Solved Cant convert to MBR because of this (100MB EFI System Partition)

[RvB Vakama]

Hey guys, thank for any help you are able to supply...

So I corrupted my windows 7 boot files when reinstall an antivirus and turned off my pc half way through install, anyway im trying to convert my gpt style ssd partition to a mbr so i can reinstall windows 7 on it. because for some reason i cannot install it on a gpt style. i have looked at so many guides on how to convert it and they would work if i did not have this silly 100MB EFI System Partition (see image attached). I want to just have my ssd Completely formatted to NTFS 4k allocation size MBR please.

also i tried deleting the partition with diskpart in cmd, but it just stops responding and crashes.

thanks for any help!

 

[whs]

With the bootable CD of Partition Wizard you should be able to do it:

Bootable Partition Manger | MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition

 

[GokAy]

Since you have EFI BIOS, I guess you need to disable secure boot in BIOS to install windows 7?

 

[RvB Vakama]

Nope

With the bootable CD of Partition Wizard you should be able to do it:

Bootable Partition Manger | MiniTool Partition Wizard Bootable Edition

Nope it gives me a message that windows 7 cannot be installed because the style is GPT, I can format it but the 100MB wont go away it is just left alone when any formatting is taking place

 

[RvB Vakama]

Since you have EFI BIOS, I guess you need to disable secure boot in BIOS to install windows 7?

the drive that I want to reinstall on Had broken windows 7 which has since been formatted (E:\), the current working windows 7 I am using to post this is on my 2TB SSHD (C:\) why would turning off secure boot change anything on the formatted drive (E:\)

 

[TVeblen]

A couple of things come to mind that you should check:

You show 2 disks: Disk 0 is the problem disk. Disk 1 contains a Windows installation - you don't say what version of Windows is installed there. You should.

On an UEFI BIOS system, if you have any GPT formatted disks in the system then Windows 7 must be installed on a GPT disk. Any data drives can be either format (MBR or GPT), but the OS must be installed on a GPT disk in a mixed disk system. So we need to know if Disk 1 is a GPT disk also.

Since you already have an OS installed in your system (on Disk 1) it may be that it is using the EFI System partition on Disk 0, if Disk 0 was installed at the time the OS was installed on Disk 1. A quick test for that would be to disconnect Disk 0 and see if the OS on Disk 1 starts up.

To install Windows 7 on a GPT disk in a system that has a UEFI BIOS you must boot the install media in UEFI mode, usually using the Boot Menu and selecting the version from there. This is sometimes not possible when using the install DVD in some systems. In these cases you could create an install USB stick to make the installation in UEFI mode.
UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows

 

[RvB Vakama]

A couple of things come to mind that you should check:

You show 2 disks: Disk 0 is the problem disk. Disk 1 contains a Windows installation - you don't say what version of Windows is installed there. You should.

On an UEFI BIOS system, if you have any GPT formatted disks in the system then Windows 7 must be installed on a GPT disk. Any data drives can be either format (MBR or GPT), but the OS must be installed on a GPT disk in a mixed disk system. So we need to know if Disk 1 is a GPT disk also.

Since you already have an OS installed in your system (on Disk 1) it may be that it is using the EFI System partition on Disk 0, if Disk 0 was installed at the time the OS was installed on Disk 1. A quick test for that would be to disconnect Disk 0 and see if the OS on Disk 1 starts up.

To install Windows 7 on a GPT disk in a system that has a UEFI BIOS you must boot the install media in UEFI mode, usually using the Boot Menu and selecting the version from there. This is sometimes not possible when using the install DVD in some systems. In these cases you could create an install USB stick to make the installation in UEFI mode.
UEFI Bootable USB Flash Drive - Create in Windows

are you saying that my windows 7 on disk 1 could be relying on the 100MB files on disk 0, i did not think that was possible in any case, plus when i installed windows 7 on disk 1 i did not have any other disk plugged in, so it cant be relying on the 100MB from disk 0. Also disk 1 is not gpt because when i list details in diskpark in cmd it says its not gpt.

PS this UEFI BIOS and all the other terminology you are using confuses me, how can i figure out if my pc matches what you are saying?

 

[TVeblen]

If you installed Windows 7 without any other disks attached then that should eliminate the EFI Partition possibility.
Just do a quick test: disconnect the power from Disk 0 and then see if Windows starts from Disk 1.

UEFI BIOS: When you go into your BIOS settings, can you use your mouse, or is it the legacy BIOS that could only use keyboard?
The new UEFI BIOS can use mouse control.

 

[RvB Vakama]

I'm silly

If you installed Windows 7 without any other disks attached then that should eliminate the EFI Partition possibility.
Just do a quick test: disconnect the power from Disk 0 and then see if Windows starts from Disk 1.

UEFI BIOS: When you go into your BIOS settings, can you use your mouse, or is it the legacy BIOS that could only use keyboard?
The new UEFI BIOS can use mouse control.

ok i will try to disconnect disk 0 and boot, just to see if disk 1 is really not depending on disk 0
and my bois had keyboard and mouse control, i actually got the bot right here. wow im pretty dumb the box said like everything i need to know about my bois and motherboard (see image)

 

[TVeblen]

We've all been there once!

 

[RvB Vakama]

Surprised?

We've all been there once!

Hey so i took the drive out, and the result speak for themselves.

PS. are you surprised or did you expect this

 

[TVeblen]

Not sure what you mean by "this" in "Did you expect this".
What were the results, exactly?

