Windows installation is not possible with gpt. How does a GPT disk differ from an MBR, what is it?

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When installing Windows 7, 8, 10, users quite often encounter the error: “Installation is impossible, the disk has a GPT partition style.” This problem is not so scary if you know how to solve it. There are two solutions: converting the style to MBR, installing Windows OS on the disk in its current state.

Convert GPT to MBR or leave the current style

If you are using a modern and powerful computer that uses UEFI when visiting the BIOS settings (graphical interface, mouse support, etc.), then the best option would be to install Windows in GPT style. This will allow you to use a drive with more than 2 TB of memory, as well as get several features that are not available in the MBR style.

For older computers that still use an outdated BIOS with a blue background, it is best to convert the style. By the way, this method may be the only one possible for such equipment. And such computers are unlikely to use hard drives larger than 2 TB, and the number of partitions almost never exceeds four (with MBR style it is quite difficult to create more than four partitions).

Installing Windows without changing GPT style

The problem in question most often occurs when installing Windows 7, but in some cases it can also appear in Windows 8. To get rid of this error, you need to fulfill two conditions:

install the 64-bit version (x86 does not fit this style);
boot in EFI mode.

As a rule, a 64-bit OS is always installed on powerful and modern computers, so the problem most often arises from the second point.

1. The first step to take is to check the BIOS settings. To do this, go to the settings (for desktop PCs you need to press the Del button, for laptops there may be various options - F2, F12, etc., but it is better to read the Enter to Setup phrase on the system boot page and see which button is used).

in the “BIOS Settings” tab, change the boot option from CSM to UEFI;
In the “SATA Config” tab, set the “SATA operating mode” item to AHCI.

3. Disable Secure Boot if you plan to install Windows 7.

These steps will get rid of the error in question altogether. If you install from a CD, this problem will probably disappear and will not appear). If, when installing the OS from a bootable USB flash drive, the problem remains relevant, you need to rewrite the installation flash drive again so that it has UEFI support. Creating a bootable USB flash drive is possible using one of many utilities, but it is best to use the command line.

Convert GPT to MBR

If you plan to change the style from GPT to MBR, this can be done when installing Windows directly. It should be noted that this step is done in cases where you plan to install Windows 7. In addition, do not forget that after this procedure, all saved data will be completely destroyed in all partitions.

During the installation process, when you see a selection of disks on the screen, on one of which you plan to install the OS, click the Shift + F10 key combination, after which the console will be displayed. Next, you need to type a few service words in it:

diskpart;
list disk (After displaying all connected hard drives on the screen. Remember the ID of the hard drive that needs to be converted);
select disc K (K is the identifier of the hard drive that needs to be converted);
clean (this command will completely destroy all data that was on the hard drive);
convert mbr (direct conversion);
create partition primary;
active;
format fs=ntfs quick;
assign;
exit.

After these steps, your disk will already have the MBR style. It is possible to use software for conversion, which may not delete existing data, but this method is the most correct.

Sometimes, when installing any version of the Windows operating system, a notification may appear stating that installation on this drive is impossible because it has a GPT partition style. In this case, you need to know why this happens and how to install the operating system on such a drive.

There are several options for resolving the problem when the operating system cannot be installed on a GPT disk. One of the methods involves installing an operating system on this drive, and the second is designed to convert it to MBR. In this case, it will be possible to decide which one is more suitable.

Which method to use

So, there are two ways to resolve the issue where you are notified that the specified drive has the GPT department style. You need to choose one of them depending on some settings.

If you are using a new PC with UEFI, upon switching to which a graphical interface opens, rather than a simple blue screen, and a 64-bit operating system is installed, then it is advisable to install the operating system on a GPT drive and use the first method.
Perhaps some of the latest versions of Windows have already been installed on it.

If you are using a relatively outdated PC with a BIOS and installing a 32-bit operating system, then it is recommended to use GPT to MBR conversion, i.e. use the second method. It is worth remembering that MBR drives cannot exceed 4 TB, and creating more than 4 departments on them is not so easy.

