Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk

I got an old Windows 7 system installed in MBR.

Following a disk change, I took the opportunity to tryto convert it to GPT, doinc the following:
With the help of a live DVD, I:
1. Created a GUID partition table on the new disk
2. Created a EFI System Partition of 100 MiB FAT32 (following Microsoft's instructions)
3. Created a Microsoft Reserved Partition of 128 MiB NTFS (following Microsoft's instructions) in which I copied the content of the old MSR from the MBR disk
4. Created & copied NTFS partitions (1 system + 1 data) from the old MBR disk to the new GPT one

Here is the state of the new GPT disk:


Rebooting by deactivating LaunchCSM & Legacy OpROM, I do not see my disk in the BIOS list.
I suppose this is logical, since the ESP partition is empty... but is it? WOuld it be another problem/mishap?

I tried to use my usual Windows 7 Recovery DVD, by I got an error:

Windows 7 Recovery DVD said:

This version of System Recovery Options is not compatible with the version of windows you are trying to repair. Try using a recovery disc that is compatible with this version of windows.

Microsoft docs say I need to have access to Diskpart.efi or Diskpart.exe to populate this ESP partition.
How can I move forward?

Tried different ways to put your ISO on 2 distinct USB sticks from a GNU/Linux live env:

• direct dd iso to disk
• manually creating GPT partition table + FAT32 partition (boot, esp flags)
• tried bootiso which creates a MBR partition table + FAT32 partition

So far, the same error...

Reboot and Select proper Boot device
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key

I really do not want to resort to restoring MBR like on the old disk; but I am slowing getting there.

Berbe said:

I got an old Windows 7 system installed in MBR. Following a disk change, I took the opportunity to tryto convert it to GPT
[...]
I really do not want to resort to restoring MBR like on the old disk

Why not? Neither EFI nor GPT gains you anything at all unless your boot disk is greater than 2TB or unless you are using an OS that supports Secure Boot (Win 8.x/10). If neither of those is true, there is no point to converting a Win7 installation to EFI/GPT.

dg1261 said:

Why not? Neither EFI nor GPT gains you anything at all unless your boot disk is greater than 2TB or unless you are using an OS that supports Secure Boot (Win 8.x/10). If neither of those is true, there is no point to converting a Win7 installation to EFI/GPT.

The 2 TiB reason might become valid in a near future.
There is an opportunity (almost said "a window"...) to tackle that MBR problem right now.

Having read through all 19 pages of this thread, I have a few questions. I have Win7 Pro 64-bit installed on a laptop that supports both legacy BIOS and UEFI, currently set to BIOS. The current hard drive is a 1TB MBR drive that I'm trying to replace with a 2TB drive. The plan is to dual-boot Win7 and Debian Linux, so the Win7 boot partition on the new drive will be only about 128GB. I want to sector-by-sector clone the 1TB to the 2TB (rather than reinstalling Win7) in order to preserve some registry info for a program I can no longer reinstall (end of Win7 support from the company) and then move/resize the partitions to make room for the Linux install. I've been tossing around the idea of switching to UEFI/GPT.

1. Am I correct that there's no way to do a sector-by-sector clone of a GPT drive? Or does that apply to only GPT boot drives?

2. Am I correct that cloning a drive or restoring a disk image from an MBR drive to a GPT will change the target drive back to MBR?

3. Am I correct that GPT doesn't give much benefit unless my Win partition is 2TB or more? Or is it the entire boot drive being 2TB or more?