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Windows cannot be installed on this disc. The selected disk contains an MBR partition table

Good time!

When installing Windows, all sorts of problems often arise (although, of course, 10 in this regard has greatly added and it is much easier to cope with it ...). However, "there is a hole in the old woman" ...

In today's post, I wanted to present a solution to one error related to the MBR partition table (see screenshot below). It appears at the stage of choosing a disk for installing the OS.

What is characteristic: this is a mistake, in general, it tells little to a novice user, and it cannot be missed (close, cancel, etc.).

I also note that many people format the hard drive (and lose data) because of it, but this does not always help. Therefore, if you are faced with a similar problem - before deleting partitions on the HDD, read the article ...

An example of an error: "Windows cannot be installed on this disk (there is a MBR partition table on the disk)"

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Solution options

1) Through the boot menu

In some cases, this problem can be solved in a 2-click! After connecting the installation flash drive to the USB port and turning on the laptop, go to the Boot Menu (on my ASUS laptop, the ESC key is used for this - it's better to press it several times right after the power button!).

To help! Hotkeys for entering the BIOS menu, Boot Menu - //ocomp.info/goryachie-klavishi-dlya-vh-bios-boot-menu.html

Going to the Boot Menu - you will see all the drives from which you can boot. In some cases, your bootable USB drive will be displayed 2 times at once. Pay attention to the photo below: my flash drive "Kingston Data Traveler".

Boot menu (ASUS notebook, ESC)

So, choosing a line without UEFI - I repeatedly avoided such an error and installed Windows 10. The method is very convenient, but, unfortunately, it does not work on all devices. But, of course, it's worth trying it ...

2) Burn DVD and start installation from it

If you have a DVD drive on your computer / laptop, then you can recommend trying to start the OS installation from it. As strange as it may seem, the installation from the CD goes without an error related to MBR partitions ...

You can prepare an installation DVD using the special. tools from the Microsoft website (see here for more details).

What do you want to do - Windows 10 installer

Note: to boot from a CD, you need to install in the BIOS special. boot mode Legacy or CSM (Compatibility Support Mode). More details here: //ocomp.info/nastroyka-bios-noutbuka-v-kartinkah.html#Boot

3) Deleting all partitions

Important! All data on the disk will be deleted during this operation!

If you do not have the necessary data on the disk, then you can simply delete ALL partitions on it (see the screen below), then choose to install Windows 10 "Unallocated disk space 0" and press "Further" .

Delete all sections / Clickable

After that, Windows will automatically convert the disk to GPT, and the installer will continue its work ...

4) Convert disk to GPT using command line

Important! All data on the disk will be deleted with this method!

When an error window appears, click OK, and then use the Shift + F10 keyboard shortcut (for laptops, you may need Fn + Shift + F10). After that, a command prompt window should appear.

Next, you need to execute the following commands in order (after each press Enter):

  1. diskpart (run the utility for working with disks);
  2. list disk (look at all connected disks to the system);
  3. select disk 1 (select the disk on which we want to install Windows. In my case, this disk is "1", see the screen below);
  4. clean (clean the disk from all data and partitions);
  5. convert gpt (convert disk to GPT);
  6. exit (exit).

Command line actions

After that close the command line, click on the button "Refresh" - among the list of drives you will see "Unallocated disk space" , on which you can continue installing the OS ...

5) Convert disk to GPT using special. utilities

Note! Method without data loss!

If you have a second laptop (PC), then you can convert the disk without losing data, using special. utilities. How will it look like:

  1. first you need to remove the disk (on which you need to install the OS) from the PC (laptop) and connect it to another device (connecting to SATA, connecting an M2 drive to USB);
  2. then install the MiniTool Partition Wizard program;
  3. after opening it, find the disk in the list and right-click on it - in the menu that appears, indicate that you need to convert to GPT (example in the screenshot below);
  4. after conversion, the disk must be connected to the original PC and start installing the OS ...

MiniTool Partition Wizard

Note: in order not to remove the disk and connect it to another PC in MiniTool Partition Wizard, you can create a bootable USB flash drive and convert the disk to GPT from it. However, such a function has become paid (and, not only in this program ...).

To help!

3 ways to convert MBR to GPT and vice versa without data loss - //ocomp.info/preobrazovanie-mbr-gpt.html

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That's all for now, good luck!

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