Installing Windows 10, 7 and 8 on a GPT drive

In most cases, those users who try to install Windows 7 encounter errors when installing an operating system on a GPT-style drive, however, even in the G8, sometimes an error appears that it is impossible to perform this operation with this drive.

To install an operating system on a GPT disk, several conditions must be met.
You need to install a 64-bit system and boot in EFI mode. In most cases, the error occurs because the second condition is not met, so you need to know how to fix this problem. Sometimes this problem can be resolved by simply changing the BIOS settings. In other cases, you need to create a bootable UEFI drive.

The first step is to visit the computer's BIOS. To do this, you must press the corresponding key after turning on the PC. When information about the manufacturer of the motherboard or laptop appears, you need to press Del if you are using a computer, or F2 on laptops. Keys may vary. As a rule, they are listed on the first screen when you start your PC.

If a working version of Windows 8 is installed on your PC, then logging into UEFI can be much easier. This requires using the Charms panel. In it you need to go to “Change computer settings”, where you select “Update and recovery”. In the next window, go to “Recovery”. After this, you need to go to “Special boot options” and click “Restart now”. Next, you need to click on “Diagnostics”, where you should select “Advanced options”, after which you need to click on “UEFI Firmware”.

In the BIOS you need to activate a couple of rather necessary functions. Instead of CSM, you need to activate UEFI. This should be done in BIOS Features or BIOS Setup. In addition, you need to change the SATA operating mode from IDE to AHCI. Changes can be made in the Peripherals department. In different menus and language variations, these options may have a different location and slightly different names, however, they are not very difficult to find.

After applying all the settings, the PC will be ready to install the operating system on GPT
disk. If the installation is performed from a disk, then in most cases, a notification that it is impossible to install an operating system on this drive will not appear.

If you are using an installation USB drive and the error is displayed again, then you need to re-create a bootable USB flash drive, but with support for UEFI boot. There are several ways to do this. In this case, it is recommended to use the method of creating a UEFI installation flash drive using the command line, which will work in any case.

Experienced users can use another method. If the distribution allows you to use both boot methods, then you can disable startup in the BIOS by deleting bootmgr in the root of the media. In the same way, you can eliminate the efi folder, which will disable startup in UEFI.

Converting GPT to MBR during OS installation

If you need to convert a GPT drive to MBR, the PC uses a regular BIOS, and the seventh version of Windows will be installed, then it is best to do this during the installation of the operating system. It is worth noting that when carrying out such manipulations, all information on the disk will be destroyed.

To convert GPT to MBR, in the operating system installation utility you need to press the combination Shift + F10, which will open the command line. After that, you need to write several commands sequentially into it.

Initially, you need to register diskpart. Then enter the list disk command, after which you need to remember the disk number to be converted. Then you should write select disk N. N in this case is the media number from the previous entry. Then you need to enter the clean command. The next command is called convert mbr.

After this, you need to write create partition primary, followed by active. To format a disk, write the command format fs=ntfs quick. Then all that remains is to write assign, and at the end exit.

If, when carrying out these commands, the user was at the stage of setting up the disks during the installation process, then you need to click on “Update,” which will update the drive configuration. After this, the installation will proceed in standard mode, and the notification that the drive has the GPT style will no longer be displayed.
UEFI, GPT, BIOS and MBR

On PCs released several years ago, a BIOS was installed on the motherboard - software that performed diagnostics and scans of the PC, and then allowed the operating system to start, taking into account the MBR boot record of the hard drive.

UEFI software was designed to replace BIOS and is installed on PCs manufactured today. At the same time, most PC manufacturers use this particular software option.

UEFI software has some advantages. These include improved download speeds and security features. This includes secure startup and the ability to work with hardware-encrypted hard drives and UEFI drivers. In addition, using the GPT partition style makes it much easier to handle large media sizes and an increased number of partitions. Also, on most operating systems, UEFI can be combined with BIOS and MBR.

