What if installing Windows on this disk is impossible? Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk has a GPT partition style. Windows cannot be installed on this disk.

Hello! The question is this. I bought a practically new laptop from a friend and want to reinstall Windows 10 on it again, but the installation process is interrupted by the error “ Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk has GPT partition style». I wonder what I'm doing wrong?

I created it as usual, booted the laptop from it, then selected the largest partition on the hard drive with a capacity of 500 GB, selected it with the left mouse button, but the “Next” button is not active and the warning “It is impossible to install Windows in partition 4 of disk 0.” (Show details)".

If you click on the warning, an error appears.

Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk has GPT partition style

Hi all! Most experienced users know what this is The error can only come out for several reasons.

1. In your laptop's BIOS, , is disabled, and the hard drive is in the new GPT style. In simple words, our reader most likely experimented with the BIOS settings of the laptop and disabled the interface in it . This means that the laptop BIOS began to work in normal mode, and in this case the new disk layout - GPT is not supported, which is why the error appeared during system installation - “Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk has a GPT partition style"

2. Or you have a computer with a regular BIOS without UEFI (or maybe you specifically disabled this interface in it), but the hard drive connected to the PC is GPT style. In this case, when installing the OS, the same error will also appear.

Be that as it may, you can get rid of this error by enabling the UEFI interface in the BIOS, in which case Windows will be installed on the GPT disk.

E if for some reason You don't need UEFI, just converthard drive from GPT style to MBR and continue installing the system.There are two ways to do this.

The first one is the simplest.

In the Windows setup program, select each partition on Disk 0 one by one and select “Delete”. Be careful. If you have several disks in the system, for example there is also Disk 1, then you do not need to delete partitions on it.

When all partitions on the hard drive are deleted and it consists of one unallocated space, select this space with the left mouse button and click on the “Next” button

That's all!

The normal process will begin on your computer or laptop.

The second method is more complicated.

In the system installation window, open the command line using the keyboard shortcut Shift+F10.

In the command line that opens, enter the commands:

diskpart

lis dis (list all drives connected to the computer)

sel dis 0 (select the only Disk 0)

clean (removing all partitions from the disk)

Close the command line and click “Update”.

Select the unallocated space with the left mouse button and click on the “Next” button. The OS installation process begins.

Let's consider many ways to get the error "Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk has a GPT partition style." Previously, there was an old MBR disk partition system and it could no longer operate with the new amount of data TR (terabytes). They came up with the GPT system for disks and it was introduced with the new bisos uefi graphics. Let's approach the presented dilemma using our own, standard means. I would like to note that some users described their actions as simply going into bios and disabling UEFI mode. It all depends on many factors, including the Windows architecture, 64 or 32 bit.

Solutions: Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk has GPT partition style

1. Change UEFI boot mode

Nowadays, most motherboards support both traditional boot and UEFI Boot. Users can choose the most suitable one in the bios settings. Look carefully! Everyone's bios is different.

• Change value UEFI, instead of CSM in the Feature or Setup section.
• In the Peripherals line, click SATA mode: AHCI instead of IDE.
• (This step is optional, try it if the above doesn't work). In the Key Management line of the Secure Boot function, which is located on the BOOT tab, change Other OS instead of Windows UEFI Mode.

If you record from a flash drive and this method does not work, then rewrite . Unforgettable! Press f10 to save the settings.

2. Removing partitions when installing windows

• Remove all disk partitions.
• Recreate them.

Format ( The method will erase all data).

3. Convert or convert GPT disk to MBR

The method will erase all data.

• When the error appears, click OK to close the error message and press Shift + F10, Shift + Fn + F10 (for laptops) to open cmd (command prompt). If nothing works, then go back a step to the windows installation interface and press the Shift + F10 button to launch cmd again.

• Enter the following commands in order: diskpart -> list disk -> select disk 1 -> clean -> convert MBR. Line translation: diskpart program -> list of disks -> select disk 1 (1 indicates the number of GPT disks) -> clear -> MBR conversion. The picture shows what commands were entered. You can type the codes into a line based on the picture. When the diskpart program converts to MBR format, you can exit the program and continue installing Windows.

