SSD upgrade Problem "the selected GPT formatted disk contains ...."

I have a Toshiba Portege Z830 that came with a single 128GB SSD.

I want to upgrade the SSD to 500GB (Samsung 840 EVO mSATA).

So I attached an external HDD and a RW DVD, created a system image backup and a system repair disk after which I shut down and swapped the SSD, rebooted, restored and everything is working as it did before.

However, now the new SSD is installed through the disk computer management's disk management facility it is showing 4 partitions and an unallocated partition of 346GB.

When I try to format the unallocated partition I get the following error message.

"the selected GPT formatted disk contains a partition which is not of type 'PARTITION_BASIC_DATA_GUID' and is both preceded and followed by a partition type 'PARTITION_BASIC_DATA_GUID' "


The four partitions showing are:

1.46GB Healthy (Active, Recovery Partition)
8GB Healthy(Hibernation Partition)
11.85GB Healthy (Primary Partition)
97.93GB Healthy(Boot Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)

If I click on the 97GB partition it won't allow me to expand the volume only shrink it.

Looking up that error on the Internet it would seem that I need to convert the SSD to a MBR format, but it also seems to suggest that you can only then have a maximum of 4 partitions and I am assuming I need at least 5.

Although all the references to this error seem to refer to MBR there is nothing displayed that confirms that the existing partitions are usng a MBR format so I am not 100% certain that this is the same problem.

It also appears that I can convert the SSD to a GBT disk, although I suspect the new SSD disk is already formatted as GBT.

Converting the SSD to MBR or GBT seems to be a destructive process and I'm concerned that as this is my only disk if I attempt to convert the disk to either MBR or GBT using DISKPART it will crash the system as it is going to wipe all the data.

Can anyone offer any advice?

Can anyone confirm that this is a problem to do with MBR and GBT formatting?

Is there something simple I can do to resolve this problem?

My uneducated feeling is that I need to keep the disk as GBT but if I try to wipe everything will I loose the system as this is the primary and only disk and not a secondary disk.

If I am able to wipe all the partitions and convert the SSD to GBT when I restore the image disk backup will the files be restored as GBT or will they simply revert back to MBR?

If I wipe all the partitions and convert the SSD to MBR, when I restore the image disk backup will I be left with 4 partitions and then unable to create a 5th, or will I then be able to expand one of the existing partitions?

I assume I need all of the existing partitions, the only one I recognise is the 97GB which is the C drive but I am assuming the other partitions are used for recovery, hibernation and something else important.

I'm a little reluctant to guess with out more information so any guidance would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

MartinDay007 said:

The four partitions showing are:

1.46GB Healthy (Active, Recovery Partition)
8GB Healthy(Hibernation Partition)
11.85GB Healthy (Primary Partition)
97.93GB Healthy(Boot Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)

If I click on the 97GB partition it won't allow me to expand the volume only shrink it.

Do those same 4 partitions also exist on the original 128 gb SSD?

Not sure I ever heard of a hibernation partition as opposed to a hibernation file.

Can you post a screen shot of what you see now in Windows Disk Management on the larger SSD?

Have you attempted to extend the 97 gb partition with a tool such as Partition Wizard?

ignatzatsonic said:

MartinDay007 said:

The four partitions showing are:

1.46GB Healthy (Active, Recovery Partition)
8GB Healthy(Hibernation Partition)
11.85GB Healthy (Primary Partition)
97.93GB Healthy(Boot Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)

If I click on the 97GB partition it won't allow me to expand the volume only shrink it.

Do those same 4 partitions also exist on the original 128 gb SSD?

Not sure I ever heard of a hibernation partition as opposed to a hibernation file.

Can you post a screen shot of what you see now in Windows Disk Management on the larger SSD?

Have you attempted to extend the 97 gb partition with a tool such as Partition Wizard?

Thanks for your reply ignatzatsonic

I assume the same 4 partitions exist on the original 128GB SSD - as the sizes seem to add up.

This is a screenshot of the Windows Disk Management



I did look to try and extend the 97GB using the windows disk management but the option is greyed out and I assume because if I understand right that in order to extend the space has to be contiguous. To be honest I would prefer to extend the 97GB rather than have another partition.