Today, it is unlikely that users will be able to feel the difference between these two options, much less select one of them. But it is worth noting that after a while only UEFI and GPT will be used, and hard drives will exceed 4 TB.

Translation

Have you ever wondered how your computer boots? Regardless of the hardware and operating system, all computers use either the traditional BIOS-MBR method or the more modern UEFI-GPT method, implemented in the latest versions of the OS, when booting.

In this article, we will compare GPT and MBR partition structures; GPT stands for GUID Partition Table and MBR stands for Master Boot Record. Let's start by looking at the download process itself.

The following chapters highlight the differences between GPT and MBR partition styles, including instructions on how to convert between the two styles and advice on which one to choose.

Understanding the Boot Process

When you press the power button on your PC, it starts a process that will eventually load the operating system into memory. The first command depends on what the partition structure is on your hard drive.

If there are two types of partition structures: MBR and GPT. The partition structure on a disk determines three things:

Data structure on disk.
The code that is used during boot if the partition is bootable.
Where does the section begin and end?

MBR boot process

Let's return to the download process. If your system uses an MBR partition structure, the first execution process will load the BIOS. The Basic Input/Output System includes bootloader firmware. The bootloader firmware contains low-level functions such as keyboard input, video display access, disk I/O, and code to load the initial stage of the bootloader. Before the BIOS can detect the boot device, it performs a sequence of system configuration functions, starting with the following:

Self-test at power-on.
Detection and initialization of the video card.
Displays the BIOS start screen.
Perform a quick memory (RAM) test.
Plug and play device configuration.
Boot device definition.

Once the BIOS has detected a boot device, it reads the first disk sector of that device into memory. The first sector of the disk is the master boot record (MBR), which is 512 bytes in size. Three objects fit into this size:

First stage of the bootloader (446 bytes).
Disk Partition Table (16 bytes per partition × 4 partitions) - MBR only supports four partitions, more on that below.
Signature (2 bytes).

At this stage, the MBR scans the partition table and loads the boot sector - Volume Boot Record (VBR) into RAM.

A VBR usually contains an Initial Program Loader (IPL), this code initiates the loading process. The program's boot loader includes a second boot loader stage, which then loads the operating system. On Windows NT family systems, such as Windows XP, the bootloader first loads another program called NT Loader (NTLDR), which then loads the operating system.

For operating systems based on the Linux kernel, the GRUB (Grand Unified Bootloader) bootloader is used. The download process is similar to that described above, the only difference is the name of the loaders at the first and second stages.

In GRUB, the first stage of the boot loader is called GRUB Stage 1. It loads the second stage, known as GRUB Stage 2. The second stage load retrieves a list of operating systems on the hard drives and provides the user with a list to select an OS to boot.

GPT boot process

At the same boot stage, the following happens in the GPT partition structure. GPT uses UEFI, which does not have the MBR procedure of storing the first stage of the bootloader in the boot sector and then calling the second stage of the bootloader. UEFI - Unified Extensible Firmware Interface - is a more advanced interface than BIOS. It can analyze the file system and even download files itself.

After turning on your computer, UEFI first performs system configuration functions, just like BIOS. This includes energy management, setting dates and other system management components.

UEFI then reads the GPT - GUID Partition Table. GUID stands for Globally Unique Identifier. GPT is located in the first sectors of the disk, just after sector 0, where the master boot record for the Legacy BIOS is still stored.

GPT defines the partition table on the disk where the EFI boot loader recognizes the EFI system partition. The system partition contains bootloaders for all operating systems installed on other partitions of the hard drive. The bootloader initializes the Windows boot manager, which then boots the operating system.

For Linux kernel operating systems, there is an EFI-enabled version of GRUB that loads a file, such as grub.efi, or an EFI boot loader, which loads its own file, such as elilo.efi.

You may notice that both UEFI-GPT, And BIOS-MBR transfer control to the bootloader, but do not directly load the operating system. However, UEFI does not require you to go through multiple bootloader stages like BIOS. The boot process occurs at a very early stage, depending on your hardware configuration.

