Wiping a drive that's got a GPT partition?

[hakavon]

Got a Lenovo laptop that had a GPT partition on it. It was running Windows 8 which I upgraded first to 8.1, then to 10, 64bit all. Also cloned the 250gb drive over to a 1TB drive.

I then (for reasons i won't go in to) decided to switch to a 32bit version of Windows 10... (the machine only has 4gigs of memory anyway, and it'll all be fine for my uses).

Naturally, the machine won't allow me to install on the GPT partition, even with the computer set for Legacy.

All I want to do at this point is just wipe the drive and use a Windows 10 Pro 32bit install disc I burned to start fresh.

HOW do I wipe this disc of EVERYTHING and start new? (The computer won't let me do A THING with this drive.)

The only thing I can think of is take the drive from an older machine that doesn't have GPT, and clone that to the 1TB drive. I assume it'll stop being GPT and it'll then be possible to install the 32 bit OS.

If there's another way that'd be less "lumpy"...

 

[Someone Somewhere]

It doesn't let you delete the partitions from the installer? Normally, you can hit advanced, then delete all the partitions, then create one new one. This sets the drive to whichever partition table is needed.

If that doesn't work, download GParted, and select Disk>New Partition Table. Select MBR.

 

[hakavon]

It keeps telling me to not use the 32bit installer disc, but to get a 64bit installer disc...which I've already used and will not help me switch to 32bit.

 

[TbsToy]

Think you have to switch the file partition type, GPT vs MBR in disc management. Done this a few times as well. W10 shouldn't care though, maybe. W10 and UEFI BIOS,s are designed to run on a GPT table. If you can't make it work call Microsoft.
W.P.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Think you have to switch the file partition type, GPT vs MBR in disc management. Done this a few times as well. W10 shouldn't care though, maybe. W10 and UEFI BIOS,s are designed to run on a GPT table. If you can't make it work call Microsoft.
W.P.

I believe most boards don't support 32-bit under UEFI.

@OP, did you try GParted?

 

[hakavon]

Cloned a 32bit drive onto the 1TB drive. That made it possible for me to format it.
Put the blank, formatted drive into the computer, and used the W10 32bit install disc. No go.
It said it couldn't see the drive. I'm guessing it was looking for either a W7 or W8 installation, which of course was gone. No Windows installation, as far as it's concerned there was no disc?
I gave up and ordered a W7 32bit disc on Amazon. I'll install that and then upgrade to 10.

Thanks guys.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

You still haven't followed my advice, but oh well.

 

[hakavon]

Wasn't sure what GParted was, and the cloning attempt was possible here and now. Besides, if it wants an existing Windows installation before the upgrade discs will work...

 

[Someone Somewhere]

Update disks? There's your problem. Changing from 32 to 64 and vice versa needs to be done as a fresh install. You can download a 10 disk off MS's website.