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

Anonymous

(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.

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Anonymous

2016-02-14T18:41:14+00:00

You convert to MBR disk with the diskpart command. Just go back to diskpart and select the disk again then run the convert mbr command.

Edit: If the computer is in fact UEFI you can convert the disk back to GPT with the convert gpt command.

John
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Anonymous

2016-02-14T18:24:12+00:00

ok, i ran the disk part commands so now to convert it to mbr, will the installer do that automatically? or is there something else i have to do?
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Anonymous

2016-02-14T15:52:11+00:00

If there are no UEFI settings in the BIOS and if Windows Setup can't understand (use) the GPT disk then my guess would be that the computer is not UEFI capable. Was the hard disk originally in the computer? Or did it come from a different computer? In any case, as instructed in another post you can still press the Shift+F10 keys to start a command prompt while you are installing Windows and use the Diskpart command to clean the disk then convert it to MBR.

How many disks do you have in the computer? If more than one you had better make sure that you select the right disk at the diskpart command or else you will lose all the data on the disk!

John
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Anonymous

2016-02-14T06:47:18+00:00

yes the disk is in the drive and on the multiboot menu its called atapi cd: plds dvd-rw ds8a8

then in my bios settings:

there is no uefi settings

no csm

no legacy bios

no secure boot

i do uave boot priority andy hdd is first then usb hdd then usb fdd then ata ssd than atapi cd...

this is what i get when i press f2 on my initial loading screen it says f2 for setup and f12 for multiboot

EDIT: also, im using my ipod to reply to you, so unfortunately i cant post pics...
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Greg Carmack 24,780 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator

2016-02-14T06:28:14+00:00

Is the disk in the drive when you trigger the BIOS Boot Menu? Yes it should say UEFI or EFI DVD drive. What all is listed there?

Now boot into BIOS setup/UEFI Firmware, report back settings for UEFI, CSM, Legacy BIOS, Secure Boot, and BIOS Boot Priority order.

You can take pictures and upload them using the Attach Image in reply box.
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