I will be replacing (Upgrading) the motherboard (and CPU) in my desktop in the near future. The current Win 10 is not UEFI. Can it be converted to UEFI (GPT) or do I have to do a "clean" install to get UEFI? I assume the answer is NO, but wanted to check.
Yes it is possible. see this
Convert BIOS to UEFI
There are some videos on U Tube, that can give you some idea's too. It can be done, just make a complete image backup 1st, using a program like Macrium Reflect.
Convert Windows 7/8/10 Installation from Legacy to UEFI Without Data Loss (Simpler Method) - YouTube
Hi there
As previous poster says take backup -- you can't REVERSE the process without losing data !!!!!!!
Macrium Free is as good as any and it works perfectly.
Cheers
jimbo
There's a difference if you want to convert a data only disk. For Windows OS, the boot up process is also need to be modified.
To convert from MBR to GPT for disk containing Windows 10. Follow this link:
Converting MBR to GPT for EFI boot? - Windows 10 Forums
NOTE: Since you are replacing the MB. You also need to re-activate Windows
I have a paid version of Macrium Reflect. I make frequent full disc backups. That part is not a problem. I'll give the Macrium version a try and see what happens. I'll report back. Thanks.
I did make a USB Win 10 install media, using the media creation tool, in case a clean install is needed.
Topgun, tried your procedure. After doing the "C" partition swap with Macrium and auto repair by Windows, I'm back to it showing the NTFS disc. I was going to just restore it with the Macrium image that I made before starting this procedure but it shows the disc as GPT, even though the partitions show as NTFS?????
Thanks/Jack
Here is my discs, after doing the procedure. Disc 0 is Win 10 Pro (my production system).
And this is what Macrium shows, if I wanted to restore the image to disc 1
You can have NTFS partitions on a GPT disk. That's the standard Windows 10 filesystem. GPT and MBR are two different methods of defining the partitions on a hard drive. The partitions defined, however, can be any filesystem that Windows supports. Most UEFI firmware require the system partition (the partition the computer boots from - not the partition containing the operating system) to be FAT32. Your EFI System Partition is, in reality, FAT32 with just a different identifier that labels it as an EFI system partition. The operating system on all Windows 10 computers using the Windows 10 default file system are NTFS partitions regardless of if they are MBR or GPT disks.
NOTE: Microsoft uses backwards (in my opinion) terminology when describing the functions of the partition. The system partition refers to the partition containing the files that the BIOS or UEFI reads to boot the computer from. The boot partition refers to the partition that is loaded containing the operating system once the files from the system partition are processed. On an UEFI computer running Windows with a GPT drive the system partition should be FAT32 and the boot partition should be NTFS.
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