Differences between GPT and MBR partition structures

If you've ever tried to install Windows 8 or 10 on a new computer, you've probably seen the question: which partition structure to use, MBR or GPT.

If you want to know more or are planning to install a new operating system on your computer, then read on. We've already looked at differences in boot processes that are worth keeping in mind when partitioning a disk or choosing a partition structure.

GPT is a newer and more advanced partition structure, and it has many advantages, which I will list below. MBR has been in use for a long time, it is stable and has maximum compatibility. Although GPT may eventually replace MBR as it offers more advanced features, in some cases only MBR can be used.

Master Boot Record

MBR is a traditional structure for managing disk partitions. Since it is compatible with most systems, it is still widely used. The master boot record is located in the first sector of the hard drive or, more simply, at the very beginning. It contains a partition table - information about the organization of logical partitions on the hard drive.

The MBR also contains executable code that scans partitions for the active OS and initiates the OS boot procedure.

An MBR disk allows only four primary partitions. If you need more, you can designate one of the partitions as an extended partition, and you can create more subpartitions or logical drives on it.

The MBR uses 32 bits to record the partition length, expressed in sectors, so that each partition is limited to a maximum size of 2 TB.

Advantages

Compatible with most systems.

Flaws

Allows only four partitions, with the ability to create additional subpartitions on one of the main partitions.
Limits the partition size to two terabytes.
Partition information is stored in only one place - the master boot record. If it is damaged, the entire disk becomes unreadable.

GUID Partition Table (GPT)

GPT is a newer standard for defining the partition structure of a disk. Globally unique identifiers (GUIDs) are used to define the structure.

This is part of the UEFI standard, meaning a UEFI-based system can only be installed on a drive that uses GPT, such as the Windows 8 Secure Boot feature.

GPT allows for an unlimited number of partitions, although some operating systems may limit the number to 128 partitions. There is also virtually no limit on partition size in GPT.

Advantages

Allows an unlimited number of sections. The limit is set by the operating system; for example, Windows allows no more than 128 partitions.
Does not limit partition size. It depends on the operating system. The maximum partition size limit is greater than the capacity of any disk available today. For drives with 512-byte sectors, a maximum supported size of 9.4 ZB (one zettabyte is equal to 1,073,741,824 terabytes)
GPT stores a copy of the partition and boot data and can recover the data if the main GPT header becomes corrupted.
GPT stores cyclic redundancy checksum (CRC) values to verify the integrity of its data (used to verify the integrity of GPT header data). If corrupted, GPT can notice the problem and attempt to recover the corrupted data from another location on the disk.

Flaws

May not be compatible with older systems.

GPT vs MBR

GPT allows an unlimited number of primary partitions, while MBR allows only four primary partitions and the rest are secondary.
GPT allows you to create partitions of any size, while MBR has a limit of 2 TB.
GPT stores a copy of the partition data, allowing it to be restored if the main GPT header becomes corrupted; MBR stores only one copy of partition data in the first sector of the hard disk, which can lead to the loss of all information if partition information is damaged.
GPT stores checksum values to verify that data is not corrupted and can perform necessary recovery from other areas of the disk if corruption occurs; The MBR has no way of knowing if data is corrupted; you can only find out if the computer refuses to boot or the partition disappears.

Operating system compatibility

The first sector (sector 0) on a GPT disk contains an MBR protection record, which records that the disk has one partition that spans the entire media. In case of using older tools that only read MBR disks, you will see one large partition the size of the entire disk. The protective record is made to prevent the old tool from mistaking the disk as empty and overwriting the GPT data with a new master boot record.

MBR protects GPT data from being overwritten.

Apple MacBooks" and use GPT by default, so it is not possible to install Mac OS X on an MBR system. Even though Mac OS X can run on an MBR disk, it is not possible to install on it. I tried this, but without success.

Most Linux kernel operating systems are GPT compatible. When installing Linux OS on the disk, GRUB 2 will be installed as the bootloader.

