MBR partition table? Windows 7 won't install on hard drive that previously had win7.

Anonymous
2016-02-13T12:25:28+00:00

(long story) Alright, so I have had this same exact harddrive for a while, and out of nowhere, I get a message: Microsoft Windows has stopped responding. I think, oh ****! I gotta restart it! And so I hard-restart it and now windows won't load. I get the bios, but not the OS. So I try to save my files and reinstall windows7 by using a linux usb to save my stuff, except that doesnt work. So I accept my fate, use GParted to format the partition to NTFS and then I restart and boot up from the windows install disc. And I go to install windows on the empty partition (also I guess I should mention there is another partition that's 100mb and says sytem reserved, I never touched that one) and I get this and I quote "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk has an MBR partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only be installed to GPT disks." and thats it. And the weird thing is, I installed win7 on that SAME harddrive before with now problems. So did my Hard drive poop out on me? Is windows just being a butt? Help pls, I NEED my computer, I am in a programming for game design class and I need my PC in order to make my end of the year project. (Oh, I guess I should also mention I am currently using a Lubuntu usb stick to type this... if that is relevant at all...) Oh, and the windows version is 7 ultimate.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Install and upgrade

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-02-15T01:29:16+00:00

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-02-15T01:29:59+00:00

    picture #5 (closer look at the boot priority order)

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-02-15T01:30:34+00:00

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  4. Greg Carmack 24,780 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-02-15T02:09:14+00:00

    Going back to your first post, you said Windows stopped responding.  When you then reformat and try to reinstall the installer errors that you're trying UEFI install to an MBR disk.  But you saw no boot choice for a UEFI DVD  that you remember? 

    I'm thinking its possible the original OS failure was some kind of firmware change or failure from BIOS<>UEFI that would cause Windows to become unbootable.  But we can't know now which format because you reformatted to MBR before that first attempt.  In addition there are no detectable settings for UEFI.   Do you by chance have a backup image of the old install, or did you ever see in Disk Mgmt if it had a System Reserved vs. an EFI System partition? 

    Looks like you have the latest BIOS version 43 from 2011. 

    Did you F9 to choose Setup Defaults, then F10 to Save and Exit?  Try install then. 

    Next set SATA to AHCI, F10 to Save and Exit,  and try that.

    Next set DVD drive first to boot in BIOS using the navigation keys shown to change the order, then F10 to Save and Exit.  Try install again.

    If these fail try to obtain a new WIndows 7 ISO image file if possible, or if not  extract the ISO image file using  ImgBurn 2.5.7.0 - FileHippo.com - making sure to avoid any sneakware during install of ImgBurn.  Then write the ISO to 4gb+ flash stick using Rufus  with the settings exactly as pictured here:

    ![](http://fud.community.services.support.microsoft.com/Fud/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?fid=55333021-83f4-4ee4-a523-90676cd42171)

    Then boot the stick using the BIOS Boot Menu Key

    to see if it shows up as a UEFI device to boot and/or will install. 

    If not write the same ISO to stick using Windows 7 USB-DVD Download Tool  or

    UltraISO Software To Create Bootable USB Flash Driveto try it for Legacy install. 

    Then the next thing I would try is to burn DVD or create  flash stick that will install either version with Media Creation Tool for WIndows 10 to compare if it will install.  This will rule out the Windows 7 ISO or media creation process is the problem and inform us better about UEFI vs Legacy install behavior on that PC. 

    If no UEFI choice shows up at any time in the Boot menu then I'd abandon that effort altogether and focus on new ISO, new media, disk wiped and converted to MBR again to compare WIndows 7 and 10 legacy installs.  You do not need to install 7 first to Upgrade to 10, you can if desired Clean Install Windows 10 Upgrade

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-02-15T02:16:31+00:00

    okie dokie, will do...

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