How to Convert Disk to MBR or GPT in Windows 11

Before You Start: Important Warnings!

Changing a disk's partition style between MBR and GPT erases all data on that disk. This means all your files, programs, and settings will be deleted from the disk. Back up everything important from the disk you plan to change before proceeding with the conversion.

• Back up your data: Copy everything important from the disk you plan to change to an external drive, cloud storage, or another safe place.
• Close everything: Shut down any apps or programs that might be using the disk you are about to change. This helps prevent errors and data loss.
• Administrator access: You need to be logged into Windows as an administrator to do this.

Understood? Great. Let’s look at how to make the change.

Option 1Changing Your Disk Using Disk Management

Disk Management is a Windows tool that helps you manage your storage drives by showing a picture of your drives. This visual representation makes working with drives easier, making it the preferred method for you if you want to use a visual tool.

Step 1Open Disk Management

To manage your computer’s disks, you need to open the Disk Management tool. You can do this quickly by pressing the Windows key and R together to open the Run box, typing ‘diskmgmt.msc’, and then pressing Enter or clicking OK.

1. Press the Windows key + R on your keyboard. This opens the Run box.
2. Type diskmgmt.msc into the box and press Enter or click OK.

The Disk Management window opens, showing all the drives connected to your computer. This window displays your disk partitions and helps you manage them, such as converting a disk between MBR and GPT formats.

Step 2Delete All Existing Partitions

To convert a disk, you must first delete all existing partitions or volumes on that disk. Find the specific disk you want to change in the Disk Management window. 🖱️ Right-click on each partition and select 'Delete Volume' until the entire disk shows as 'Unallocated' space.

1. In the bottom part of the Disk Management window, find the disk you want to change. It will be labeled something like “Disk 1”, “Disk 2”, etc. Make sure you choose the correct disk!
2. 🖱️ Right-click on each partition (volume) on that disk.
3. Select Delete Volume… from the menu.
4. Click Yes to confirm the deletion when asked.
5. Do this for every partition on that disk until the whole disk shows as Unallocated space.

Step 3Convert the Disk

You can convert the partition style of a disk once it shows as 'Unallocated' space. In Disk Management, right-click the unallocated area of your target disk. You will see an option to 'Convert to MBR Disk' or 'Convert to GPT Disk'; choose the option that matches your desired style.

1. 🖱️ Right-click on the Unallocated space of the disk you want to change.
2. You will see an option that says either Convert to MBR Disk or Convert to GPT Disk, depending on what style it is now.
3. Click the option that matches the style you want to switch to.

The disk's partition style will now change to MBR or GPT. The disk label should update to show the new partition style, confirming the conversion was successful for your disk.

Step 4Create a New Partition

After converting the disk's partition style, you need to create a new partition to use the converted disk. Right-click the 'Unallocated' space of the converted disk and select 'New Simple Volume…'. Follow the wizard to choose the partition size, assign a drive letter, and format the new partition with a file system like NTFS.

1. 🖱️ Right-click on the Unallocated space of the converted disk.
2. Select New Simple Volume….
3. Follow the steps in the wizard. You will choose the size for your new partition, give it a drive letter, and format it with a file system (like NTFS, which is standard for Windows).

You have now successfully changed your disk's style to MBR or GPT and set up the disk with a new partition for Windows 11, ensuring compatibility with modern hardware.

Option 2Changing Your Disk Using Command Prompt (DiskPart)

If you are comfortable typing commands, the Command Prompt (using a tool called DiskPart) is a powerful way to manage disks. This method can be quicker for some people once they learn the commands.

Step 1Open Windows Terminal as Administrator

To execute PowerShell commands for disk conversion, you need to open Windows Terminal as an administrator. Click the ⊞ Start button, type ‘Windows Terminal’, 🖱️ right-click on it in 🔍 the search results, choose ‘Run as administrator’, and confirm by clicking ‘Yes’ if User Account Control appears.

