windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style. Windows 8.1

Question

I have a ASUS R500A notebook.Original OS is Windows 7 64bit.Few days ago I tried to Install Windows 8.1 64 bit version.But it failed & error message is,

windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style.

My Steps:
First i Deleted C: Partition ( Already installed windows 7 ).
Then i Formatted that partition.
Tried to install Windows 8.1 64bit.

In this hard disk i have another several partitions with Important data.

How do i Install Windows 8.1 without loosing Data from the Other partitions ?

Solution 1

This sounds like your Win7 was installed with EFI-support enabled but your Win8.1 installation is booted using CSM (Compatibility Support Module), which fakes a BIOS and Win8.1 subsequently thinks it's bootet on a BIOS system, which requires installation on an MBR-style disk.

Try deactivating the CSM in your EFI settings (something like Boot Mode: UEFI only), that should avoid this issue.

Solution 2

If you have Windows 7 installation CD then Follow the steps bellow..

Boot Windows 7 DVD, click Repair your computer when you see this screen:

Then select Command Prompt..

In command prompt type diskpart to enter the utility.

1. Type select disk # replacing "#" with the drive number of the one you wish to format. To see a list of disks, type list disk.

2. Type clean. This deletes all volumes from the drive.

3. Type convert mbr to convert the disk to mbr.

4. convert gpt to revert back to GPT. (Optional step)

Attribution : Mosses Source Here

Comments

[Ruban Savvy]

Can you get into windows 7?

[TechGuy]

@RubanSavvy No i deleted that partition

[TechGuy]

@RubanSavvy Yes

[Sathish]

See here technet.microsoft.com/en-in/library/dn336946.aspx

[Ruban Savvy]

AFAIK A disk can be of MBR or GPT, a partition cannot be changed unless all the other partition is changed MBR <-> GPT. So if doing this conversion would erase all data..

[TechGuy]

Can we do anything without loosing data of other partitions ?

[TechGuy]

Can i backup other partition data ?

[Ruban Savvy]

Yes you can back up data by using Clonezilla, but you need an external drive or pendrive equivalent to the size of your backup data.. A step by step document is here maketecheasier.com/clone-drives-and-partitions-with-clonezil‌​la

[Tonny]

This is the most probable cause. It is very likely that when you boot using the "Select boot device" option (in stead of letting the system automatically select the boot device) you will see 2 entries for the DVD player: EFI and legacy (==CSM). You will have to use the EFI to get Win8 to install properly.

[Andreas Wiese]

You're looking in the wrong place, PXE is »Preboot Execution Environment« and used to boot over the network.

[Andreas Wiese]

Try enabling »UEFI boot« under the »Boot« menu in BIOS settings and watch out on boot selection menu that you select the right device in case both CSM and UEFI options appear (like HDD AHCI and HDD BIOS).

[Tonny]

@AndreasWiese That was what I was trying to tell him.

[Rod Smith]

The original question clearly states that losing existing partitions is unacceptable, but this procedure will do precisely that.

[Klas Mellbourn]

My problem was that I did not boot the USB in UEFI mode. So the installer was not in UEFI mode. I solved it by using Rufus to create a USB that boots to UEFI.

[R4PH43L]

Booting USB using UEFI did the job! just had to delete the partition and then it used a gpt to do the job. Thanks a lot!