Can you change the partition table from MBR to GPT without losing data? Well yes and free, with the Windows tools themselves without having to use third-party payment solutions, as we will see in this tutorial.

To carry out this process, which is delicate because it includes personal or professional files and folders that we intend to keep intact, it is advisable to know the basic aspects of how storage units are managed in Windows systems and how they must be configured in a certain way. that the operating system can recognize them and access the data they contain.

We have already talked to you about the importance of disk partitions in Windows in previous guides. Creating it, managing it, increasing or decreasing its size through disk manager, and generally its usefulness for better organization of data in different partitions. In addition to partitionsWindows needs a certain type of registry and bootloader called a partition table.

From MBR to GPT

Both are used in Windows and although their purpose is similar, they are quite different in capabilities. Let’s take a look at its main features:

MBR

It is the oldest of the two and therefore supports a wider range of operating systems. MBR was developed for the first IBM Personal Computers and has remained virtually unchanged as the primary partition table choice for Windows computers for decades.

The MBR (or Master Boot Record) is named after its location at the beginning of the drive and contains the operating system bootloader and information about the drive’s partitions. MBR has its limitations, for example, it only works with drives up to 2 TB. Additionally, an MBR drive can only have four primary partitions.

GPT

Much more capable than the previous one, although less compatible, it is closely related to UEFI, a firmware solution that modernized the old BIOS. In GPT, the GUID partition table assigns each partition on the disk a globally unique identifier, a 128-bit number that uniquely identifies your hardware. Besides, GPT does not have the limitations of MBR in terms of size and number of partitions which can contain up to 256 Tbytes and up to 125 partitions in Windows.

Another important difference is the way GPT drives save boot data. Unlike an MBR drive, a GPT drive stores copies of the boot data in multiple partitions, which increases security while making recovery easier. Let’s say that Apple also uses GPT instead of the older Apple Partition Table (APT), while Linux has built-in support for GPT drives.

Obviously, not all are advantages, due to MBR’s greater compatibility and its ability to work with non-Windows systems. Even different editions of Windows are only compatible with one or the other. A typical case is, for example, Windows 11, which is able to boot only from disks with a GPT partition table.

MBR2GPT: migration without data loss

GPT is a more modern, capable and versatile table and is mandatory for the latest operating systems. The way to use it is to format the partition, but this involves deleting all the data it contains. But there is a way convert from MBR to GPT while preserving files, folders and disk structure.

For this we can use the MBR2GPT tool from Windows itself. This application is primarily aimed at system administrators who need to deploy Windows 10 installations to a large number of computers. However, it can be used by any user with minimal complications. And we’re talking about “minimum” because it’s precious data that can be lost in the event of problems. Therefore, it is advisable to make a previous backup.

From there, the procedure is as follows:

– Check the disk number using Computer Manager > Disk Manager. Find the drive you want to convert, right-click the drive number, select Properties, and open Volume, and note the drive number.

– Access a Windows terminal or command line in administrator mode. Validate the disk you want to convert with the command «mbr2gpt /validate /disk:[número de disco aquí] /allowFullOS».

– Type “mbr2gpt /convert /disk:[número de disco aquí] /allowFullOS» to perform the conversion.

– Restart your computer, go into BIOS and change the boot mode to UEFI instead of others like “Legacy” or similar.

All ready. If the whole process is done correctly, The conversion will only take a few seconds and we will have a drive ready with a GPT partition table. We insist on the convenience of previously backing up your data. And of course continue to use MBR with systems that are not compatible. On other systems like Linux, ‘gdisk’ in Linux can be used to perform the conversion process without losing data.