1. Click the Start button.
2. Type Windows Terminal.
3. In 🔍 the search results, 🖱️ right-click on Windows Terminal.
4. Select Run as administrator.
5. Click Yes if a User Account Control (UAC) window appears.
6. In Windows Terminal, make sure the Command Prompt profile is chosen (it’s usually the default).

Step 2Start DiskPart

Now, let’s start the DiskPart tool.

1. Type diskpart into the Command Prompt window.
2. Press Enter.

You will see the prompt change to DISKPART>, which means DiskPart is ready for your commands.

Step 3List Available Disks

Before making any changes, it’s vital to identify the correct disk number using the ‘list disk’ command in DiskPart. Type ‘list disk’ at the DISKPART> prompt and press Enter to see all disks connected to your computer, along with their sizes and current partition styles.

1. Type list disk at the DISKPART> prompt.
2. Press Enter.

DiskPart will show you a list of all disks on your computer, including their size and current partition style (GPT or MBR).

Step 4Select the Disk to Convert

Once you’ve identified the correct disk number from the ‘list disk’ command, you need to select it within DiskPart. Type ‘select disk ‘, replacing ” with the actual disk number (e.g., ‘select disk 2’), and press Enter to make it the active disk for subsequent commands.

1. Type select disk <number>, but replace <number> with the actual number of the disk you want to change (for example, select disk 2).
2. Press Enter.

DiskPart will tell you that the disk you chose is now the active disk.

You have one final opportunity to confirm you have selected the correct disk for conversion. All data on this chosen disk will be permanently erased in the subsequent steps.

Step 5Clean the Disk

The ‘clean’ command in DiskPart is used to remove all partitions and data from the selected disk, preparing it for a style conversion. Type ‘clean’ at the DISKPART> prompt and press Enter; DiskPart will confirm when the disk has been successfully cleaned and made ‘Unallocated’.

1. Type clean at the DISKPART> prompt.
2. Press Enter.

DiskPart will confirm it successfully cleaned the disk. The disk will now appear as "Unallocated" in Disk Management, ready for you to change its style.

Step 6Convert to GPT or MBR

Now, you tell DiskPart which partition style you want to use.

• To change to GPT, type convert gpt and press Enter.
• OR, to change to MBR, type convert mbr and press Enter.

DiskPart will confirm the conversion. The disk’s partition style has now been changed.

Step 7Create a New Partition

After disk conversion, the unallocated disk space needs a new partition. You can use the Disk Management tool to create a new simple volume. Alternatively, within the DiskPart command-line tool, type 'create partition primary' to use all unallocated space, followed by 'format fs=' to set up the file system.

• You can close DiskPart and use Disk Management (as shown in Option 1, Step 4) to create a new simple volume.
• Or, you can keep using DiskPart commands if you are comfortable:
  1. Type create partition primary and press Enter to create a partition that uses all the unallocated space.
  2. Type format fs=ntfs quick and press Enter to quickly format it with NTFS.
  3. Type assign letter=<X> and press Enter. Replace <X> with the drive letter you want (for example, assign letter=D).

You have now changed your disk using the Command Prompt!

Option 3Changing Your Disk Using PowerShell

PowerShell is another powerful command-line tool in Windows. It’s more modern than Command Prompt and uses scripting. This method is similar to DiskPart but uses different commands.

Step 1Open Windows Terminal as Administrator

Just like with Command Prompt, you need administrator rights.

1. Click the Start button.
2. Type Windows Terminal.
3. In 🔍 the search results, 🖱️ right-click on Windows Terminal.
4. Select Run as administrator.
5. Click Yes if a User Account Control (UAC) window appears.
6. In Windows Terminal, choose the Windows PowerShell profile from the dropdown menu (or the default PowerShell tab).

Step 2List Disks

First, find out which disk you are working with.