 

[RvB Vakama]

Not sure what you mean by "this" in "Did you expect this".
What were the results, exactly?

oh sorry i though the pictures explained that, the results are when i took out my ssd disk 0, it put my disk 1 sshd to disk 0 and booted fine, so it was not relying on the files from the 100MB, in short it boots by its self

 

[TVeblen]

So what do you need to do next?
Do you still need to install Windows 7 on that (former) disk 0?

 

[RvB Vakama]

So what do you need to do next?
Do you still need to install Windows 7 on that (former) disk 0?

i need to install windows 7 on the ssd, but my understanding is that my current hardware/setup does not allow for installation on a GPT partition style, so i need to convert the ssd form GPT to MBR so that i can install windows 7, but i cannot do so unless the 100MB thing is gone... are we on the same page?

ps. thanks for all the help, this is why i love these forums, because they have people like you willing to help!

ps. in short, yes on that former disk 0 i want windows 7

 

[TVeblen]

A couple of things you can try:

You could reconnect the SSD (former Disk 0), then disconnect the Disk 1 that has Windows already on it, then boot using a Partition Wizard boot CD, and then delete the partitions (including the EFI Partition), then Covert the disk MBR.

Or, you could use Diskpart to run a CLEAN or CLEAN ALL command on the SSD. I'm not sure, but I believe the CLEAN command will delete the file table but still leave the disk formatted GPT. The CLEAN ALL command will wipe the entire disk and it will be unallocated and ready to initialize MBR.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

Are you planning on removing the old Windows installation after the install on SSD?
I assume you want to do a clean install for a reason, rather than cloning your current installation to the SSD?

If doing a clean install, be sure to disconnect that other hard drive before starting.

 

[RvB Vakama]

A couple of things you can try:

You could reconnect the SSD (former Disk 0), then disconnect the Disk 1 that has Windows already on it, then boot using a Partition Wizard boot CD, and then delete the partitions (including the EFI Partition), then Covert the disk MBR.

Or, you could use Diskpart to run a CLEAN or CLEAN ALL command on the SSD. I'm not sure, but I believe the CLEAN command will delete the file table but still leave the disk formatted GPT. The CLEAN ALL command will wipe the entire disk and it will be unallocated and ready to initialize MBR.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

Are you planning on removing the old Windows installation after the install on SSD?
I assume you want to do a clean install for a reason, rather than cloning your current installation to the SSD?

If doing a clean install, be sure to disconnect that other hard drive before starting.

ok ill try the diskpart cleaning one, if unsuccessful ill try the other, and yes i could just leave windows 7 on my sshd but then i feel like my ssd would have no job really, other than just 128GB of fast storage, plus i have a third hdd that has a lot of important files and i only have 2 hdd/sdd/sshd racks so i can only have the ssd with windows 7 (after installing it) and the important files hdd

ps. thanks for all your help, will marked as solved when i successfully boot into windows 7 on my ssd!

 

[whs]

Clean All is not such a good idea for a SSD. It would write zeros on the whole SSD which would significantly degrade future write operations. I would suggest to go with a Secure Erase instead.

How to securely erase an SSD drive - CNET

 

[RvB Vakama]

It worked!!!

A couple of things you can try:

You could reconnect the SSD (former Disk 0), then disconnect the Disk 1 that has Windows already on it, then boot using a Partition Wizard boot CD, and then delete the partitions (including the EFI Partition), then Covert the disk MBR.

Or, you could use Diskpart to run a CLEAN or CLEAN ALL command on the SSD. I'm not sure, but I believe the CLEAN command will delete the file table but still leave the disk formatted GPT. The CLEAN ALL command will wipe the entire disk and it will be unallocated and ready to initialize MBR.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

Are you planning on removing the old Windows installation after the install on SSD?
I assume you want to do a clean install for a reason, rather than cloning your current installation to the SSD?

If doing a clean install, be sure to disconnect that other hard drive before starting.

Hey so I actually went with the 1st option you provided and put "MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition 9" on a usb, then after 2 failed boots from the usb it finally worked, so now I was in the program (its pretty cool how it was built of TinyCore a linux distro) and guess what, the program picked up another partition that windows did not even see, a 128MB with 38MB written to it, I cant remember what format the partition was, but "thats weird" I thought, so I selected all of the partitions and hit delete then apply, that made the whole ssd 1 unallocated partition waiting to be formatted. so I did format it, but it reverted to GPT automatically, then after some investigation I found the GPT to MBR conversion button. hit that, then apply. poof done, went on to install windows 7 without error then GUESS WHAT!, my pc rebooted and went to the install cd instead of the SSD, I though "what?" so I went to install again to see what would happen and it told me that windows could not be installed on a MBR STYLE PARTITION...THAT ONLY GPT WAS SUPPORTED FOR UFI OR SOME SHIT, I WAS LIKE... WWWTTTTTTFFFFFF!!!!! but instead I rebooted and set the boot order to the SSD and all was fine, here I am now writing this.

PS. THANK YOU TVeblen for dedicating some of your time to help me, I greatly appreciated it!

 

[jumanji]

1. If you have had a working Windows Installation, you could have simply run Partition Wizard installed in it. ( No need for creating a bootable PW pen drive)

2. The 128MB partition is the MSR partition on a GPT drive created by Windows. Windows Disk Management will always hide it from the users so that users cannot meddle with it. Partition Wizard and other partitioning software can see it.