4. Use standard disk management utility

• To start the program, click "start", right-click on my "computer" or the icon on the desktop, select "Manage" and "Disk Management" from the context menu
• Delete all partitions or volumes on the disk one by one by right-clicking, “delete volume”. (Delete Volume)

• When the disk becomes unallocated, click on the disk and select " convert to MBR disk"(Convert to MBR Disk). After these steps, the original GPT disk will be converted to MBR disk, and then you can proceed to install Windows on this disk.

While installing Windows OS on your computer, you may encounter this message: Windows cannot be installed on this GPT drive. The GPT hard disk partition style is relatively new, so you need to use two methods to install the operating system.

The error message “Windows cannot be installed on this GPT disk” most often occurs among users who install the 7th edition of the OS, although the problem is also possible in the 8th version of Windows. To continue installation on a hard drive with a GPT partition, you must meet 2 conditions:

1. The operating system must be 64-bit.
2. Switch to EFI mode.

First of all, you need to go into the BIOS using the computer's UEFI. Anyone who has installed an OS at least once knows that to do this it is necessary to press the required key when the computer starts. To find out which one you can look at when you boot your computer. It will be in the line “Press – enter key – to enter boot menu” like this. If you currently have OS version 8 or 8.1 installed, then you can log in easier - through the “Charms” button. Let's proceed next:

1. In "Changing computer settings".
2. Then find "Update and Recovery".
3. Click "Computer recovery".
4. Next, click “Special download options.”
5. And "Reboot Now".
6. After reboot, select “Diagnostics”
7. "Advanced settings" and "UEFI".

If you receive a warning “ ”, go to the material on how to eliminate it.

You need to activate important items in the computer BIOS

1. Instead of CSM, install UEFI boot, you can find it in the BIOS Features or Setup section.
2. In the “SATA Operation Mode” tab, change IDE to AHCI, this setting is usually found in Peripherals.
3. Disable Secure Boot – if you are on Windows

Sections and menu items may be in different places due to different versions of BIOS and UEFI. But by the names given in the article it will not be difficult to find them. After the settings have been made, the computer is ready to install a new operating system on a GPT-style disk.

Convert GPT style to MBR

For this procedure, you should take care of your files in advance; if there is something important, save them to a flash drive or burn them to a disk. When converting a hard drive, you will need to completely format it, removing partitions and creating new ones.

The process is not complicated and will take a little of your time to resolve “Windows cannot be installed on this GPT disk.” We set the option in the BIOS to boot from the drive, as you do when installing Windows. When an error message appears, you need to run the command line:

1. By pressing the combination Shift+F.
2. In the window that opens, enter the command “Diskpart”. This command will bring us to a screen in which we can perform various manipulations with the disk.
3. Next, in the window that opens, enter “List Disk” to display a list of available disk partitions.
4. We write here “Select disk *” - where instead of an asterisk we write the name of the disk partition.
5. Further manipulations only with the selected disk. Now you need to clean it with the “Clean” command, after which you can convert the partition.
6. Next, enter the “Convert MBR” command, after which the system will perform a conversion in which the GPT partition will be erased and a new MBR will be created in its place.

Now you can repeat all the Windows installation steps again, without any obstacles.

In contact with

The two most common reasons for an error with the text “Windows cannot be installed on this disk” is when you try to install an x86 version of Windows on a disk where the GPT system is installed or on a computer that does not have a UEFI BIOS.

Without going into details, let's say what needs to be done to resolve this error - convert the disk from GPT to MBR. There are several ways to do this.

By the way, to make it clear what we are talking about, the error in question looks something like what is shown in Figure 1.

Using the command line

Important: This conversion means that all data on the disk will be permanently deleted, so consider whether you really need to do this or move all the important information to another disk.

So, to convert a disk from GPT to MBR through the command line, you need to do the following:

• Step 1. If the user decides to do such a procedure right during installation, he needs to press the key combination Shift + F10. Then the command prompt will open.
  But if he does this not during system installation, but during normal work with the computer, then he will need to perform the following sequence of actions:

1. Open the Start menu (highlighted in red in Figure 2);
2. Click “All Programs”, find the “Standard” folder there (shown with an orange frame);
3. On the “Command Prompt” item (highlighted in green), right-click;
4. Select “Run as administrator” (highlighted in blue).