1. Type Get-Disk at the PowerShell prompt.
2. Press Enter.

The `diskpart` command displays detailed information for all your disks, including their numbers, status, and partition style (MBR or GPT), which helps you understand your current disk setup before making changes.

Step 3Select the Disk Number

Find the specific disk you want to change and note its number.

1. Look at the results from Get-Disk and find the disk you want to change.
2. Write down its Number.

Step 4Remove Existing Partitions

To prepare a disk for conversion using PowerShell, you must first remove all existing partitions, which deletes all data. Use the command ‘Get-Partition -DiskNumber -EA SilentlyContinue | Remove-Partition -confirm:$false’, replacing ” with the correct disk number.

1. Type the following command. Replace <DiskNumber> with the actual number of the disk you found in the previous step (for example, Get-Partition -DiskNumber 2 -EA SilentlyContinue | Remove-Partition -confirm:$false).
2. Press Enter.

This command finds all partitions on the disk you specified and removes them without asking for confirmation for each one.

Crucial Warning: Make sure you have the correct <DiskNumber>. This action cannot be undone and will erase the disk completely.

Step 5Convert the Disk to GPT or MBR

With partitions removed, you can now convert the disk to GPT or MBR using PowerShell. To convert to GPT, type ‘Set-Disk -DiskNumber -PartitionStyle GPT’. To convert to MBR, use ‘Set-Disk -DiskNumber -PartitionStyle MBR’, always replacing ” with the correct disk number.

• To change to GPT, type the following command. Replace <DiskNumber> with your disk’s number (for example, Set-Disk -DiskNumber 2 -PartitionStyle GPT). Press Enter.
• OR, to change to MBR, type the following command. Replace <DiskNumber> with your disk’s number (for example, Set-Disk -DiskNumber 2 -PartitionStyle MBR). Press Enter.

PowerShell will apply the chosen partition style to the disk.

Step 6Create a New Partition

After you convert a disk, you can create a new partition to make the converted disk usable. You can use Disk Management, or within PowerShell, type `New-Partition -DiskNumber -UseMaximumSize` to create a partition using all available space. You can then format the new partition using the `Format-Volume` command.

• You can close PowerShell and use Disk Management (Option 1, Step 4) to create a new volume.
• Or, you can continue in PowerShell:
  1. To create a partition using all the unallocated space, type New-Partition -DiskNumber <DiskNumber> -UseMaximumSize (replace <DiskNumber>).
  2. Then, to format it, type Format-Volume -Partition (Get-Partition -DiskNumber <DiskNumber>) -FileSystem NTFS -Confirm:$false.
  3. Finally, assign a drive letter: Get-Partition -DiskNumber <DiskNumber> | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter <X> (replace <X> with the letter you want).

And there you go – your disk is changed and ready to use!

Understanding MBR vs. GPT

Understanding MBR vs. GPT helps explain why you might need to convert disks. MBR (Master Boot Record) is older, supporting disks up to 2TB and four primary partitions, while GPT (GUID Partition Table) is the modern standard used by current computers with greater capacity and flexibility.

• MBR (Master Boot Record): This is the older standard. It’s used by older PCs and 32-bit systems. MBR has limits: it can only support disks up to 2TB in size and a maximum of four main partitions.
• GPT (GUID Partition Table): This is the modern standard, used by most current computers and needed for UEFI boot. GPT supports much larger disk sizes (more than you’ll likely need today) and can have many more partitions (usually 128 in Windows). It’s generally more reliable and flexible.

Most people today want their main Windows 11 drive to be GPT, especially if their computer uses UEFI firmware. Other drives can be MBR for compatibility with very old systems, but GPT is usually the better choice for drives larger than 2 terabytes.

Summary

Converting a disk’s partition style between MBR and GPT involves erasing data but can be done confidently using Disk Management, Command Prompt (DiskPart), or PowerShell. Remember to back up your data first, and then follow the step-by-step guides to manage your disk partition styles effectively.