If while installing Windows on your computer, you receive Windows cannot be installed to this disk, The selected disk is of the GPT partition style message, maybe something here will be able to help you. When you receive this message, you are unable to select any drive and proceed further with the setup, by clicking Next.
How do I fix Windows cannot be installed to this disk?
The Windows cannot be installed to this disk error can be seen during Windows 11 or Windows 10 installation, if the following issues occur, and the fixes for each will vary depending on the sub-error:
- The selected disk is of the GPT partition style
- The disk may fail soon
- Windows must be installed to a partition formatted as NTFS
- The selected disk has an MBR partition table
- Setup does not support configuration of or installation to disks connected through a USB or IEEE 1394 port
- Ensure disk controller is enabled in BIOS
- This computer’s hardware may not support booting to this disk.
In this post we will see how to fix The selected disk is of the GPT partition style error.
Windows cannot be installed to this disk
MBR and GPT are two formats of the hard disk. MBR is the abbreviation of master bootable record, whereas GPT is an abbreviation of GUID partition table. In order to boot Windows from GPT, the motherboard of the device should support UEFI, else, it is better to use MBR to boot from.
The selected disk is of the GPT partition style
When installing Windows on UEFI-based PCs using Windows Setup, your hard drive partition style must be set up to support either UEFI mode or legacy BIOS-compatibility mode. You receive such an error because your PC is booted in UEFI mode, but your hard drive is not configured for UEFI mode. You’ve got a few options:
- Reboot the PC in legacy BIOS-compatibility mode. This option lets you keep the existing partition style. For more information on this, read this TechNet article titled Boot to UEFI Mode or Legacy BIOS mode.
- Wipe the drive and reformat the drive to be able to use the PC’s firmware features.
Wipe a drive and convert to MBR
Open an elevated command prompt window and type diskpart and hit Enter.
Next, type list disk and hit Enter.
The list of disks will be displayed. Select the disk and type the following command and hit Enter, replacing x with the number of your disk you want to clean. The disk will have GPT marked against it.
select disk x
The disk will be selected.
Next, type clean
and hit Enter. Do NOTE that, once you enter this command, all data on the disk will be lost, so if you need to, take backups of your data.
You will now have to convert GPT to MBR using Diskpart. Moreover, if you cannot afford to clean the entire disk or wipe your data, you may want to use the following third-party software to convert GPT to MBR easily.
How to change MBR to GPT?
Aomei Partition Assistant will let you convert GPT to MBR for a particular drive only. You can use it to process the drive on which you plan to install Windows, and which is giving you the trouble.
This post shows how to convert MBR to GPT using Diskpart as well Partition Assistant. The process to convert GPT to MBR is the same as given in this post, except that you have to make the necessary changes, like use convert mbr command for diskpart, or select the Convert to MBR/GPT option in Partition Assistant.
If you receive the message, Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is not of the GPT partition style, then this TechNet post titled Windows Setup Installing using the MBR or GPT partition style will help you. You will have to convert MBR to GPT.
PS: Please also read the comment by DJ Coderson below.
This post will help you if you receive Windows cannot format this drive, Quit any disk utilities or other programs that are using this drive message.
What if I have a previous windows version that I want to keep.
Thanx a lot for taking time & writing this article.. Worked for me.. I was in trouble & got scared. One thing for readers.. U may need multiple cpu or another smps (for power purpose) to work on ur 2nd new hdd if it is not bootable & formatable.
Hi I would like to know how to remove windows 8 off my laptop with a disk
Thanks. it was a lot helpful
Hi,
I’m really in big trouble and wanna knows that
how can to keep GPT disks forever but urgently please ?!
Ty
Instead of doing all this “convert disk partition style” crap. Just try to do this quick fix, it worked for me:
Re-make your bootable USB in rufus with the option- GPT partition with UEFI- instead of MBR style.
Then when you re-boot your system, the boot from USB option will appear in the UEFI mode
You’re a GOD. Thanks for this.
He made this article researched and studied it a whole day. Then this kind of comment shows up. LOL thanks man.
worked like a charm, thank god i kept searching for an answer.
I am trying to install windows os in my new laptop. but laptop having already preinstalled ubuntu 16.0 Linux oS.
whenever I try to install windows in my laptop it shows above error . Give me help.
fingers crossed…
Thank you so much! :) I was able to install Windows after doing this.
Brother can you please tell more,how to make usb in RUFUS with option GPT with UEFI?
can we format only c: drive with this partition manager tool,by converting GPT to MBR
Thanks! It helped!!!
Thanks a lot buddy…it helps alot.?
This tricks works well and recover me for hiccup. Although I lost my system recovery partition.
thank you so much ! you saved me just before i gave up !