For Windows operating systems, booting from GPT is only possible on UEFI computers running 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10 and related server versions. If you bought a laptop with a 64-bit version of Windows 8, then there is a high probability that it has GPT.

Windows 7 and earlier systems typically install on MBR drives, but you can still convert partitions to GPT, as discussed below.

All versions of Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10 can read and use data from GPT partitions - but they cannot boot from such non-UEFI drives.

So GPT or MBR?

You can feel comfortable with both MBR and GPT. But considering the advantages of GPT mentioned earlier and the fact that modern computers are gradually switching to this technology, you may prefer GPT. If the goal is to support older hardware or need to use a traditional BIOS, then you are stuck with MBR.

Check the hard drive partition type

On each Windows hard drive, you can check the partition type using Disk Management. To launch Disk Management, do the following:

Press the Windows + R hotkey combination to open a window for launching programs.

Type diskmgmt.msc and press Enter.

Windows will scan your hard drives and show them shortly. To check the partition type of any hard drive, right-click on the disk plate at the bottom of the interface. You need to click on “Disk 0”, “Disk 1” and so on, and not on partitions.

In the context menu that appears, select “Properties”. A window with the properties of the selected disk will open.

Go to the Volumes tab and look at the Partition Style value.

If you prefer the command line, you can choose another option. Its advantage is that it is slightly faster, since it immediately displays drives and partition styles.

Press the Windows key, type cmd.exe, hold Ctrl and Shift, press Enter.
Confirm the UAC message about increasing system privileges.
Type diskpart and press Enter.
Type list disk and press Enter again.

All drives are listed. The Gpt column indicates the partition style for each disk. If you see an asterisk in the column, then it is GPT; if it is not there, it is MBR.

Convert between MBR and GPT during Windows installation

There are two common error messages that may appear when installing Windows on a hard drive:

Error #1: “Windows cannot be installed on this drive. The selected disk does not have a GPT partition style."
Error #2: “Windows cannot be installed on this drive. The selected disk has a GPT partition style."

When one of these two errors appears, you may not be able to select a partition to install. But this does not mean that there is something wrong with the computer.

As you already know, MBR and GPT are two completely different hard disk partition structures. MBR is the traditional partition structure, while GPT is the newer one.

Error #1 occurs when you try to install Windows on a UEFI computer and the hard drive partition is not configured for UEFI mode or Legacy BIOS compatibility. Microsoft TechNet offers two options to resolve the issue.

Reboot the computer in Legacy BIOS compatibility mode. This option will keep the current section style.
Reformat the disk for UEFI using the GPT partition style. This option will allow you to use UEFI firmware features. You can do the reformatting yourself by following the instructions below. Always back up your data before formatting.

Of course, there are third-party utilities that can convert disks to GPT while preserving the data, but it is still safer to make a backup copy in case the utility fails to complete the conversion.

Instructions for converting a hard drive from MBR to GPT

Using Windows Setup

Select the unallocated space and click Next. Windows will detect that the computer is booted in UEFI mode and will automatically reformat the drive using the GPT partition style. The installation process will begin immediately after this.

Manual conversion

Turn off your computer and insert a bootable Windows drive (USB or DVD).
Boot from it in UEFI mode.
Clean the disk: clean .
Conversion to GPT is done with the convert gpt command.

Instructions for converting a hard drive from GPT to MBR

Sometimes it is necessary to convert a disk to an MBR partition structure. For example, if you receive the following error message during Windows installation:

"Windows cannot be installed on this drive. The selected disk has a GPT partition style"

Booting from GPT is only supported on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10 and corresponding server versions on UEFI systems. This error message means that your computer does not support UEFI, and therefore you can only use a BIOS that works with the MBR partition structure.

Microsoft TechNet offers two options to resolve the issue.

Reboot the computer in BIOS compatibility mode. This option will keep the current section style.
Reformat the disk using the MBR partition style. Always back up your data before formatting. Although there are third-party utilities that can convert disks to GPT while preserving the data, it is still safer to make a backup copy in case the utility fails to complete the conversion.