• Step 2. In the command line, first write “diskpart”, press the Enter key on the keyboard, then “list disk” and Enter again.

As you can see, after this a list of available disks is displayed. There is only one in the above screenshot, but in each individual case there can be many more.

In general, from this entire set it is necessary to select the one on which the user wants to install the system.

• Step 3. Select the desired disk using the command “select disk [selected disk number]”.

• Step 4. The fastest way to clean the disk after this is to enter the “clean” command, which will mean that the entire disk area will be cleared, that is, all its possible partitions. You can do it differently - use the commands “detail disk” (disk details), “select volume” (select a partition) and “delete volume” (delete a partition).
  In this case, the user will first be shown all the sections by letter, and he will be able to select the one that needs to be deleted. Figure 5 shows how to use this sequence of commands. Of course, simply typing “clean” will speed up the process a lot.

Note: If you don't know why you should select individual partitions and delete them, it is better to use the command "clean».

• Step 5. Enter the command “convert mbr”. Everything here is extremely simple. And after the conversion process is completed, all you have to do is enter “exit” to exit. This step can be clearly seen in Figure 6.

That's the whole conversion process - absolutely nothing complicated.

But if the above sequence of actions for some reason turns out to be impossible to perform, there are other ways to convert from GPT to MBR.

One of them is to work with the Windows Disk Management tool.

Through Windows Disk Management

Converting a disk from GPT to MBR using Windows Disk Management is as follows:

• Step 1. Press the Win+R key combination on the keyboard (they are shown in Figure 7).

• Step 2. A command line opens, in it, or more precisely, in the input field highlighted in Figure 8 with a green frame, you must enter the following: “diskmgmt.msc” and press Enter on the keyboard or the “OK” button in the same window.

Clue: This command can be copied directly from here using keyboard shortcutsCTRL+CAndCTRL+V.

• Step 3. The same Windows Disk Management tool opens. In it you need to select the drive on which the user is going to install the system and right-click on it. The menu shown in Figure 9 will appear.
  In it you need to select the “Delete volume...” command.

• Step 4. After the selected volume is completely cleared, you need to right-click on it again. Then the menu shown in Figure 10 will appear. Accordingly, there you need to select the “Convert to MBR disk” command.

After this, all that remains is to follow the instructions of the conductor. There is nothing complicated in this procedure either.

If you can’t do this method, you can only download and use special programs that allow you to easily convert a GPT disk to MBR.

Using special programs

The advantage of such utilities is that they bypass all sorts of restrictions that a standard tool has.

Two programs show themselves best in this regard - Acronis Disk Director and. This is what the first one looks like.

As you can see, it is very simple to use - click on the desired disk, open the “Disk Management” menu in the top panel (in Figure 11 highlighted in blue) and select the desired option for further operations.

In this case, you need to click on the “Change partition type” button (highlighted with a red frame).

It is quite possible that the system will first require you to format or completely delete the volume. There are corresponding commands for this in the same menu.

As for Minitool Partition Wizard, this program also makes the above procedure incredibly simple.

Select the disk and in the menu on the left select “Convert GPT disk to MBR” (the screenshot below shows the reverse command, but its location will still remain the same).

The above two programs are very good, but the problem is that they are paid. There is a less functional free utility called AOMEI Partition Assistant.

The interface there is almost the same as in Minitool Partition Wizard and the corresponding command can also be found in the menu on the left.

The video below clearly shows how to convert a GPT disk to MBR using the Minitool Partition Wizard program.

If you decide to download another program from the above, the interface will be almost the same.

Convert GPT disk to MBR disk | MiniTool Partition Wizard Official Video Guide

Windows cannot be installed on this disk: Troubleshooting the error

The progress in creating personal computers and server systems achieved over the past 20 years is obvious. However, the rudiments of dead platforms still determine many technological aspects of rapidly developing computing technology.

One of these rudiments is the BIOS - a microprogram in assembly language, executed in a special processor operating mode, recorded on a microcircuit that is part of the motherboard.

Time passes and the rudiments die off. So the BIOS is being replaced, long-awaitedly, by UEFI technology, which is replacing the Master Boot Record (MBR - Master Boot Record) with GPT.

