Solved MBR to GPT and back again?

fixer · Feb 7, 2023

My LAN essentially consists of a WIn11 laptop and a Win10 PC. 95% of use is on the laptop but all files are stored on the PC. The PC has 120GB SSD housing Windows 10 and all software and a 1TB HDD with all data files, system images and a few VMs. There are other drives on the LAN, mostly used for backups. I'm thinking of upgrading the PC to Win11, the first step of which would have to be converting the SSD to GPT without loss of data.

If I go ahead with this I would be expecting problems which may or may not be fixable. If they are not fixable, and to remain operational I would need to restore the current system image to the SSD, converting it back to MBR from GPT. I use the paid version of Macrium Reflect Home and have a very high level of confidence in it on normal use, but do the MR users here think it would cope with this?

cereberus · Feb 7, 2023

fixer said:
My LAN essentially consists of a WIn11 laptop and a Win10 PC. 95% of use is on the laptop but all files are stored on the PC. The PC has 120GB SSD housing Windows 10 and all software and a 1TB HDD with all data files, system images and a few VMs. There are other drives on the LAN, mostly used for backups. I'm thinking of upgrading the PC to Win11, the first step of which would have to be converting the SSD to GPT without loss of data.

If I go ahead with this I would be expecting problems which may or may not be fixable. If they are not fixable, and to remain operational I would need to restore the current system image to the SSD, converting it back to MBR from GPT. I use the paid version of Macrium Reflect Home and have a very high level of confidence in it on normal use, but do the MR users here think it would it cope with this?

Provided you have all partitions backed up from SSD, it should work fine.

You may need to convert SSD back to mbr manually before doing restore. All you have to do is select command icon at bottom of Reflect Home page and use diskpart to wipe drive and convert to mbr (be careful you do not wipe hdd though).

fixer · Feb 7, 2023

I hadn't realised how cheap small SSDs are nowadays so, for a modest outlay I could just clone the SSD and avoid all the risks. Might be my best option.

Thomas4 · Feb 7, 2023

What you want to do can be done.

There are a number of programs that will do this. Among them are MiniTool Partition Wizard, DiskPart, and EaseUS Partition Wizard.

Again there are other programs available.

badrobot · Feb 7, 2023

If you have a backup image, you have nothing to worry about. There's only one way to find out. Just go ahead and let us know what happened.

My program of choice for this task is MiniTool Partition Wizard. But I am not sure if free version will be able to do it. Mine is a pro version.

I think there was a free license giveaway of Easus Partition software on this forum recently. It may work also.

Ghot · Feb 8, 2023

Here's the ISO of the Partition Wizard 11 bootable media...
(Scans 100% clean locally and at Virustotal)

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Just use RUFUS to put it on a USB stick.

NavyLCDR · Feb 8, 2023

Why not just use the built-in mbr2gpt command? Only the system drive containing the OS needs to be converted, not the data drive.

johnlgalt · Feb 8, 2023

fixer said:
My LAN essentially consists of a WIn11 laptop and a Win10 PC. 95% of use is on the laptop but all files are stored on the PC. The PC has 120GB SSD housing Windows 10 and all software and a 1TB HDD with all data files, system images and a few VMs. There are other drives on the LAN, mostly used for backups. I'm thinking of upgrading the PC to Win11, the first step of which would have to be converting the SSD to GPT without loss of data.

If I go ahead with this I would be expecting problems which may or may not be fixable. If they are not fixable, and to remain operational I would need to restore the current system image to the SSD, converting it back to MBR from GPT. I use the paid version of Macrium Reflect Home and have a very high level of confidence in it on normal use, but do the MR users here think it would cope with this?

I did this before Windows 11, using the built-in utility as NavtLCDR mentions without a problem, for non system drives when I was on a rig that could not boot from GPT. As long as you're backed up, should be fine, as everyone has said.

My advice, though? Grab a new SSD, clean it and set it up as GPT and clean install Windows 11 and set it up again with all your apps. You'll be better off going that route in the long run.

fixer · Feb 8, 2023

Great inputs - thanks everyone. I'm not in any rush with this, just want to take a step at a time as cannot afford for PC to be down for more than half a day. ATM I've just added PW11 to my Ventoy stick and am satisfied it can do what I want. Now need a suitable window for next step of converting PC's SSD to GPT and checking everything is still OK.

fixer · Feb 9, 2023

SSD converted from MBR to GPT using mbr2gpt offline. No issues at all so far. All backed up with MR. Want to get some advice from PCSpecialist before trying to upgrade to Win 11 as PC doesn't meet Win 11 spec. Can't afford any serious system problems. Donkey's years since I last did any of this stuff so taking my time about it.