If you chose the second option, then follow the step-by-step instructions:

Using Windows Setup

Turn off your computer and insert a bootable Windows drive (USB or DVD).
Boot from it in UEFI mode.
Select "Other" (Custom) in the installation type.
A screen will appear asking “Where do you want to install Windows?” Select all partitions on the disk and click Delete.
After successful removal, the disk will be a single area of unallocated space.
Select the unallocated space and click Next. Windows will detect that the computer is booted in BIOS mode and will automatically reformat the drive using the MBR partition style. The installation process will begin immediately after this.

Manual conversion

Turn off your computer and insert a bootable Windows drive (USB or DVD).
Boot from it in BIOS mode.
From the Windows installation, press Shift+F10 to open the console. After each next command, press Enter.
Run the diskpart tool with the diskpart command.
To select the disk to convert, type list disk .
Specify the disk number to convert: select disk # .
Clean the disk: clean .
Conversion to GPT is done with the convert mbr command.
Type exit to exit diskpart.
Close the console and return to the Windows installation.
When choosing an installation type, select "Other". The disk will be a single area of unallocated space.
Select the unallocated space and click Next. Windows will begin installation.

Greetings, blog readers.

Hard drives with a GPT partition scheme entered the computer technology market relatively recently. Moreover, today many new devices are equipped with just such memory elements. When compared with the usual MBRs, the work of the former is different. This can be especially noticeable when Windows is installed on a GPT disk. I will try to describe in detail how exactly this happens in the article below.

First, it’s worth finding out what a GPT disk is? But let's start with another, more familiar format - MBR. The latter is the master boot record - a small area on the hard drive that is used to start the operating system. It is based on the settings of this section that the system of operation of the hard drive is already being built.

This scheme has been actively used for the last 20 years. It has several limitations:

the disk is divided into a maximum of four partitions;

each of them cannot be more than 2 TB. Although at first glance this may seem unimportant, there are nevertheless users who are clearly not happy with the current situation. That is why the GPT format was developed. Compared to its predecessor, it received wider capabilities:

up to 128 sections;

Memory capacity is not limited to 2 TB.

True, there are also some negative sides - the incompatibility of some BIOS versions and the new hard drive format. To be more precise, it is impossible to install Windows on certain drives.

What do you need?( )

For the procedure we need a bootable flash drive. A device with a size of at least 8 GB is perfect for this. Save the image to portable memory. This is done using various additional software.

Important! The BIOS version may be of the old format (GPT is not possible on this disk) and UEFI - we are interested in the second option. To find out the version, just refer to the interface itself. Go into the BIOS and check if the mouse cursor is active. If it is, you have a new option. In addition, the design is clearly different.

So, installation from a flash drive to a UEFI GPT disk is carried out in several stages.

BIOS preparation( )

The first point is to correctly configure the BIOS:

If the portable memory is connected to the computer, after the above steps, the device will reboot and the installation of Windows 7 or another version will begin. The same can be done from the installation disk. True, you first need to specify the appropriate settings.

Installation( )

The process of placing Windows 8 or other versions on the hard drive is slightly different:

Important! In this case, it will not be possible to avoid data loss. So you first need to write all the necessary files to a separate device.

So, to call the line, press the combination “ Shift+F10" Next we write several commands:

diskpart
seldis 0
clean
convert gpt
exit
exit

Each line must end with " Enter».

Not installed( )

In some cases, even if everything was done correctly, the procedure may not start. There may be several reasons at once. For example, it was already said earlier that without UEFI this will definitely not work.

Another important point is the presence of a 64-bit OS. The previous one - x32 - is used only on older devices, and therefore GPT is not suitable for this. What to do and how to find out? Let's go to " Computer" and on a white background press " Properties" A window will open with information about the system and equipment. We are interested in the line where "" is mentioned. The appropriate bit depth will be indicated here.

So, if you have a 32-bit circuit, this is not suitable for installation. You don't even have to waste your time. For everything to work, you need to change the format from GPT to MBR - everything should start.

