Question MBR to GPT with 4 partition already in used.

[vampelle]

PC Desktop is Lenovo M92 , windows 10 64 bit , i3-3rd gen.

I have one HDD 2Tb for my windows, and everything else with 2 partition , C drive and D drive. both with its own things.
Then i have system reserved 50mb and recovery partition for 500mb.

The issue is i cant delete or format all my drive. i dont have extra drive to insert my 1.7tb of data.
when i try to convert mbr2gpt through command prompt. it give me failed and in setuperr.txt file under windows folder .
This is the message.

2021-07-14 19:51:17, Error ValidateLayout: Too many MBR partitions found, no room to create EFI system partition.
2021-07-14 19:51:17, Error Disk layout validation failed for disk 0
2021-07-14 19:53:24, Error ValidateLayout: Too many MBR partitions found, no room to create EFI system partition.
2021-07-14 19:53:24, Error Disk layout validation failed for disk 0

Now, since i cant format all of my partition, can i delete recovery partition and once i convert my hdd to gpt , how can i get this partition again.
the only i can see to delete is through disk-part or during fresh installation of windows.
guide me if anyone have any idea.

 

[Colif]

can you show us a screenshot of disk management showing details of the top and bottom areas, upload it to an image sharing website and show link here

Too many MBR partitions found, no room to create EFI system partition.

Actually, if you got the message: “Too many MBR partitions found” in addition to “...no room to create EFI system partition”, then the problem is that preparation is done in MBR mode and MBR limits the number of partitions to 4. for this problem, you need to check how many partitions you have with Diskpart.
Source

https://stackoverflow.com/questions...-found-no-room-to-create-efi-system-partition

 

[vampelle]

That Ok i found out the other simple and long way, Since my Bios had UEFI mode option.
it was a mixture of a couple of youtube videos, that i pick one part then second part . to convert mbr to gpt without loss of data , mbr to gpt in windows install, and few others search.

 

[Colif]

i haven't run the process myself but having multiple drives in PC shouldn't matter since you were just converting 1 drive at a time.

The reason for error doesn't seem to make sense, you don't swap the boot method until after the commands, so unless C had more than 4 partitions already, it should just resize C partition, create the EFI and redirect windows to look at it instead of the MBR. It probably removes the mbr as well.

have you worked it out?

 

[vampelle]

i haven't run the process myself but having multiple drives in PC shouldn't matter since you were just converting 1 drive at a time.

The reason for error doesn't seem to make sense, you don't swap the boot method until after the commands, so unless C had more than 4 partitions already, it should just resize C partition, create the EFI and redirect windows to look at it instead of the MBR. It probably removes the mbr as well.

have you worked it out?

The issue wasn't for drives but for partition. i have checked only a few were helpful for some parts but not completely.
If your drive is in MBR and already has 4 partitions, it will not let you make another partition for efi.
2 methods you can try, as I did for my laptop and desktop.
through windows and if you only have 3 partitions or less (including system reserved and recovery partition) in your drive and it is mbr. then it is easy to do.
two way, you can do. using cmd (in admin mode), one is run then cmd and in admin mode. other is reset pc now option, there choose to troubleshoot, then advance or cmd. that will also do the same what you will do through windows cmd. before choosing the disk which you want to change. mbr2gpt /validate type send then mbr2gpt convert. w

View: https://youtu.be/NivpAiuh-s0?t=317

View: https://youtu.be/GciwrjgpRXg?t=40


both youtube video is fine. but do remember once you restart go to bios and change the bio from auto or legacy to UEFI and only then the convert to gpt will work.
do check first in bios before doing it.
this was easy for my laptop which had only 3 partitions.

For the desktop which had 4 partitions on mbr and legacy bios. (system reserve, recovery partition, c drive, and d drive.) if you can not delete d drive then you need to delete the recovery partition so you can convert to gpt and then change bios to uefi , don't worry once you do this, and want to reinstall windows, the recovery partition will be made itself. (that what I did)
delete the recovery partition, first then you can follow the above steps.

View: https://youtu.be/VMw_9y67stc?t=94


now after confirming my drive is now gpt and using UEFI bios and my storage D drive partition same as before including c drive. i download windows 10 from Microsoft and converted my USB into a windows boot system. Restart the system change the boot setting to USB (and if u see uefi and leacy option, choose to boot from uefi from USB), then forward, forward, forward, once the partition is shown, delete your c drive and system reserve only (since you will have unallocated space in replace of the recovery partition) u don't need to make any new partition, just install in the unallocated space and it should do itself. or you can make a partition if you want (but the recovery partition might not show up then.) DON'T DELETE YOUR D DRIVE OR ANY PARTITION EXCLUDING C DRIVE, SYSTEM RESERVE AND RECOVERY PARTITION.

it did take me time but I got it done and now, both of my systems is on UEFI and gpt including my secondary drive as well.

 

[Colif]

Or if you just doing it to use Win 11 later on, you can just wait and clean install win 11 and it will do all that for you.

GPT only really necessary for boot drives, or if the drive is bigger than 2.2tb. I expect WIn 11 can still read MBR drives, just not boot off them. Or if you want more than 4 partitions on a disk.

I marked it solved since you worked it out

 

[vampelle]

Or if you just doing it to use Win 11 later on, you can just wait and clean install win 11 and it will do all that for you.

GPT only really necessary for boot drives, or if the drive is bigger than 2.2tb. I expect WIn 11 can still read MBR drives, just not boot off them. Or if you want more than 4 partitions on a disk.

I marked it solved since you worked it out

i wish my Lenovo m92 have everything except tpm 2.0 (having 1.2) and i3- 3rd gen. while my laptop hp8760w having i7 2nd tpm 1.2
not sure if win 11 will consider us too.
please do mark it solved