Can a Win 10 install on a GPT formatted SSD primary read an MBR/NTFS formatted HDD secondary?

[Evil_Geoff]

I've looked and can't find this question actually answered anywhere.

Current system (Lenovo K330) specs:
MB: Lenovo ciP67m
CPU: i7-2600 (3.4ghz)
RAM: 12GB DDR3 1333
HDD: Seagate ST31500341AS 1.5TB
GPU: MSI Radeon HD 6770 1GB DDR5 VRAM
OS: Windows 10 Home 64bit build 1607

I'm trying to figure out a way of updating my system to a newer MB that is UEFI capable, and don't want to loose the data on my HDD that reformatting and re-partitioning from MBR to GPT would cause. My thought on the best way to do that would be to use an inexpensive SSD to do a clean install of Win 10 to use as my primary/boot drive formatted for GPT/UEFI, and use my current HDD as a secondary/storage drive.

I'm finding a boatload of articles and guides about the differences between MBR and GPT, and about the differences between UEFI and BIOS, and the advantages about the newer systems, etc...

But nothing that answers the question - will the GPT/UEFI booted system see/read the old MBR/NTFS formatted hard drive? It's a simple question, but apparently my Google-fu isn't cutting through the 12 million tech articles to find an answer.

 

[USAFRet]

But nothing that answers the question - will the GPT/UEFI booted system see/read the old MBR/NTFS formatted hard drive? It's a simple question, but apparently my Google-fu isn't cutting through the 12 million tech articles to find an answer.

In a single word - Yes.

 

[Cesar86]

I've looked and can't find this question actually answered anywhere.

Current system (Lenovo K330) specs:
MB: Lenovo ciP67m
CPU: i7-2600 (3.4ghz)
RAM: 12GB DDR3 1333
HDD: Seagate ST31500341AS 1.5TB
GPU: MSI Radeon HD 6770 1GB DDR5 VRAM
OS: Windows 10 Home 64bit build 1607

I'm trying to figure out a way of updating my system to a newer MB that is UEFI capable, and don't want to loose the data on my HDD that reformatting and re-partitioning from MBR to GPT would cause. My thought on the best way to do that would be to use an inexpensive SSD to do a clean install of Win 10 to use as my primary/boot drive formatted for GPT/UEFI, and use my current HDD as a secondary/storage drive.

I'm finding a boatload of articles and guides about the differences between MBR and GPT, and about the differences between UEFI and BIOS, and the advantages about the newer systems, etc...

But nothing that answers the question - will the GPT/UEFI booted system see/read the old MBR/NTFS formatted hard drive? It's a simple question, but apparently my Google-fu isn't cutting through the 12 million tech articles to find an answer.

Hey there. Yes, from your GPT Win10 install you'll be able to access your MBR/NTFS HDD. In fact, that is what I'm currently doing on my PC, Win10 install on a 240GB SSD and a Win7 install on the MBR/NTFS 500GB HDD, and I have full access to both drives independent of what OS I'm using.

Only issue I'm facing is that sometimes the Win10 install detects a "disk error" on the other HDD, and I doubt there's any error at all. For the past years I've been using that 500GB HDD along with a 1TB HDD, each with a separate Win7 installation, and never had problems of any sort. Now with the GPT Win10 installation on the SSD, it started to come up (more specifically, after I first chose to boot Win7 after installing Win10) and doing some digging on the Internet I found other people with similar issues. I even had a random BIOS corruption booting normally the Win10 install, luckily my mobo has dual-BIOS and managed to recover it. Maybe switching boot between the GPT Win10 and MBR Win7 is related to this, I have yet to establish if it does any harm.

I'm planning on re-formatting the SSD and doing a fresh Win10 install using the good old MBR format and see if this random "disk error" message and scan stop.