Solved Trying to change over to GPT from MBR with recovery

moze229

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Location
Raleigh, NC
I installed Windows 8.1 onto a new drive alongside a Linux distro and realized that I didn't specify a GPT partition. What I dreamt up in the meantime was to create a recovery image, use Windows disk manager to change the partition over to GPT, then restore the recovery image onto the new GPT partition? Is this possible by any means, even if it requires purchasing additional software? What is the best way (if possible) for me to do this? Thanks!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB
I wanted to add - the reason that I want to do this is because I just finished configuring the system, and it took some time to complete to my liking. I can start over, but I'm trying to avoid that.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro MC
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Asus G75VW / Z97 Pro
    CPU
    Intel Core i7-3610QM / I7-4790K
    Motherboard
    Z97 Pro
    Memory
    16 GB Hyundai HTM315156CFR8C-PB PC3-12800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M (GF114M)
    Sound Card
    VIA 6.0.10.1600
    Screen Resolution
    1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 850 Pro 256, Samsung 850 Pro 1TB
    Internet Speed
    30 down 3 up
    Browser
    Explorer 11
    Antivirus
    NIS and Malwarebytes
Create a backup Image of the windows partition using Marcuim Reflect v6 Free > Macrium Reflect Free
and save the image to an external source
Reinstall windows using the windows setup media - Disable Legacy/CSM support in BIOS
Or Rename "Bootmgr" to "Bootmgr.old" on your setup media to force UEFI booting only
Once you get back into windows - reinstall Marcium and the Restore ONLY windows partition

The windows media will setup your HDD and Marcium will restore your current Windows OS

Then if you chose you can shrink the windows partition and create space for dual booting
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
Thanks for the suggestions!

Create a backup Image of the windows partition using Marcuim Reflect v6 Free > Macrium Reflect Free
and save the image to an external source
Reinstall windows using the windows setup media - Disable Legacy/CSM support in BIOS
Or Rename "Bootmgr" to "Bootmgr.old" on your setup media to force UEFI booting only
Once you get back into windows - reinstall Marcium and the Restore ONLY windows partition

The windows media will setup your HDD and Marcium will restore your current Windows OS

Thanks. [DEL]So, why would I not be able to just use disk manager to change the MBR partition to GPT?[/DEL]

Nevermind. This is probably because it will be the drive I"m booted up on. Just thought I would ask because it would save considerable time.

Then if you chose you can shrink the windows partition and create space for dual booting

Ok. So even though I'll be messing with a different partition, Windows setup is going to destroy Linux as well? How convenient. Yet another reason to attempt bypassing the re installation process. :) Would I not be able to use this Marcium software to restore this partition as well, or will I have to redo the Linux install? It's not as big of a deal as Windows, but it would be nice. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB
You are converting the DISK to GPT - not just a single partition
When you convert the DISK it effects every partition and the partition layout
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
You are converting the DISK to GPT - not just a single partition
When you convert the DISK it effects every partition and the partition layout

Ok - makes sense now. I was thinking only the partition was affected for some reason. I think I'll give it a shot and report back with the results. Thanks for the advice!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB
One more question - do I need an image of the reserved partition as well, to preserve my current installation? I downloaded the software. I'm going to image the Windows partition (and possibly the reserved partition), reinstall Windows with the CORRECT settings in BIOS (my sata was set to either/or rather than just GPT), reinstate the Windows image (and possibly the reserved partition) into the new Windows partition (and potentially the reserved partition.) I may also go ahead and image the Linux partition as well while I'm at it. When I resize the newly created partition, I SHOULD be able to just throw that image back on there as well.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB
Didn't work.

I followed the steps as I saw them. I make the backup. This part went without issue. It created several image files and I saved them to an external drive using the Macrium software. I then created a boot CD with the Macrium utility and reinstalled Windows forcing the GPT. I booted from the Macrium CD, chose to restore the image to the GPT DRIVE (there was no way to select an individual partition that I could find) and it did the restore. Now I'm left with a non-bootable drive. It will not boot in Legacy or GPT. After the restore was complete, Macrium reported the drive as it appeared that it should be - 4 partitions, with the restore information contained within the main Windows partition on the GPT drive. It will not boot, however.