I downloaded the Partition Wizard and tried to extend but it would only allow me to take space from the system partition, so again I assume that is because it is the only space available that would allow the extended space to be contiguous.

I tried creating a partition using the partition wizard and this came up with a more friendly error saying that there were no free MBR slots on the disk, which seems to confirm that I will either have to delete one of the existing partitions, or convert everything to GBT.

After reading up on the hibernation and other primary partitions, and since I have a recent image backup and the original SSD disk to fall back on I decided to delete the hibernation and primary partitions. This then allowed me to expand the C partition.

It all seemed to work and I have tested that the system still hibernates okay so it doesn't seem to need that space.

I am not sure if I should leave the C drive expanded to its maximum or if I should leave enough space to allow another two partitions to be created just in case there is a need for them.

I can't help feeling that as there are only 4 MBR slots that any system facility could not rely on being able to create a partition as it must be quite common for people to have more than one partition.

We don't have your system specs, so don't know who made your PC.

My guess would be that the 11.85 gb partition that you deleted was related to factory recovery or perhaps tools of some type. Whatever, it's history as you deleted it.

I have not recently used Partition Wizard, but am pretty sure you simply did not operate it correctly as it should have allowed you to add that 346.52 gb of unallocated space to C. It's the best tool for that job. You are correct that you could not do it with Windows Disk Management, which requires that the unallocated space be IMMEDIATELY to the right of the partition to be extended.

MartinDay007 said:

I downloaded the Partition Wizard and tried to extend but it would only allow me to take space from the system partition, so again I assume that is because it is the only space available that would allow the extended space to be contiguous.

I tried creating a partition using the partition wizard and this came up with a more friendly error saying that there were no free MBR slots on the disk, which seems to confirm that I will either have to delete one of the existing partitions, or convert everything to GPT.

MBR disks allow up to four primary partitions, or three primary partitions and one "extended partition" which supports from 1-120 logical partitions inside of it. Partition Wizard can handle both primary and logical partitions, and can also convert one of your primary partitions into an "extended partition" where you now have one logical partition inside of it. You can then do further maintenance (e.g. shrinking that logical partition) to allow for the creation of two or more logical partitions inside that one "extended partition" (which contains logical allocated partitions as well as logical freespace).

Partition Wizard can create or delete partitions, and can resize partitions using adjacent available/unallocated space, and can "slide partitions left and right" using adjacent available/unallocated space. So if you think through what you'd like your setup to be, Partition Wizard can do it all for you.

If you want to do maintenance to your operating C-partition while Windows is running, you can start the operation using PW while still running under Windows but it will need to re-boot to complete it. At re-boot time PW kicks in to finish the earlier started operation, and when finished it continues on with the normal Windows boot process. When you get your Windows desktop you will now be operating with your resized C-partition.

Alternatively, you can use PW's standalone boot CD instead of running the program under Windows. Operating through this standalone boot CD method allows you to now do ANYTHING you want all at once, and without an intervening re-boot required to complete the operation. Everything will be completed right here and now, in this standalone non-Windows mode.

NOTE: GPT architecture is not limited to 4 primary partitions (or 3 plus and extended) as MBR is. But unless it's required, MBR is fine as the combination of primary and logical partitions can give you whatever you want, with whatever partitions sizes you want, constrained only by the fact that logical partitions must be adjacent to each other since they all live within the one "extended partition".

I was asked to look at this which somehow landed in hardware forum. These are normally dealt with daily in Install forum.

The screenshot shows an MBR disk if its booting or there could be no Active flag. But there is no System Flag signifying the partition booting the OS so it should not even boot. Normally the Active flag points to the System partition. Can you check it with Partition Wizard boot disk which can settle Disk Mgmt misreporting?

We also need to see screenshot of source drive Disk Mgmt.

Thanks for all the replies, I can confirm that without the deleted partitions everything seems to be working, the system hibernates okay and reboots okay.

As others have suggested I suspect that one of the partitions was probably a factory reset, the hibernate partition seems to not be essential for the system to hibernate.

I have ordered an external mSATA enclosure, when it arrives I will be able to access the original SSD.

I will post the original SSD partitions and I will be able to run tests on that SSD.