- Thread Author
- #1
I was instaling win8 in a laptop that had previoselly win 8. It is a 64bits.
I have 1 hdd with 2 partitions, the C that has the os and the G that I use for backup.
During istalation I selected the drive C to install win8 and formated.
But I didnt show the option next was greyed out. And and message shows that I windows cannot be instaled...something about the partition was in -GPT.
After some search i realized that i need to convert the hdd to MRB so I can install win8 ,using Diskpart, but with this option I´ll lose all my data in the G partition.
How can I backup my G partition and then use diskpart to clean the hdd...
Thanks to all that spare some time helping me ...
I have 1 hdd with 2 partitions, the C that has the os and the G that I use for backup.
During istalation I selected the drive C to install win8 and formated.
But I didnt show the option next was greyed out. And and message shows that I windows cannot be instaled...something about the partition was in -GPT.
After some search i realized that i need to convert the hdd to MRB so I can install win8 ,using Diskpart, but with this option I´ll lose all my data in the G partition.
How can I backup my G partition and then use diskpart to clean the hdd...
Thanks to all that spare some time helping me ...
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badrobot
Senior Member
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The easy way is just to drag & drop all you files from inside the G partition to an external hard drive. Otherwise, use the back and restore utility on control panel.
- Thread Author
- #4
But I already formated the main partition ..I don´t have acess to control panel......
badrobot
Senior Member
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The drill is to back up your files before doing anything. Since you missed that part, you would need to use another PC to connect your hard drive and transfer all your data somewhere else. And yeah, you will need to pop your laptop open to access the hard drive. I don't see any other way since your OS is already wiped out. I don't know if the recovery media can be used for backing up because I haven't tried so. Backing up should always be the first step. I hope someone can come up a better solution for you here.
Cheers!
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If I'm reading you correctly then you accidently formatted your computer in the older mbr instead of the modern efi… This file error can be caused by different ways and you didn't say if the install is from a disc or usb but I'll assume usb since that is very common.
step 1, format a usb stick for efi... this is where people tend to go wrong... don't pick ntfs or fat32 or you will lock yourself into an (older) mbr install but instead pick efi... rufus_v1.4.3 is the free tool I use for this but there are others.
step 2, extract the windows iso onto your usb stick and install windows... op note that you will have to format the drive again now to remove the old mbr format you already did.
There are two types of boots on modern windows installs... see image.
The efi folder is the modern type used by most computers (especially laptops) and the mbr is the older one... you can remove one of these from the image (usb or disc) to force windows into the boot type that you want but formatting the usb as a ntfs will have forced the older boot type already as well.
To be clear, they are NOT compatible... it's one or the other!
step 1, format a usb stick for efi... this is where people tend to go wrong... don't pick ntfs or fat32 or you will lock yourself into an (older) mbr install but instead pick efi... rufus_v1.4.3 is the free tool I use for this but there are others.
step 2, extract the windows iso onto your usb stick and install windows... op note that you will have to format the drive again now to remove the old mbr format you already did.
There are two types of boots on modern windows installs... see image.
The efi folder is the modern type used by most computers (especially laptops) and the mbr is the older one... you can remove one of these from the image (usb or disc) to force windows into the boot type that you want but formatting the usb as a ntfs will have forced the older boot type already as well.
To be clear, they are NOT compatible... it's one or the other!