how to reformat external drive from gpt to mbr

Type the following commands in order and press 'Enter' after each one. Type diskpart in the command prompt and hit Enter.ģ. Type cmd in the search box and then run as administrator.Ģ. Delete GPT protective partition in Windows 7/8/10/11ġ. Find the disk marked as GPT Protective Partition and remember its disk number. Select Disk Management in the pop-up window.ģ. Right-click Computer or This PC and then select Manage from the context menu.Ģ. Find the disk number of the GPT protective partition and remember it.ġ.

Thus, you should backup files in advance if there are vital data. Note: Diskpart will require you to delete all existing partitions (along with all saved data) on the disk and then convert it to MBR partition style. In such a case, you can remove GPT Protective Partition using Diskpart. However, if you right-click the protected disk, you will find there are no available options In Disk Management. To successfully remove or delete the GPT protective partition, you can convert the GPT to MBR. How to remove GPT protective partition using CMD in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7? Then the OS will not able to properly recognize or manage the hard drive.

Why this occurs? That's mainly because the internal or external hard disk is connected to a computer that is running Windows 32-bit operating system, and there is a compattibility issue between the GPT partition table and operating system. That means drive cannot be repartitioned and reformatted. If you right-click the protected disk, you will find there are no available options. And Disk Management reports that the drive has a GPT Protective Partition. Sometimes, when connecting an internal or external hard drive to Windows XP (or newer), 32-bit operating system, you may find your drive is inaccessible. What causes 'GPT protective partition' issue?

How to reformat external drive from gpt to mbr