How To 

How To Fix Windows 10 Unsupported Disk Layout UEFI Error


A common problem that Windows users have encountered when trying to update Windows 10 is the “Unsupported Disk Layout for UEFI Firmware” error. This error basically means that the partition structure of your hard drive is not supported by the version of Windows 10 that you want to upgrade to.

This error can be resolved by creating a Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR) which is used on Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)/GUID Partition Table (GPT) disks. Without getting too technical, we will outline the steps to fix this error when attempting to update.

1. Run Command Prompt as Administrator
Go to Start -> Windows System. Expand Windows System and right click on Command Prompt ->More -> Run as administrator. This will open the Command Prompt in administrator mode. You can now begin to type in the commands that follow.
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2. Run Diskpart.exe and Create the MSR Partition.
a. Open Diskpart.exe by simply typing diskpart and Enter.
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b. Type list disk. After doing this you will see all of your disks listed. If there is a * marked under GPT then your system is using the GPT partition structure and you can proceed to the following steps. If not, then your hard drive will need to be converted to the GPT format and a clean install of Windows 10 will need to be performed.
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c. Now execute the following commands in sequence:
select disk # (where # is the actual disk number as displayed in list disk in step b).
List partition – This will display all partitions on the selected disk
create partition msr size=128 – This command will create a 128MB partition (a size recommended by Microsoft)
list partition - Verify that that the partition was created
exit – Leave diskpart.exe and close command prompt.
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3. Try the Windows 10 Upgrade Again.
You can now try to upgrade your system again. If for some reason you were not able to successfully complete the steps above, or you are still receiving the same error, then it is better to back up all your data and do a fresh install and let the Windows installation format your disk to the recommended GPT format.