Convert a gpt protective partition

By Aaron on April 18, 2009
I recently put a 64 bit Vista formatted Drive into my XP HTPC box and found it was unreadable and could not be formatted.  Computer Management displayed the drive as a GPT Protective Partition. Unfortunately Windows XP cannot read or write this type of filesystem let alone mount the drive. A GPT disk uses the […]

I recently put a 64 bit Vista formatted Drive into my XP HTPC box and found it was unreadable and could not be formatted.  Computer Management displayed the drive as a GPT Protective Partition. Unfortunately Windows XP cannot read or write this type of filesystem let alone mount the drive. A GPT disk uses the GUID partition table (GPT) disk partitioning system.

Your Options are:

  • Run the DOS command line "cmd" in Start - Run
  • Type DiskPart” at the prompt.
  • “list disk” will show all disks on your machine and find the Disk number you want to convert.
  • Change the focus to the required disk by entering the following “select disk X″ where X is the disk number you require to convert.
  • Entering “clean” command to remove GPT disk from the current in-focus disk by zeroing sectors or if you are using Windows Vista or 2003 server enter "convert mbr"

or Using the Windows interface

  • Back up or move all volumes on the basic GUID partition table (GPT) disk you want to convert into a master boot record (MBR) disk. If the disk does not contain any partitions or volumes, skip to step 2.
  • For more information about backing up volumes, see Related Topics.
    Open Computer Management (Local).
  • In the console tree, click Computer Management (Local), click Storage, and then click Disk Management.
  • If the disk does not contain any partitions or volumes, skip to step 5. Otherwise, right-click the any volumes on the disk and then click Delete Volume.
  • Right-click the GPT disk that you want to change into an MBR disk, and then click Convert to MBR disk.

Windows XP Disc support Windows FAQ.

Article written by Aaron

Thanks a lot. Worked for me

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