In GPT data formatting, partition information is stored on the partition itself; For this reason, it is more reliable. Given the obsolescence of the MBR, it is not surprising that it does not support hard drives larger than two terabytes; 

In contrast, the GPT supports a maximum of 4.9 ztabyte of storage. Also, it is not possible to boot the operating system in UEFI mode from MBR hard drives, and this can only be done by GPT.

UNIX-based operating systems include all versions 32 and 64 bit as OS X now Apple  completely support GPT; But only 64-bit versions of the Windows operating system and a few of its 32-bit versions, including Windows 8, 8.1, and 10, support GPT almost as long as they use UEFI.

In the rest of this article, we will look at how to understand the partition scheme data format used on a disk and convert it to each other.

Understand the structure of partition data formatting on hard disk

In order to understand the formatting structure of the data used in the partition, you have two options to choose from: Using the Windows Disk Management graphic tool; ۲. Use the command line.

1. Use disk management tools

To access information about the hard disk and its partitions through the Disk Management tool, right-click on the start menu or press the Windows + X key combination on the keyboard and then select Disk Management. Additionally, you can press Windows + R to open the Run dialog box, type diskmgmt.msc, and press Enter to call up the Disk Management tool. In the Disk Management window, right-click on the hard drive (if you have more than one hard drive) and select Properties.

In the current window, click the Volumes tab to see the formatting structure of the data used on the disk as opposed to Partition style.

۲. Use the Diskpart command

Another option for accessing hard disk data is to use the standard Diskpart command in the command line environment. To do this, first run the command prompt under the admin (Command Prompt (Admin)) by right-clicking on the Start menu or pressing the Windows + X key combination. And click Run as Administrator.

Type diskpart and list disk in the command line window, respectively, and then press Enter. This will display a table containing the disks connected to the computer and their information. If the existing disks use the GPT data formatting structure, there will be an asterisk (*) in the column labeled Gpt opposite the associated disk; Otherwise, the Gpt column will be empty, indicating that the hard disk is using MBR.

For example, in the screenshots below, Disk 0 and Disk 1 are both GPT; But Disk 2 is an MBR disk.

Convert MBR and GPT together and backup and clean disk completely

To convert the disk partition data format structure from MBR to GPT or vice versa, you must first completely erase the entire contents of the disk, which is called Wipe in Western parlance. Wipe the disk as a delete without restoring the data and tables of the disk partition; Then back up all the data on the disk before continuing. After the disk is completely erased, you can convert the data formatting structure to each other and prepare to rewrite the data on the disk.

Technically, this method is not the only possible way to convert MBR and GPT together; This is because a number of third-party partition management software promise to convert MBR and GPT to each other without completely clearing and losing data. However, Microsoft does not officially support this method, and it is best to back up your data before doing anything; Because the risk of losing data is not far off!

We recommend that you back up your data first and then wipe it. After completing the conversion process, move your data to the wiped disk. Although the conversion process will take longer, it is worthwhile to use a formal and guaranteed method that has an error and problem incidence rate close to zero.

1. Use disk management tools

We reiterate that you should back up your hard disk data before proceeding as described in the rest of this article; Because all existing data will be deleted.

To convert the disk data formatting structure to each other, right-click on any of the hard disk partitions in question and select Delete Volume or Delete Partition to delete it.

Once all the partitions have been removed from the disk, you can right-click on the disk in the Disk Management tool and select one of the Convert to GPT Disk or Convert to MBR Disk options. These options will only be available when all disk partitions are wiped.

After doing this, you can right-click inside the unallocated disk space to create one or more new partitions and, if desired, move the backed up data to the new partition.

۲. Use the Diskpart command

The second way to convert MBR and GPT together is to use the Diskpart command in the Windows command line window. This method, in addition to converting the data formatting structure of partitions to each other, is used to repair damaged and locked partitions and disks, as well as disks that can not be solved using the Windows 10 Graphic Disk Management tool.

After backing up the necessary data, run the command line window under admin. Type the Diskpart and List Disk commands one after the other and press Enter on the keyboard. You can now view a list of disks on your computer and identify the disk using its capacity.

Now, type the commands # Select Disk and Clean one after the other and enter each one. Replace the # character in the command with the disk number you want to convert. The Clean command will wipe the contents of the disk and the history of the partitions; So be very careful in choosing the desired disk number.

Now you can choose one of the following commands to convert the disk partition system to one of the MBR or GPT types, depending on your desire.

 To convert a disk from MBR to GPT, you must use the Convert GPT command, and to convert a disk from GPT to MBR, you must use Convert MBR.

That’s it! You can now create a partition using disk management tools or other Diskpart commands and move your data into it. At least in theory, there are ways to convert MBR and GPT  without disk wipe; But we can not be sure of using this method in every situation; Therefore, it is better to use the formal and guaranteed method mentioned in this article.

Hard Drive Partitioning Tutorial in Windows 10

Basically, all users of the Windows platform are advised to partition their hard drive and store their data on a drive that does not have the Windows operating system used on that drive. The reason for such a warning is also quite logical; Because by creating any problems for the operating system, users’ data may also be inaccessible and their information may be deleted when installing new Windows. For this reason, we have provided a tutorial on how to partition a hard drive in Windows 10 in simple language.

There are several ways to partition your hard drive, including using third-party applications and software; But for the method that will be provided, we will use the tools available in Windows 10.

1. From the keyboard, press the two Windows + R keys at the same time to open the Run page.

۲. On the run screen, enter the diskmgmt.msc command as shown below and select the OK button.

3. A menu will open for us, which is actually called Memory Management or Disk Management. On this page, you can see the drives on the hard drive. 

Now right-click on the drive whose capacity you want to reduce and create a new drive and select Shrink Volume. 

4. Selecting the Shrink Volume option will open a page that shows information, including the capacity of the selected drive. On this page, there is an option called Enter the amount of space to shrink in MB. Using this option, you can reduce the capacity of the selected drive and create a new drive. Enter the amount of capacity for the new drive in the option opposite the phrase. In a simple example, suppose you have a 100 GB drive. Using the trained method, you can create two drives with the desired capacities (for example, two 50 GB drives).

5. Using this method, some of the desired drive capacity is released, for example 50 GB. Now you need to create a new drive. At the bottom of the Disk Management page, there is a pop-up box that shows the amount of free memory. As shown below, right-click and select New Simple Volume on the part that indicates free memory.

6. In the page that opens for you, go through the steps of creating a new drive. You will be asked in part how much free memory you will allocate to the new drive. If you have a specific size, for example you want to make two drives with a capacity of 25 GB, enter the desired options; Otherwise, by default, all free memory capacity will be allocated to the new drive.

 You can also select the name of the new drive in capital letters as shown below.

7. If you are asked what the format of the drive is, the best option would be to choose an NTFS format drive .

Have you used the methods mentioned in this article? Please share your experiences with us in the comments section of the site.