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

TVeblen said:

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 said:

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 said:

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 said:

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.
Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

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!

TVeblen said:

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.
Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

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!

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.