What we will discover from this article:
After reading this article, you should be able to:
Familiar with terms like Partition, BIOS, UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), MBR (Master Boot Record), GPT (GUID Partition Table).
You can tell the difference between GPT and MBR. and has the ability to explain GPT and MBR.
Table of Contents
Key terms used in the Windows Operating System that you must know before installation.
1. Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) : A software programme called Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, which is a standard, serves as a link or bridge between computer firmware and its operating system. It is comparable to bios.
2. GUID Partition Table (GPT) : The GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a standard for the layout of partition tables of a physical computer storage device, like a hard disc drive or solid-state drive, using universally unique identifiers, which are also known as globally unique identifiers (GUIDs).
Forming a part of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) standard (a Unified EFI Forum-proposed replacement for the PC BIOS), it is nevertheless also used for some BIOS systems because of the limitations of master boot record (MBR) partition tables, which use 32 bits for logical block addressing (LBA) of traditional 512-byte disc sectors.
3. Master Boot Record (MBR) : MBR is the shorthand for Master boot record to say about MBR; simply, it is a kind of boot sector in a storage device like a Hard disk. In which a sector that contains the necessary computer code to initialize the boot process
The MBR is the first hard drive sector, i.e., the Hard Disk. This tells the computer how the hard disk is partitioned and how to boot into the operating system. It is created when the hard drive is partitioned, but it is not within a partition; This means that non-partitioned storage devices like floppy disks doest have MBR
Note: MBR is also called the master boot block, master partition boot sector, and sector 0.
What does the master boot record do?
the Master boot record consist of three major components: the master partition table, Disk signature, master boot code
Now let’s see how it works when a computer starts.
- The Bios looks for the master boot record in the target device to boot.
- The master boot code checks the volume boot code to identify the specific partition.
- After identifying the particular partition boot sector is used to start the operating system.
That’s the MBR plays an essential role in starting the operating system; otherwise, the computer would not know how to start the operating system.
How do we fix master boot record(MBR) problems?
The problem with the Mater boot record happens when there is corruption due to various reasons like viruses or physical damage in the Hard drive
No Boot Device error; this issue arises when there is a problem in the master boot record, the Error message will be slightly different based on the computer manufacturer or motherboard bios manufacture.
The MBR issues should be fixed from the outside of the windows, i.e., before starting. Because windows won’t start without MBR
Windows 7 and vista: use the bootrec command from the system recovery option.
WIndows 10 and 8: A corrupted Master boot record can be fixed in windows 8 and above using the “bootrec” command in advanced startup options.
When installing windows os on UEFI-based PCs, the hard drive partition must be set up or compatible with either UEFI mode or legacy BIOS mode
if you get an error like Windows cannot be installed to this disk, the selected disk is not of the GPT partition style while booting your windows setup USB or disk is because it’s trying to boot in UEFI mode, but your hard drive is not configured for UEFI mode.
There are a few options to solve this issue.
- Use Rufus software to create a bootable USB drive for windows, select the partition Scheme as MBR and check the Target system.
- Use MBR2GPT Tool to change partition style.
Why should you convert your drive ?
Many computers now can use the UEFI version of BIOS, which has advantages like boot-up and shutdown speeds are fast and additional security. To boot your computer in UEFI mode, you will need to change the partition type to GPT
Many PCs include compatibility support modules (CSM) configured to use the legacy BIOS even if they are ready to use UEFI.
It needs a drive that uses the MBR drive format and offers compatibility with a range of older hardware and network setups. This version of BIOS was created in the 1970s.
However, drives larger than 4TB are not supported by the MBR drive format.
Additionally, setting up divisions larger than four is challenging.
With the GPT disc format, you may create as many partitions as you want and set up drives bigger than 4 terabytes (TB).
How to convert the Drives GPT to MBR or MBR TO GPT.
Reformatting the drive using a different partition style. There are Two ways to convert the partition Style
- By Windows setup
- By Manual method
use windows setup to wipe and convert the drive (partition).
1. Turn off the pc, and plug the windows installation USB or DVD
2. boot the pc in UEFI mode
3. In the windows set, select the type of custom install
4. Then while choosing the partition or drive to install, select all the partitions and delete them
5. now you have a single area showing unallocated space
6. Select the unallocated partition and click on next
7. Windows detect that it booted the pc into UEFI mode, reformats the drive using GPT drive format, and begins the installation.
caution: If your pc has multiple drives make sure you’re deleting the partition on the correct drive
To manually wipe a drive and convert it to GPT.
1. From inside the windows setup, click on Shift+F10; this will open a command prompt window.
2. Open the Diskpart tool by typing.
diskpart3. Identify the drive to reformat
list disk4. Select the drive and reformat it
select disk <disknumber>cleanconvert gptexit5. Close the command prompt window
6. Continue the windows setup.
When selecting installation type, select custom, select the unallocated area, and click next. Windows begins the installation.
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