Fix Windows can not be installed to this disk.

While installing Windows on your personal computer. You got an error saying Windows can not be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition system. I can imagine how frustrated you would be. Have you ever wonder What are the reasons behind this error.

The reason is you have booted the PC in UEFI Mode but the disk is not configured for UEFI Mode. UEFI Mode support the GPT partition style while the MBR is supported by legacy boot mode. Luckily, modern motherboards support both Legacy boot and UEFI boot, Enable UEFI when you want to boot from GPT disk drive, or enable Legacy BIOS when you want to boot from MBR disk.

MBR VS GPT

MBR	GPT
MBR Stands for Master bootable record	GPT stands for globally unique identifiers (GUID) partition table
MBR supported by the standard BIOS partition table	GPT supported by UEFI (unified extensible firmware interface)
MBR works with disk partition capacity up to max 2TB in size	GPT does not have any disk partition capacity restriction
MBR could create four primary partitions. or three primary and one extended partition	GPT you can create unlimited primary partitions although most operating systems restricted it to 128 partitions.
MBR has 3 parts, master boot code, partition table, disk signature.	GPT consists of Protective MBR, Primary GUID partition table, Primary GUID partition entry array, backup GUID Partition Entry Array, and backup GUID Partition Table Header
MBR is no way near in comparison of speed and security	GPT has faster and more secure than MBR

During the windows installation, you must choose between the GPT or MBR partition styles. When installing windows on UEFI based computer you must select partition style GPT. When you stuck at this error, you need to convert MBR to GPT or GPT to MBR if you are having an error Window can not be installed to this disk.The selected disk is of the MBR partition system

How to convert partitions styles

• Convert the partition system GPT to MBR, or MBR to GPT with the help of diskpart
• Rufus software (It does not convert partition, It create a bootable flash drive.
• Convert the partition system GPT to MBR, or MBR to GPT with the help third party software

Convert the partition style with diskpart

• While in the window installation interface press Shift +F10. it will open command prompt window
• Type diskpart and press enter to enter the diskpart interface.
• Type list disk it will show you the all disk connected with their size and status.
• Be careful while selecting the disk.
• Type disk 0 usually disk 0 is your hard drive. Pen drive or any other secondary storage attached would be counted as disk 1,2,3 and so on, Select the drive you want to convert.
• Type clean. this will clean the entire disk partition
• Type convert gpt. if you are converting gpt to mbr then type convert mbr.
• Done

How to fix Windows can not be installed to this disk using Rufus

These above steps are quite easy if you follow the steps correctly. But the problem in this process is you will lost your entire data that you have on your computer. before doing this process it is advised to take backup of your data.

But the real problem arises when you are in the process of windows installation and you have formatted the old operating system. After formatting the old OS you see this Error Window can not be installed to this disk. This disk is GPT partition. at this point you won’t’ be able to take the backups. Now this is a dead-end situation.

In this situation the simplest solution is to create the USB flash drive using Rufus software. They provide the option to create a bootable flash drive differently for both GPT or MBR partition styles. Download Rufus. Directly after downloading the software you will be able to run the software. Double click on the downloaded Rufus. Rufus interface will open

Select the device you want to create a bootable flash drive. change the partition scheme form MBR to GPT (if you are creating a bootable flash drive for MBR disk partition error then leave the partition scheme to MBR). Let everything default. Press start. Now you will receive the warning about check whether you have selected the right device. It will take around 10-15 minutes depending on your system.

After creating a new bootable flash drive you could easily pass the GPT partition error. just keep in mind while starting the installation you must select UEFI mode in the BIOS settings.

Convert partition style with third-party softwares

There are many third-party software available to convert partition style most of those are premium. but all of them have easy to use interface. AOMEI Partition Assistant and Easeus is are software available to do this job. for more in-depth articles about installing these third party Softwares visit their respecting websites from above provided the links.

Warning: This tutorial in the article is for educational purposes only. we request you to install genuine products only.

Frequently asked questions