My Disk Can’t Convert to GPT, What Should I Do?

Why my disk can’t convert to GPT?

Now, many users accept Windows 11 and would like to upgrade to this new OS. However, due to the requirements of Windows 11 hardware, some of them have to adjust their devices to make sure their PCs can run Windows 11 smoothly.

One of all requirements is UEFI, a boot mode like Legacy BIOS. Nowadays almost all modern computers allow both boot modes existing for device compatibility. If you’re using Legacy BIOS mode, you can change it to UEFI after you make sure your PC also supports it.

Then you can go to disk management windows 10 or CMD to convert your disk from MBR to GPT.

But, when you open Disk Management and right-click the target disk, the “Convert to GPT” greyed out in the menu makes people quite upset. Why can you not convert a disk to GPT? Well, the truth turns out is that Windows Disk Management only supports users to convert empty disks, whether from MBR to GPT or GPT to MBR.

So, you’ll have to delete all data on your target disk and then the “Convert to GPT” will be able to use.

How do I convert to GPT without losing all data?

In Windows, converting to GPT disk greyed out can be solved by “Delete Volume”. You will need to delete all partitions and then, you can do the conversion. Some users might think about the other two tools, CMD and mbr2gpt. In fact, CMD is the same as Disk Management—asking users to run the “Clean disk” command to delete all data on the target disk. And mbr2gpt only works for the system disk. It’s unavailable for the data disk.

So, is it possible to convert MBR to GPT disk without data loss on the target disk, no matter if it’s a system disk or a data disk? 

Without a doubt, sure, you may use third-party software like AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional to convert a drive to GPT without destroying partitions or data. It supports you to switch both your system disk and data disk from MBR to GPT without losing data.

Let’s see more details!

Step 1. Install and launch it AOMEI Partition Assistant. It will display all hard drives on your computer in its main interface. Right-click the disk you want to change to a GPT disk, select “Convert to GPT Disk”.

Step 2. It will pop up a window to ask “Are you sure to convert the selected disk from MBR to GPT disk?”. Click “OK”.

Step 3. Here you will back to the main interface, and you can see the disk has already changed into a GPT disk. Click “Apply” to submit the operations.

Notes: If you are converting system disk from MBR to GPT, you need to know:

◤ 1. Windows 32bit doesn’t work on a GPT disk. If you insist to convert the MBR disk to GPT, you need to upgrade OS to Windows 64-bit in advance.

◤ 2. If you want to convert the system disk to a GPT disk, your computer motherboard needs to support EFI/UEFI mode. Otherwise, the system will not boot.

◤ 3. Before you do, please backup your disk in case of data loss caused by some unexpected things or improper operations.

After the conversion, if the target disk is a system disk, don’t forget to get into BIOS and switch from Legacy to EFI/UEFI so that the converted GPT disk can boot successfully.

Bottom lines

In Window10 mrb to gpt disk conversion might be an annoying task because it asks you to delete your data. However, AOMEI Partition Assistant can help you finish this job quickly and securely. What’s more this versatile Windows disk and partition manager which supports Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/XP PC has various features like “Disk Clone Wizard”, “Migrate OS to SSD”, “Allocate Free Space”, “Disk Speed Test” and so on.

And if you need, there are the Server Edition, the Unlimited Edition, and the Tech Edition for different users to organize devices efficiently and safely.