What is GPT

GPT (an abbreviation for GUID Partition Table) is a format for storing records of hard disk partitions.

Unlike MBR, GPT does not contain executable code and does not transfer control of the computer to the operating system boot loader.

These functions are performed by UEFI. GPT contains the following information:

• hard drive block number, which is the beginning of the partition;
• section length in blocks;
• partition type.

GPT has a number of significant advantages over MBR.

Among them:

For compatibility reasons, if the selected disk has a GPT partition style, block zero contains an MBR with a special partition type value set. This is necessary for the hard drive to work on computers with BIOS.

It is clear that such a hard drive cannot be bootable, however, if the installed operating system supports disks with the GPT layout style, then information from them can be read.

Video: installing OS on GPT

Installing Windows on a GPT disk

To install Windows on a computer with a GPT hard disk layout style, the following conditions must be met:

• a 64-bit version of the operating system must be installed;
• The computer motherboard must have UEFI installed, not BIOS.

The first condition is dictated by Microsoft policy: only 64-bit versions of Windows operating systems allow the use of UEFI and GPT.

Photo: Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit operating system

The second condition follows from the fact that GPT is one of the UEFI standards and is not supported by regular BIOS.

To install the operating system, you need an installation disk or flash drive. There are several ways to create a bootable USB flash drive:

• manually using the operating system command line;
• using specialized programs.

As specialized programs you can use:

Important! A UEFI-compatible flash drive must be formatted with the FAT32 file system, therefore, the maximum amount of data placed on it cannot exceed 4 GB.

If the operating system distribution is larger than 4 GB, it is recommended to format the flash drive with the NTFS file system.

Setting up UEFI BIOS

To configure the UEFI BIOS, you need to do the following:

1. enter UEFI by pressing the appropriate key when the computer boots;
2. if you use a flash drive formatted in NTFS, you will have to disable the Secure Boot option;

Figure 2. Saving changes and rebooting

Option Secure Boot allows only boot programs that are signed with digital keys known to UEFI to execute. This option is usually located in the Security menu; to disable it, you need to set it to Disabled.

Photo: transferring UEFI to BIOS compatibility mode

To determine the loading order, press the button "Boot Menu" and in the dialog box that opens, select a flash drive or DVD drive.

Attention! If BIOS compatibility mode has not been enabled, the DVD drive must operate in UEFI compatibility mode!

In some cases, saving changes is not required; the operating system installation process will begin immediately after the boot order is determined.

Please note: the Windows 7 operating system does not recognize a flash drive operating according to the USB 3.0 standard as a boot disk. The flash drive must be installed in a USB 1.0 or USB 2.0 connector. These connectors are usually black in color, unlike USB 3.0 connectors, which are blue in color.

Installation process

The process of installing an operating system on a disk with a GPT layout style is no different for Windows 7 and Windows 8 systems and includes the following sequence of user actions:

1. when the operating system installer reaches the disk selection stage, it is necessary to delete all pre-existing partitions, resulting in a completely unpartitioned disk;

Photo: installing Windows on an unpartitioned disk

Please note: deleting pre-existing partitions cannot occur without data loss, so all information on the deleted partitions will be destroyed! Before deleting hard drive partitions, back up important information.

What should I do if installing Windows on this disk is not possible with gpt partition style?

If the operating system installation program gives you the error “Windows cannot be installed on this disk.”

Photo: Selected disk has GPT partition style

The selected disk has a GPT partition style", there are two possible reasons:

• there is no UEFI on the computer;
• In UEFI, the Legasy BIOS (traditional BIOS) setting was activated, in which loading and working with disks marked in the GPT style is impossible. In this case, you need to disable BIOS compatibility mode.

If the computer does not have UEFI, then you need to repartition the hard drive in MBR style. The simplest way is to use the diskpart console command.

Photo: MBR style hard drive initialization

Please note that changing the disk partition style may destroy all data on it, so you should make backup copies of the information before changing the disk partition style.

When installing Windows on a disk with a GPT partition style, you need to pay attention to the following:

• the computer must be running UEFI;
• in UEFI you need to disable the “Secure boot” option;
• When booting from a DVD drive, you must set it to UEFI compatibility mode.