Windows 7 Installation - disk problems

[Patrick Mc]

l am having a problem with installing due to a disk partition problem.. Im getting an error that says "The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems Windows can only be installed to GPT disks"

I have no clue and reading other forums it sounded like specific computers were having this problem but I built mine.

Background: Had a Windows 7 Ultimate x64 I used from a friend with no Key, Microsoft doesn't like that so I purchased a Key from them for Premium, used a W7 x32 disk by accident and I have 12 GBs of Ram so pretty inefficient.. I downloaded a W7 x64 version and am now having this problem...; First I've down this now bc Microsoft said they would send me a disk in the mail when I bought the Key but that was about 3 weeks ago and I would like to use my computer to its capabilities.

Can anyone help? DO I just delete the table?

Ps. sorry for being a noob

 

[Patrick Mc]

Just to add I have formatted my HDD and left all info I want on my other 3 Hdd's. I'm using a Asus P8P67 motherboard if that helps any.. Thanks

 

[Saltgrass]

Is that one of the motherboards that had the SATA port problem? I assume you have the revision?

Is the EFI they are referring to the boot option of UEFI? If it is, can you (or should you) change that option in the Bios?

If you are going to use the GPT, I believe you have to format the drive with that option. But I have no actual experience.

 

[Patrick Mc]

Yes I have on that is from post revision so it should be fine. It is a UEFI that I am trying to boot from.. This should be changed to EFI?? When I use the disk when booting UEFI I formatted the drive but gave no options, should I be able to format in BIOS? Thanks Saltgrass for the reply, this has been quite the learning process.

 

[Saltgrass]

I am not really able to answer any real world experience type questions since I do not have an option for GPT. I would think that when you install Windows, or use it to format a drive that the option to specify GPT is there. Perhaps you will need to go to the Drive Options area to see it.

Other than that, here is a Microsoft site I found that explains about GPT and answers some questions. Maybe one day I will get a new motherboard and I can play with such things....

 

[Saltgrass]

Well, as promised I am back with some more information. I was trying to install Windows 7 using the UEFI system and ran into some of the same problems. My drive had been used previously and so had the MBR already installed. It has been said that if the drive is clean, the install will proceed normally and the drive will be converted to GPT without input from the user.

I used Diskpart to clean it but the install still would not convert it to a GPT drive.

What I ended up doing was to use Diskpart prior to installation to both clean the drive and covert it to a GPT drive.

When using this procedure, make sure you know which drive you are looking at because all data on it will be removed.

During the install where you have to pick a partition, or the screen prior, hit Shift+F10. This will open up a command window.

Type the following commands with return after each:

Diskpart
list disk <--verify the disk you want, in this case Disk 0
select disk 0
clean
convert GPT
exit
exit

You should now be back in the install routine. On the partitions page, make sure and select REFRESH to allow the install to see the changes.

After I continued the install and adding a partition, I got a message saying "Windows could not install to a GPT drive", but I ignored it and the install went fine.

If you have any problems, post back...Exact messages received during the process may vary depending on who made your Bios. I have only had this system installed for a few hours, so if I encounter any problems I will let you know also.

Edit: I have also found some things regarding the Backup and Restore process when trying to restore a EFI image.

None of my EFI recovery CDs made with the EFI system worked when trying to boot to and restore an image. I had to boot to the Install DVD using the EFI boot.

If you use an External drive for your image, unless it is a GPT drive, do not connect it until the boot has completed. I like to wait until you get a "Try Again" prompt after failing to find an image the first time. Then connect the external drive and allow it time to initialize, then Try Again.

In addition to the above DiskPart Commands, it appears Windows Recovery is not able to configure a new drive in a way to make it compatible for re-imaging. If you get a "system image restore failed" message, you will have to manually configure the drive.

In addition to the above comands, while in Diskpart and having the Correct Disk selected, do two more things. Add an EFI and an MSR partition. So, the full set of commands for re-imaging a new drive would be:

Diskpart
list disk <--verify the disk you want, in this case Disk 0
select disk 0
clean
convert GPT
create partition EFI size=100
create partition MSR size=128
exit
exit

Reboot to get the drive recognized if you did this in the recovery senario. These tests were done on an AMI EFI bios and may be different for other brands.