Using MBR HDD with UEFI bios?

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Broand

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Jan 17, 2016
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Hey, I understand that UEFI is mostly used with GPT configurations and BIOS with MBR and the implications of disk space and such. But I have question about compatibility.

If I had a GPU with the requirement that it HAD to be on UEFI (It doesn't boot otherwise), I own a UEFI compatible Motherboard and I have my windows installation on an MBR HDD. Would I need to convert the HDD to GPT in order to get the GPU to work?

I saw a couple of responses showing that people launched into legacy BIOS instead of GPT when they used their MBR HDDs. I can figure out how to change MBR to GPT easily enough but I want to find out if I have to or not first.
 
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SuperSoph_WD
Welcome, Broand!

Indeed, if you want to boot into UEFI BIOS using your current MBR-partitioned HDD, you'd need to reformat it to GPT. Otherwise, you're stuck with booting only into Legacy BIOS. When installing Windows on UEFI-based motherboards using Windows Setup, your hard drive partition style must be set up to support either UEFI mode or legacy BIOS-compatibility mode. Obviously, you've used to the latter and that's why it has MBR partition table.

Here's a MS source you can refer to regarding the installation of Windows using the MBR or GPT partition style: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn336946.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

Keep in mind that reformatting and changing the partition table would require you to...
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

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Jul 30, 2014
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Welcome, Broand!

Indeed, if you want to boot into UEFI BIOS using your current MBR-partitioned HDD, you'd need to reformat it to GPT. Otherwise, you're stuck with booting only into Legacy BIOS. When installing Windows on UEFI-based motherboards using Windows Setup, your hard drive partition style must be set up to support either UEFI mode or legacy BIOS-compatibility mode. Obviously, you've used to the latter and that's why it has MBR partition table.

Here's a MS source you can refer to regarding the installation of Windows using the MBR or GPT partition style: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn336946.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

Keep in mind that reformatting and changing the partition table would require you to erase all the data on the HDD, so make sure you have a backup of your data stored somewhere else before proceeding.

Hope this was helpful. Good luck! :)
SuperSoph_WD
 
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Broand

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Jan 17, 2016
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Okay so UEFI bios is needed for my GPU and I can only use it if I have a GPT HDD. Seems easy enough to figure out. If I had two HDDs, The boot one in GPT and a secondary one in MBR, will they work together?
 
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SuperSoph_WD

SuperSoph_WD

Glorious
Jul 30, 2014
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Hey there again, Broand!

If you have two hard drives and you want to boot into UEFI BIOS, then the booting drive should definitely have the GPT partition style. The secondary storage could be either GPT or MBR, it doesn't matter really.

I'd recommend you to read the article about the difference between the two partition tables, it should help you understand that there's nothing to worry about even if the HDD is in GPT. It doesn't affect the performance in any way, MBR and GPT are just two different ways of storing the partitioning information on the hard drive.

However, you'd always need to reformat (erase) it in order to change the partition table, so make sure you have backups of your data!

Best of luck! :)
SuperSoph_WD
 
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