Solved MBR to GPT

Megahertz said:

Before you do the conversion to GPT I strongly recommend that you make the Recovery partition at least with 1G or you will have future problems


Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
(you can copy and paste each command to the CMD window)
Reagentc /disable (very important. Don't miss this cmd)
diskpart
sel disk 0
list part (identify the Recovery partition number n3 and windows partition number n2)
sel part n3 (replace n3 with the Recovery partition number found above)
del part override
sel part n2 (replace n2 with the Windows partition number found above)
shrink desired=484 (will result a 1020M unallocated space)
create par prim (will create a 1020M partition)
format quick FS=NTFS label=Recovery
set id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
assign letter=R
exit
R:
MD R:\Recovery\WindowsRE
Reagentc /setreimage /path R:\Recovery\WindowsRE
reagentc /enable
reagentc /info

Click to expand...

Its rather easier to do this using a partitioning tool like minitool partition wizard free.

Thought I would get on with it, increase recovery partition as suggested before attempting MBR to GPT conversion.

Before doing so, checked Disk Management, it has changed from my last screenshot of it and not sure why?

C drive, my OS, the recovery partition box has grid lines through it, I've not attempted anything, why has it changed?

Don't panic Captain Mainwaring, it is normal. Look at top right you can see it highlighted.

click on a different partition in the top pane and then that will have the grid lines.

Or click on the words disk 0 and the highlight in the top pane and grid lines disappear, like magic

SIW2 said:

Don't panic Captain Mainwaring, it is normal. Look at top right you can see it highlighted.

click on a different partition in the top pane and then that will have the grid lines.

Or click on the words disk 0 and the highlight in the top pane and grid lines disappear, like magic

Click to expand...

Thank you.

The solution I gave you on post #40 use windows tools.
As cereberus sugested, with a good drive and partition manager, like MiniTool , you can do it by moving the frontier between C: an the partition to the left making the Recovery partition 1024M.

Megahertz said:

The solution I gave you on post #40 use windows tools.
As cereberus sugested, with a good drive and partition manager, like MiniTool , you can do it by moving the frontier between C: an the partition to the left making the Recovery partition 1024M.

Click to expand...

I am, what figures should I write in the box? see image.

jaylob4 said:

I am, what figures should I write in the box? see image.

Click to expand...

What ever you like. It is just a label. Win 10 is a good label.

You're booting from drive 0 and working on the drive 1 so we can change the drive 1 to GPT, format the System Reserved and make it the EFI partition.
Then you will have the EFI - C: - Recovery partition on drive 1 (drive 0 remains the same as the backup)

- With MiniTool right click on the G partition and select move/resize. Decrease the "partition size" in 484M. It will create a 484M unallocated space just after the G: partition.
- Right click on the * last partition and select move/resize. Move the left side ruler to the left till you have no space before then move the right side ruler to the right till you have no space after. Ther should be no space before or after.
- Hit top lef Apply button to changes take place. You should end with a1024m Recovery partition. No spaces between partitions.
- Right click on the drive icon and select Convert MBD disk to GPT disk.
- Hit top Apply button to changes take place. You should end with GPT drive.

Now you have to to install the EFI partition (for GPT drive) where it is now is System Reserved (for MBR)
Open a CMD window as administrator and type:

diskpart
select disk 1
select part 1
format fs=fat32 quick label=EFI (it will format the System Reserved and create a EFI partition)
assign letter=w (the first partition (EFI) will have a W letter assigned to it)
exit
bcdboot G:\Windows /s W: /f UEFI (this will load the EFI boot manager from G: to the W: partition).

Shut down, detach drive 0 (power or SATA cable), start the computer enter BIOS and select UEFI boot and make Windows boot loader (on drive 1) the first priority boot drive.
It should now boot as UEFI-GPT

I would reagentc /disable
delete the 540mb recovery partition
shrink the ospartition by 500mb
create recovery partition from the 1040mb space

I dont know if minitool can do that, I havent looked at it for a long while.

Megahertz said:

What ever you like. It is justa a label. Win 10 is a good label.

Click to expand...

I should have been clearer what I meant was that mini tool doesn't work as the tutorial and other descriptions have suggested.

In the tutorial it says, highlight the drive concerned, ( in my case disk 2 or G ), select "move/resize partition" tab' in the left pane, a window will appear, ( see my image above ), then arrows will appear, move arrow to the left to shrink disk 2 or G, the same method more or less when increasing space gained from shrinking disk 2, G for the recovery partition.

No arrows, nothing, I have assumed it has been changed and now capacities have to be manually imputed in the named boxes " unallocated space before ", " Partition size " and " unallocated space after ", and want to know what I should put.

I havent used minitol for a long time, but it looks like this is the arrow in the green box below.

It is not very obvious because the arrow is pointing one way. I assume it allows you to drag it the other way.

Alternatively you could enter for example 0.50 GB in the box that says Unallocated Space After

After you have created sufficient unallocated space, I dont know if minitool will create an ms recov part or even if it allows changing partition type. You might have to use diskpart for that operation. I have no idea if minitool can create those special part types such as esp, ms recov, msr and so on.

Megahertz said:

- With MiniTool right click on the G partition and select move/resize. Decrease the "partition size" in 484M. It will create a 484M unallocated space just after the G: partition.
- Right click on the * last partition and select move/resize. Move the left side ruler to the left till you have no space before then move the right side ruler to the right till you have no space after. Ther should be no space before or after.
- Hit top lef Apply button to changes take place. You should end with a1024m Recovery partition. No spaces between partitions.
- Right click on the drive icon and select Convert MBD disk to GPT disk.
- Hit top Apply button to changes take place. You should end with GPT drive.

Click to expand...

None of that works in MiniTool, no matter what I do, you can't have explained it better but none of that happens.

I can right click G partition, I can select " move/resize " a window pops up as in my image above, a four headed arrow appears but no dragging, no moving, nothing.

Watch the video
Minitool- resize

Megahertz said:

Watch the video
Minitool- resize

Click to expand...

Thank you.

Does this look correct, I'm only altering my disk 1 "G" drive for the moment?

You ended with a Recovery partition of 1G but you have created an unallocated space after C:
- With MiniTool right click on the G partition and select move/resize. Move the right side ruler to the right till you have no space after.
Hit apply.

Megahertz said:

You ended with a Recovery partition of 1G but you have created an unallocated space after C:
- With MiniTool right click on the G partition and select move/resize. Move the right side ruler to the right till you have no space after.
Hit apply.

Click to expand...

You mean G correct?

Is below now right?

And this?

jaylob4 said:

And this?

Click to expand...

Looks good now.

cereberus said:

Looks good now.

Click to expand...

Do I need to create another partition for my ESP on G drive before converting it to GPT?