For new hard drives to work correctly, the bit depth must be 64-bit.

Convert from MBR to GPT while preserving information( )

Another reformatting option will allow you to save data that you don’t want to just part with. Third-party software can be used for this. This could be a solution from Acronis. But we can safely call it the best to date Minitool Partition Wizard.

The application is a bootable *.ISO, which also has additional free functionality that allows you to manage disks. Including the program allows you to convert the disk to GPT and at the same time retain information.

We perform several steps:

Sometimes there are cases when the program reports that the disk is a system one and conversion is impossible. To bypass we do the following:

If you suddenly find some point unclear, you can find out detailed information from the video:

Interoperability with Mac OS( )

Some Mac users choose to work not with the built-in system, but with the new one - Windows. To locate it on the equipment, you must use special software - Bootcamp. If we talk about GPT on these devices, certain problems may arise during installation. More detailed information on this issue can be obtained from Microsoft specialists.

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Nowadays, when almost any information is available on the network, every user is able to install an operating system on his computer. However, even such a simple, at first glance, procedure can cause difficulties, expressed in the form of various errors in the installation program. Today we’ll talk about how to solve the problem with the inability to install Windows on a GPT disk.

Today, there are two types of disk formats in nature - MBR and GPT. The BIOS is used first to determine and launch the active partition. The second is used with more modern versions of firmware - UEFI, which have a graphical interface for managing parameters.

The error we are talking about today occurs due to BIOS and GPT incompatibility. Most often this happens due to incorrect settings. You can also get it when you try to install Windows x86 or the bootable media (flash drive) does not meet the system requirements.

The problem with bit depth is quite simple to solve: before starting the installation, make sure that the x64 image of the operating system is recorded on the media. If the image is universal, then at the first stage you need to select the appropriate option.

Method 1: Configure BIOS settings

This error can be caused by changed BIOS settings, in which the UEFI boot function is disabled, and the mode is enabled "Secure Boot". The latter prevents the normal detection of bootable media. It is also worth paying attention to the SATA operating mode - it must be switched to AHCI mode.

If your BIOS is missing all or some of the parameters, you will have to work directly with the disk itself. We'll talk about this below.

Method 2: UEFI Flash Drive

Such a flash drive is a medium with an OS image recorded on it that supports booting into UEFI. If you plan to install Windows on a GPT disk, then it is advisable to take care of creating it in advance. This is done using the Rufus program.

If it is not possible to create a UEFI flash drive, move on to the following solutions.

Method 3: Convert GPT to MBR

This option involves converting one format to another. This can be done either from the loaded operating system or directly when installing Windows. Please note that all data on the disk will be permanently lost.

Option 1: System tools and programs

To convert formats, you can use disk maintenance programs such as Acronis Disk Director or MiniTool Partition Wizard. Let's consider a method using Acronis.

This is done using Windows tools like this:

In this mode, you can only work with those disks that are not system (bootable). If you need to prepare working media for installation, you can do this in the following way.

Option 2: Convert on download

This option is good because it works regardless of whether system tools and software are currently available or not.

At the disk selection stage, we run "Command line" using a key combination SHIFT+F10. Next, activate the disk management utility with the command
We display a list of all hard drives installed in the system. This is done by entering the following command:
If there are several disks, then you need to select the one on which we are going to install the system. It can be distinguished by its size and GPT structure. Writing a command
The next step is to clear the media of partitions.
The final stage is conversion. The team will help us with this
All that remains is to complete the utility and close "Command line". To do this, enter twice
followed by pressing ENTER.
After closing the console, click "Update".
Done, you can continue with the installation.

Method 4: Removing partitions

This method will help in cases where for some reason it is impossible to use other tools. We will simply manually delete all partitions on the target hard drive.

Conclusion

As it becomes clear from everything written above, the problem with the inability to install Windows on disks with a GPT structure is solved quite simply. All of the above methods can help you out in different situations - from an outdated BIOS to not having the necessary programs at hand to create bootable flash drives or work with hard drives.