# Convert GPT to MBR



## Frick (Mar 5, 2010)

j0 all.

I bought an external hard drive to my sister, filled it and sent it to her (she lives like 1200km from me), she gets it, can't use it. I start to dig, and finds out it uses GPT instead of MBR and that Windows XP (which she uses) can't read that. Annoyance. She sends it back (because none of the people she knows down there has 500GB spare backup space ) so I can set things straight.

However, if you want to convert a disk to MBR the disk can't have any partitions. But the disk looks like (see below). What's that about? I know EFI is some Mac something (or intel something or something sumthin'). The Convert to MBR option is greyed out.

Can I use another tool for that? What do I do?

Thanks for looking!

/Frick







Disk2 is the external drive. It's a Seagate something.


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## Thrackan (Mar 5, 2010)

You don't happen to dual-boot MacOS on that PC? What kind of external disk is it?

EDIT: I see you have a laptop with XP. Try it on there?


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## slyfox2151 (Mar 5, 2010)

if you cant do it using Disk Manager, Try DISKPART in command prompt.

otherwise you will need to find a 3rd party format/paritition program, google around for one.



the only way to go from GPT to MBR is to remove all volumes / parititions from the drive.





EDIT, im farily certain that only XP PRO can read GPT drives, HOME edition cant.
Vista premium and Win 7 can both read GPT drives i think.... i know for sure that the ultimate editions can.


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## Frick (Mar 5, 2010)

Oh I forgot to mention it's Disk2 that's the external one.

No dual boot. Doesn't work on my XP Home machine.

And I don't think the DISKPART will work either, afaik you do the same thing as in DM, but with commands. And well.. the problem is I can't do anything with that EFI partition. 

No XP Pro at home, but will look around for a friend with it, and hit Google hard.

HUGE EDIT: I feel kinda retarded now. I knew Mac used some different file system, and the box has a huge sticker on it saying: FOR MAC. D'oh! Will still hit Google hard!

In my defense, it was the cheapest 500GB drive they had.. AND I was in a rush. It's this one.


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## Thrackan (Mar 5, 2010)

Frick said:


> Oh I forgot to mention it's Disk2 that's the external one.
> 
> No dual boot. Doesn't work on my XP Home machine.
> 
> ...



On the XP laptop, when opening Disk Management, do you see this disk at all?


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## Frick (Mar 5, 2010)

Thrackan said:


> On the XP laptop, when opening Disk Management, do you see this disk at all?



Yeah, but it says "GPT Protective Partition." If I remember correctly..


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## someguyfromhell (Mar 10, 2010)

Easy fix, if you know diskpart 


1.Open up command prompt
2. Type “diskpart” and press Enter. You will be presented with a DISKPART prompt.
3. Select the hard disk you wish to clean by using the select disk command. By default, the primary hard disk is classified as hard disk 0. Type in list disk. Find the number of the disk you want. Then type in "select disk x" x= number of the disk you want
4. Type in clean
5. Open up Disk Management, and you will find it has a new disk to initialize, make sure you check mbr this time


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