of my PC, as resetting and reinstalling traditionally (via Media Creation Tool's "upgrade this PC" option) has yielded no positive effect on my system's difficulties.

And before I get the suggestion to use mbr2gpt.exe in CMD, it doesn't work. At all. No matter what I tried. According to Windows, I don't have an operating system partition anywhere on my computer. Neat.

Samuria · 21 Dec 2021

If your bios is set to uefi secure boot delete all parition first leaving disk blank and let windows create what it needs

itsme1 · 21 Dec 2021

Yes if in the bios you have activated UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) and deactivated Legacy: This is the name given to the old BIOS before the arrival of the UEFI standard. It is generally PCs before 2015 and CSM (CSM (Compatibility Support Module): allows to make MBR boot possible on a UEFI computer

steve108 · 21 Dec 2021

garlicgaming221 said:

Ok, well, the title may not be that descriptive due to the size limitations, so here's the full, unadulterated question:

When I am in the windows setup menu (booting from a USB drive, utilizing the Media Creation Tool), I am not allowed to install windows onto any of my drives pertaining to the fact that they are formatted in MBR. If I press the format button, will it allow me to reformat the drive into GPT?

I am doing this to have a complete and utter refresh of my PC, as resetting and reinstalling traditionally (via Media Creation Tool's "upgrade this PC" option) has yielded no positive effect on my system's difficulties.

And before I get the suggestion to use mbr2gpt.exe in CMD, it doesn't work. At all. No matter what I tried. According to Windows, I don't have an operating system partition anywhere on my computer. Neat.

If you run into issues, this is how Microsoft recommends cleaning the drive, then converting to GPT with diskpart while booted from the Windows installation media before starting the installation:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...iew=windows-10

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...vert-it-to-gpt

Megahertz · 21 Dec 2021

If you cant format a drive on Win 10 installation it's because you booted as UEFI and the drive is Legacy-MBR or you booted as Legacy and he drive is GPT.
I would say you booted as Legacy and he drive is GPT.
It will help us to give you more precise info if you post a Disk management image
How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management

Windows can be installed in two ways: 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.

As you have a new MB, you should install as UEFI-GPT
Detach any other drives (SATA or Power cable) from the MB.

During POST, press F8(?) to launch the boot menu. You will see two options for the USB drive. USB UEFI (Name) and USB (Name). Select USB UEFI (Name).
Go to install and delete ALL partitions on the SSD till you have one and only one unallocated space and then proceed.
If you don't want to use MS account, don't enable updates or connect to the internet during installation.

garlicgaming221 · 21 Dec 2021

So if I disable CSM in my bios, boot from my USB drive, then format my OS drive, I'll then have a GPT drive I can actually install in?

steve108 · 21 Dec 2021

garlicgaming221 said:

So if I disable CSM in my bios, boot from my USB drive, then format my OS drive, I'll then have a GPT drive I can actually install in?

Yes, set the BIOS to UEFI.

See the instructions directly from MS: Will formatting a drive in the installation menu make it a GPT drive?

Megahertz · 21 Dec 2021

garlicgaming221 said:

So if I disable CSM in my bios, boot from my USB drive, then format my OS drive, I'll then have a GPT drive I can actually install in?

No. A MBR or GPT style is defined on the initialization of the drive.
You need to clean all the drive first. It has nothing to do with BIOS settings.
See my post above.

- Win 10 installation drive must be booted as UEFI
- All partitions must de deleted and then proceed.
The drive will be converted to GPT (it may already be) and the necessary partitions will be created.

Yes, BIOS must be set to boot as UEFI. As you MB is new, it's probably the default.

It will help us to give you more precise info if you post a Disk management image
How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management

itsme1 · 21 Dec 2021

As Megahertz mentioned do not forget to choose in the boot menu your usb drive with UEFI at the beginning of the name of your usb flash drive.

Will formatting a drive in the installation menu make it a GPT drive?-asus-boot-menu.png

SIW2 · 21 Dec 2021

If you are using windows setup:

The partition style of the target disk needs to correspond to the mode you booted the installation media.
Installation media booted in efi mode expects the target disk to be gpt partition style.
Installation media booted in bios mode expects the target disk to be mbr partition style.

Formatting is the process of creating a filesystem on an existing partition (e.g. ntfs, fat32 ). It does not change the partition style of the disk.

1. Initialize disk to a style
2. Create partition(s)
3. Format partition(s)

It is a while since I used windows setup, but from memory:

if you delete ( not format) all the partitions on the target disk, then windows setup knows there is nothing on there and has the confidence to reinitialize the target disk in its preferred style. It will also then create and format the partitions that it wants on the target disk and proceed with the installation.

If you have stuff on the disk that you want, you will need to look for another solution.