One interesting thing to note - there is a selection on the restore to "Replace MBR" that can be missed if you don't go hunting through the "Advanced Options" like I always do. I made sure that was UNCHECKED before I did the restore, since I didn't want the image messing with the nice new GPT that I just created.

So now what shall I do? Did I make a wrong selection in the software somewhere? Is there a way to restore a partition image to an individual partition? I didn't see it. I can reinstall Windows 8.1 fairly painlessly now and attempt again, but I'm not sure that the results will be any different.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB
Did you wait until windows completed until you got to User Setup ?

You stated you have 4 partitions (WinRE tools) (System) (Reserved) (Windows)

restore ONLY the OS partition

If that does not boot after marcium restore - Boot from setup media and from the "Install" screen
press Shift+F10 to bring up a command prompt and Type >

C:\Windows\System32\bcdboot C:\Windows

Assuming your OS partition is assigned C - that will write the boot files to the System Partition (Efi Partition)

[DEL]Be careful with the Marcium restore - I believe it selects the Boot partition in addition to the selected partition[/DEL]
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
Did you wait until windows completed until you got to User Setup ?

You stated you have 4 partitions (WinRE tools) (System) (Reserved) (Windows)

restore ONLY the OS partition

If that does not boot after marcium restore - Boot from setup media and from the "Install" screen
press Shift+F10 to bring up a command prompt and Type >

C:\Windows\System32\bcdboot C:\Windows

Assuming your OS partition is assigned C - that will write the boot files to the System Partition (Efi Partition)

Be careful with the Marcium restore - I believe it selects the Boot partition in addition to the selected partition

Yeah - it also automatically selects to write over the boot record. :) This is understandable since it defaults to assuming you are recovering from a non-bootable drive.

The GPT setup exactly as it should have. When I restored the image, the GPT still looked fine - only that the restored image was now in the correct location. From what I could tell, nothing else changed. Apparently I was wrong.

Im going to try booting from the 8.1 disk and doing the command as you suggested just for fun. I have a feeling I'll be reinstalling Windows again though, to get the GPT straightened out.

There wasn't many options when doing the restore. You choose the image set (which was my MBR Windows partition image that I made from the C:\ drive) and your restore DISK. It does NOT have a selection to restore to an individual partition that I could see. I assumed it was just smart and was going to figure that out on its own. When I made the original backup image, I chose the windows partition ONLY. If it ended up sucking the boot info with it, there was no indication. I looked through all of those advanced options as well, and didn't see anything pertaining to the boot record.

Thanks for for the help so far. Worse case scenario - I reinstall everything. But I'm going to do everything I can do to get this to work, if nothing other than to experience the process and share this info with others.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB
It does NOT have a selection to restore to an individual partition that I could see.

De-select whole disk from restore image and drag OS partition from restore image to correct OS partition on disk

As long as you got 4 gpt partitions and an OS on the OS partition - no need to reinstall..

I think you may have restored the image in-correctly and I'm no sure what is on what partition
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
FYI - I just tried to rewrite the boot info from the windows media DVD as you suggested in your last post - "failure when attempting to copy boot files."

I can go to the c drive and see all of the restored info. I can navigate through the directories and everything is there. It's just the boot.

I may have to reinstall. Something strange is going on with the boot. I'm going to see what I can do with it. I'll check out the file you provided. Thanks!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB
I seem to have some performance issues, but I got it restored and it boots!

I followed the instructions that we spoke of earlier, and I realized that on my first attempt with Macrium I did not do things correctly. This time I did, but it still wouldn't boot. I got an error message about the windows.efi. It apparently didn't like the old MBR data with the new efi file. So, I found an explanation at this site How to repair the EFI Bootloader in Windows 8 - fixedByVonnie and was able to correct the problem by reloading the boot record and correcting the BCD.

I think I am solved here, but like I said I think I have some performance issues or other strange things going on. If I can come up with some reasons, I may be back to try and get more help.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB
I also wanted to add that my BIOS now sees 2 identical drives on the same controller. LOL Not sure what that's all about, unless it has something to do with recreating the boot and BSD. Everything is working ok.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 / Linux Mint 17.2 / OS X
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    CPU
    Intel i5 4660 3.2
    Motherboard
    Asus H97I-PLUS
    Memory
    8GB
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