Bree · Feb 9, 2023

fixer said:
Want to get some advice from PCSpecialist before trying to upgrade to Win 11 as PC doesn't meet Win 11 spec. Can't afford any serious system problems.

To upgrade an unsupported device to Windows 11 you'll need to use a workaround to bypass the system checks during setup. I've not yet found a machine that cannot run 11, no matter how inappropriate.

fixer · Feb 9, 2023

Bree said:
To upgrade an unsupported device to Windows 11 you'll need to use a workaround to bypass the system checks during setup. I've not yet found a machine that cannot run 11, no matter how inappropriate.

Yes, been doing a fair bit of reading on this. I have previously upgraded an old laptop and it was ok but that was to 21H2. However seems 22H2 has rather changed the situation and I'm now seriously questioning the advisability of going further. This is on makeuseof.com and I'd welcome any views, particularly the second paragraph -

Installing Windows 11 22H2 on Unsupported Hardware

It is easy to bypass the Windows 11 system hardware requirements when you want to perform a clean install. However, to perform an upgrade, you’ll need to modify the appraiserress.dll file and then run the setup.

While the upgrade is possible for now, the lack of future automatic Windows updates makes maintaining the PC a complicated task. If upgrading to Windows 11 is not a must, you can stick to Windows 10 on older hardware, which will continue to receive support until late 2025.

ThrashZone · Feb 9, 2023

Hi,
Really unsupported hardware why care about gpt disks ?
Bypass it just like the rest
Only thing you really need to do in increase the size of you system reserved partition so ms updates will stop creating a new one when the prior is to small.
System reserved partition 1gb and you're done for a long while.

Bree · Feb 9, 2023

fixer said:
While the upgrade is possible for now, the lack of future automatic Windows updates makes maintaining the PC a complicated task.

So far every unsupported device that I have on 22H2 gets all the cumulative updates, etc. automatically through Windows Update, just like my supported devices. It will only be the next Feature Update that won't be offered to an unsupported device. An in-place upgrade with the workaround once a year is not exactly an onerous task.

fixer · Feb 10, 2023

On the basis I can restore a Win 10 image should I need to I decided to go ahead using Rufus and the options to skip the Win 11 checks. However for whatever reason the Win 11 install isn't giving me the option to keep both my apps and files, only my files. That's no good for me so have had to revert to my Win 10 setup.

ThrashZone · Feb 10, 2023

Hi,
Typically I copy and paste the files off the usb onto my desktop
After I right click setup.exe and select properties
Check the box to Unblock and apply/ okay.
Then run setup.exe as administrator and it should offer to keep personal files and apps.

fixer · Feb 10, 2023

ThrashZone said:
Hi,
Typically I copy and paste the files off the usb onto my desktop
After I right click setup.exe and select properties
Check the box to Unblock and apply/ okay.
Then run setup.exe as administrator and it should offer to keep personal files and apps.

Thanks for that. ATM I'm part way through a minimum install of my apps and my most important app is up and running ok. Maybe I just don't need all that accumulated stuff on the previous Win 10 - soon find out!

fixer · Feb 12, 2023

Just to wrap this up the upgrade of the 9 yr old PC to Win 11 has worked just fine - feels just like a new system. System 2 spec updated.

ThrashZone · Feb 13, 2023

Hi,
Good going

jimbo45 · Mar 1, 2023

@ThrashZone
can run W11 (natively) from this old 2016 laptop -- Even running as a VM the performance is still fine (CPU well out of those required for W11) . I run serveral W11 versions from an external SSD connected via sata->USBC / USB3/USB3.1 connector. No reason whatsoever to junk a perfectly working laptop -- and if it goes "missing" on travels --well it's far better than losing a brand new top of the line one. I've seen more than my fare share of dubious practices at Airport security queues etc etc.

And the built in graphics :

cheers
jimbo

Solved MBR to GPT and back again?

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