Hard Drive – Converting Between GPT and MBR Without Losing Data

gpthard drivembr

NOTE: I don't know a lot about hard drives so you're going to have to work with me here.

My question: Can I change my hard drive from GPT to MBR without losing data on it?

NOTE: there isn't an operating system on the laptop which I'm going to do this on. I'm going to boot from a USB and try to convert it.

Best Answer

You can convert from GPT to MBR and MBR to GPT without data loss (I have tried that) with gdisk in Linux.

Use at your own risk

Run command gdisk /dev/sdx with sdx as per your HDD partition

GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.1

Partition table scan:
MBR: MBR only
BSD: not present
APM: not present
GPT: not present


***************************************************************
Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format.
THIS OPERATION IS POTENTIALLY DESTRUCTIVE! Exit by typing 'q' if
you don't want to convert your MBR partitions to GPT format!
***************************************************************


Command (? for help):

MBR to GPT

Enter w to write GPT partition on disk.

Press y to confirm your choice.

GPT to MBR

Enter r to enter in recovery and transformation options.

Enter g to convert GPT to MBR partition.

For Information

You can check table by command p.

Warning: You will lose your boot loader (Ex. GRUB)

You can check if your partition is GPT or MBR now gdisk /dev/sdx with sdx as per your HDD partition in Partition table scan(p)

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