How to fix the error "cannot install windows on this disk"

If you are trying to install Windows on your computer and you get the error " Windows cannot be installed on this disk, the selected disk has a GPT partition style ", it means that you will have to make some modifications as appropriate to install the system.

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This occurs when the partition style of the hard drive does not match that of the bootable USB device that contains the operating system installation files. GPT is a partition table system that was introduced in new BIOS-based UEFI-type systems.

This style of partitions is recommended in new generation equipment and for hard drives with large storage capacities, since it allows us to carry out more primary partitions on them (up to 128) and provides greater security against loss of disk format, since which replicates the partition table both at the beginning and end of the drive.

Just as we could find the above error, we could also get the opposite: " Windows cannot be installed on this disk, the selected disk has an MBR partition style ". The solution in these cases is similar, and we will see all the possibilities below.

Solution to the error "cannot install Windows on this disk, the selected disk has a GPT partition style"

Well, this message will appear when our hard disk is formatted using the GPT partition style and the installation device that contains the installation files does not have the same format.

Then the actions to be carried out can be two, either reformatting our hard disk and leaving it in MBR or creating a bootable USB with the installation media also in GPT. We recommend doing the latter, since we consider that the GPT style is the correct one today, and the one that must be on current hard drives.

Solution 1: Create bootable USB in GPT

In any case, this will be the easiest method to carry out, since we will only need an application called Rufus. In the case of Windows Media Creation Tool, it is not an application capable of generating a bootable USB in GPT, although we can use it to download a Windows ISO image.

The first thing we will need is to have an ISO image of the operating system. We imagine that you will already have one, but if this is not the case, with the Windows Media Creation Tool you will be able to obtain one for free. Download the application, run it and choose the " create installation media " option.

Choose the version of Windows 10 you want to download (we recommend the 64-bit version) and then select the " ISO file " option, this will download an image with the latest version of Windows 10 so you can create a bootable USB.

Once downloaded, we are going to insert a USB into a port on the PC and we are going to run the Rufus tool, which you can download from its official website. We have an installable and a portable version, the installable gives less problems.

Now let's see how to configure Rufus to create a USB in GPT:

• We select the USB device in the first option. We press " Select " to choose the ISO image that we have from Windows. In the partition scheme we choose the " GPT " option, and in the destination system " UEFI (not CSM) ". The rest we can leave it as it is. Click on Start.

Now we will have to Start our USB to start again the installation of the operating system. Right when starting our computer, we can generate a boot menu to be able to select our USB without having to access the UEFI BIOS to modify the boot sequence. This key may be F8, F12, ESC or another F key, everything will depend on the manufacturer of the BIOS.

If we select the hard disk where we want to install Windows again, we will no longer have any problem doing so.

Solution 2: Convert hard drive to MBR with Diskpart

Another option that we have if we do not want to create a bootable USB, is to convert the partition system of our hard disk into MBR. This can be done directly from the Windows 10 installation screen, but beware, we will lose all the partitions of the hard drive and all the data that was inside it. It is a complete formatting of the drive.

Having said that, we are going to press the key combination " Shift + F10 " to open a command terminal in the same installation wizard. If the window does not appear, we will go back to the first installation screen to click on " Repair the equipment ".

Then we will click on " Troubleshoot " and " command prompt " to start the command window. We wrote:

diskpart

To start the program.

list disk

To list the hard drives that are on our computer. We notice that there is an asterisk in the GPT column, which indicates that our hard drive was indeed GPT. We must look at the disk number, because now we are going to select it:

select disk

From now on, the actions we take will be applied to the selected disk. We will lose all the information that is stored in it. To convert the hard drive to MBR we write:

clean

convert mbr

And that would be it, now we will return to the installation wizard until we reach the screen where we select the hard disk to install Windows. If we had to run the command terminal from the recovery options, we will have to restart the computer to start the wizard.

Now we will select our hard disk and we will be able to install Windows normally.

But beware, the procedure does not end here yet, we recommend before proceeding to install the operating system, make sure that in our UEFI BIOS we have the option of legacy MBR activated. This option causes our BIOS to detect MBR hard drives in order to start the system installed inside it, since otherwise it would not be possible.

So what we have to do is restart the computer and press the corresponding BIOS access key, which can be Delete, F2, or another one, as it will always vary depending on the BIOS we have.

Once inside, we will locate the " Boot " options tab, which is where we will have to find an option similar to " compatibility module ", " Boot MBR Legacy " or similar. This option must be set to " active " or have selected, like us, the possibility of booting both in UEFI mode and in MBR mode. As always, this will vary from BIOS to BIOS, especially on laptops. If in doubt, it is best to look for information about it in the manufacturer's manual or in our hardware forum

Well, now we will be able to install Windows 10 in a normal and current way.

Solution to the error "cannot install Windows on this disk, the selected disk has an MBR partition style"

In this case, we can also get the opposite error, that is, that our hard drive is in MBR style and we have the bootable USB in GPT format. In this case, we can carry out the two previous methods, either create a bootable USB in MBR format or convert the hard drive to GPT, with the consequence of losing all our partitions and stored files.

Again we recommend creating a bootable USB in MBR format and leaving our hard drive as is.

Create bootable USB in MBR

Well, the process to be carried out will be exactly the same as for the previous case. In addition, here we can directly use the Windows Media Creation Tool, and choose the option " USB Flash Drive " and continue creating our USB.

Or we can also do it with Rufus, we only have to choose the “ MBR ” option in the “ partition style ” section.

Proceeding to start the Windows 10 install wizard again, we should be able to directly install the operating system on the selected hard drive.

Convert hard drive to MBR

Well, we are also facing the same case as in the section in which we used Diskpart to convert the disk into GPT. In this case, we will do exactly the same and we will only have to change the command "convert GPT" for this:

convert MBR

Simply that. Regarding the BIOS configuration, it must be in MBR compatibility mode so that it can handle the disks of this partitioning style.

These are the fastest ways to solve this error when installing Windows on our computer.

You will also find the following tutorials interesting to know more about the GPT and Diskpart partitions:

With these methods you will have no trouble installing Windows. In case you still can't, leave us a comment so we can help you.