Reformatting a GPT drive into an NTFS drive

I recently bought a brand new ASUS laptop running Win 7 Home Premium. While customizing it to suit me, I started to shrink the C: drive so I could create a second, logical partition for programs and files. The idea was to shrink the primary partition down to 120GB (out of 1TB) and use the rest for whatever I wanted. I used Easus Partition Master to do this by combining both steps, something I've done multiple times on other computers using this program without a problem. Something went wrong this time and now it won't recognize the OS at all so I called ASUS, they tried walking me through restoring my machine using the Recovery Partition, but it said "Invalid System Disc" and basically the error said "I can't find your boot disc, insert one or point me in the direction of the one you want to use". This is the error it has been giving me all along. Anyway, the tech said my drive had been erased and I would need to buy another OS or recovery disc (like too many new machines, this one didn't even come with a restore disc) so off I went and bought a fresh copy of Win 7 Home Premium, the full version so I could do the install. As I'm going through the process, my machine tells me that I can't install Windows on any of my partitions because the drive has a GPT format. All my research showed ways of reformatting the drive, but only if you had access to a functioning Windows installation. Is there a way to reformat my drive into NTFS so I can do a reinstall or lie to the machine and make it think I'm installing onto an NTFS partition outside of a functioning Windows installation? I'm desperate, this laptop is less than a week old and I'll danged if I have to buy a new HDD for it

ANY way to get the new OS installed without taking this drastic step would be appreciated! I'm so desperate, I'm trying DBAN in an effort to destroy the setup on the disc in the hope it isn't recognizable as formatted in any way so I can use the install disc to reformat the drive that way.

What you really are requesting is how to convert a GPT disk to one thatr uses an MBR:

Change a GUID partition table disk into a master boot record disk: Storage Services

Rather than running diskpart from Windows, you can boot from the Windows DVD:

Using DiskPart on the Windows 7 DVD : Guides

I haven't done it, but I think it's what you need.

Yes and no. Again, as with the other possibilities I ran across, it requires the presence of a functioning OS already in existence...although I will attempt to get it done with the Diskpart function. Maybe that will work and I didn't see the option.

SUCCESS!!! I went to terminate DBAN (which was about 30% finished) in order to try the diskpart and loaded the install disk and out of curiosity, I went ahead and tried the "Install Now" choice and it is working! I guess I only needed DBAN to run far enough to fry any partitioning, headers, or whatever was indicating structure on the disc and then Windows wouldn't get confused and refuse to load. Cool! We all learned something new today, I guess we can all go to bed now, lol.

Is this new laptop the 399 after rebate from tiger direct? Just curious as I just purchased a new asus laptop a week ago. Anyway, there was a utility to burn install discs in the event something goes wrong. Took me 4 DVDs. You can also use a Linux boot disc to partition a disc that's screwed up pretty bad. I keep a Ubuntu disk handy for such disasters. I did repartition my drive using windows disk utility. Worked good.

No. It is an ASUS ROG G75W with an upgrade to 16GB DDR3 RAM. Would have paid $1200 for it but Best Buy screwed up on my order and so I ended up only paying $1,000. Nice toy, runs like a ring-tailed ape through just about anything you throw at it...except the start up. I've tried everything I can think of short of putting in an SSD drive and my boot times are still around 5 mins. I cut out every startup prog I dared, went in and told it to use all 8 cores for startup (4 physical, 4 logical), nothing has helped tremendously. The only way I can see to cut further boot times is by disabling my antivirus during startup which I'm not comfortable with because some of the meds I'm on have really fried my memory and knowing my luck, I'd fire up the machine and jump on the 'net without enabling it one too many times and I'd have a very expensive paperweight on my desk, lol.