3 Ways to Convert GPT Hard Drive to MBR Without Data Loss

Why do we need to convert GPT to MBR?

It seems a little alien to the current trend of MBR to GPT because GPT has more advantages than MBR, and now Windows 11 has come, which makes more users choose GPT, not MBR. Then why need to convert the GPT hard drive to MBR?

Well, as not all computers can upgrade to Windows 11, not all devices are compatible with the GPT partition style. Although Windows 11 is a hotshot for many users, Windows 10, 7, 8, and other older systems have lots of users. For them, MBR is more suitable. There might not be an exact answer about “MBR and GPT, which is better?”. But due to some reasons, users may need to convert GPT hard drive to MBR.

Generally, an MBR disk usually uses BIOS, while a GPT disk uses UEFI boot mode. If you're using an older OS and change the original disk to GPT, you won't be able to boot from GPT partitions and will see a "GPT protective partition" message in these systems.

Besides, sometimes users will receive a “Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of MBR/GPT partition style” error during the Windows installation. This is because some operating systems only work well on MBR disks (old OS particularly), while some only on GPT disks. Therefore, despite all advantages GPT disk has, MBR is still important for numerous users.

If you don't know which partition table your system is using, you can refer to this picture:

How to convert a GPT hard drive to MBR

Do you really need to change GPT to MBR? In short, for a 32-bit Windows installation, using MBR for the system disk is better. For Windows XP or older systems, MBR is required, even for 64-bit versions. If you are ready, you can move on.

There are 2 Windows built-in tools provided by Microsoft: Disk Management and Command Prompt. We’ll see information about them and how to use them to convert GPT disk to MBR once your disks meet their conditions.

1. Disk Management & CMD—for data disk (cause data loss)

First, let’s try Disk Management and Command Prompt to convert GPT hard drive to MBR.

They are almost the most used programs on Windows computers. Disk Management can help users finitely adjust their devices. CMD can help users do more device management, but it needs commands, and some commands are complex.

Both tools will ask users to clean their target disk, and both only work for a data disk, so we put them together to give you a small tutorial.

▶ Disk Management

Step 1. After you made a backup of all data on the target disk, please right-click partitions one by one to delete all partitions on the disk.

Step 2. You’ll see a note that all data on the partition will be erased. Click “Yes”.

Step 3. Once all partitions are erased, right-click the disk and choose “Convert to MBR Disk”.

▶ Command Prompt

Step 1. Click Start, type “cmd” in the search box, right-click the program, and select “Run as Administrator” to open the prompt.

Step 2. Type “diskpart” and press “Enter” to open the Diskpart program

Step 3. Type the following commands and press “Enter” after each: • list disk • select disk x (x is the number of the disk you need to convert) • clean (this will delete all on the disk) • convert mbr • exit

And you can see, this method still requires deleting data on the disk. At this time, to convert GPT to MBR without data loss using Command Prompt, backing up data to the external hard drive, cloud, or other places can be the only solution. If you don't want to spend time on this, you can use a GPT to MBR converter that we will introduce in the next part.

2. A GPT to MBR converter for data safety—AOMEI Partition Assistant

The 2 Windows tools are convenient, but a crucial point we can’t ignore. That is data security. You see both Disk Management and Command Prompt will erase all data on the disk, and what you need to alert is that they are only available for the data disk. If your disk is a system disk, you can’t use them.

In this circumstance, you can try AOMEI Partition Assistant. This program is third-party disk management software for Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7 users to organize their devices efficiently. Unlike Disk Management and CMD which are only workable for a data disk, the “Convert to GPT/MBR” function of AOMEI Partition Assistant can convert the hard drive from GPT to MBR without formating or deleting data, and it can do the conversion for system, data and external disk.

Let’s see more details about how to convert GPT to MBR via this handy tool.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional. Click the disk you want to convert and select “Convert to MBR” from the right panel. If you want to convert MBR to GPT without data loss in the future, you can also refer to the steps.

Step 2. Confirm that you want to proceed by clicking OK.

Step 3. Preview the pending operation under ‘Pending Operations’, if you want to proceed click Apply.

Don’t forget to change the boot mode if the disk you converted is the system disk. 

Ending words

Although more and more users prefer GPT disk now, MBR disk is still necessary. If you need to convert the GPT hard drive to MBR, you can refer to the 3 ways in this post. However, if your data disk has huge data storage or you need to convert the system disk, we suggest you select AOMEI Partition Assistant. In addition, there are various practical features in it, such as, “Migrate OS to SSD”, “Disk Clone Wizard”, “Convert file system” and more. If you are a Windows Server user want to convert GPT to MBR without data loss, you can choose the Server edition.