Convert GPT Disk to MBR Disk

EXAMPLE: MBR disk vs GPT disk in Disk Management








1. Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click on the Administrative Tools icon, then close the Control Panel window.

2. Click on Computer Management in Administrative Tools, then close the Administrative Tools window.

3. If prompted by UAC, click on Yes.

4. In the left pane under Storage, click on Disk Management. (See screenshot below)

5. In the disk (ex: Disk 1) that you want to convert to a MBR disk, right click on each partition and volume on the disk and click on Delete Volume until the whole disk is unallocated space. (See screenshot above)

6. Right click on the disk (ex: Disk 1) that you want to convert to a MBR disk, and click on Convert to MBR Disk if available. (See screenshot below)

7. You can confirm that the disk is a MBR disk if you right click on the disk and it has Convert to GPT Disk instead now. (See screenshot below)

8. You can now create partitions on the now MBR disk if you like.

9. When done, close Disk Management.







1. Open an elevated command prompt, and go to step 3 below.

OR

2. Open a command prompt at boot, and go to step 3 below.

3. In the command prompt, type diskpart and press enter. (See screenshot above)

4. Type list disk and press enter.
NOTE: Make note of the disk number (ex: Disk 1) that you want to convert to a MBR disk.

5. Type select disk # and press enter.
NOTE: Substitute # with the actual disk number that you want to convert to a MBR disk. For example, select disk 1.

6. Do step 7 or 8 below for what you would like to do.

7. To Use the "Clean" Command to make Disk Unallocated
NOTE: This is the easiest method. It will wipe the disk clean all at once leaving it as unallocated space afterwards.
A) In the command prompt, type clean and press enter.

B) Go to step 9 below.
8. To Manually make Disk Unallocated
NOTE: This method has you manually delete each volume on the disk before converting the disk to MBR.
A) Type detail disk and press enter. If the disk does not have any volumes listed, then you can go to step 8E below.
NOTE: This will give you a list of all the volume numbers on the selected disk number that you will need to delete in steps 8B and 8C below.

B) Type select volume # and press enter.
NOTE: Substitute # with a volume number listed in step 8A. For example, select volume 3.

C) Type delete volume and press enter.

D) Repeat steps 8B and 8C for each volume # listed in step 8A until you have deleted all volume #'s.

E) When finished, type select disk # and press enter.
NOTE: You would use the same one from step 5 above. For example, select disk 1.

F) Go to step 9 below.
9. Type convert mbr and press enter.

10. Close the command prompt.

11. You can now create partitions on the now MBR disk if you like.
NOTE: Restart the computer if you did step 2 instead.
That's it,
Shawn