By Ivy / Last Updated September 11, 2019


What are the GPT and MBR?

GPT and MBR are both partition styles on a physical hard drive. They both have their own unique characteristics.

  • GPT, a standard layout for partition table on the physical hard drive, is short for GUID partition table. It uses the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) mode. In GPT, you can create partitions up to 128.

  • MBR (Master Boot Record) uses Legacy BIOS mode. In MBR, you are only allowed to create four primary partitions or three primary partitions and one extended partition at most. However, it has a great compatibility.

Owing to their different features, you have to boot your computer with their own mode. If your hard drive is GPT, you can only boot from UEFI. If your hard drive is MBR, you can merely boot from Legacy BIOS.

Convert GPT to MBR using command prompt (data loss)

When we meet disk or partition problems, most of us will think about Windows built-in tool. To some extent, it is very useful and can solve some problems for us like converting GPT to MBR on Windows 7/8/10. Below is the guide to conversion process:

Warning: This method will cause data loss since the /clean command is applied. Windows will only convert an empty disk to MBR or GPT. To keep data intact, please back up the disk entirely first.

Step 1. Click “Win + R”, type “cmd” in the Run window. If you want to convert GPT to MBR during installing Windows, you can press “Shift + F10” to bring out command prompt. After you open the cmd window, type “diskpart.exe” and click “Enter”.

Step 2. Type “list disk” and click ‘Enter“”

Step 3.Type select disk n” (n is the number of the disk you want to clean)

Step 4.Type “clean”

step 5.Type “select disk n” (n is the number of the disk you want to convert)

Step 5.Type “convert mbr”

Step 6. Type “exit”

Clean and Convert

Now, you can restore the backup image to previous disk. Backup data ahead of time is the promise that you can convert GPT to MBR using command prompt without data loss. However, it makes things complicated.

Convert GPT to MBR without data loss using AOMEI Partition Assistant

As you can see from above, to avoid data loss in cmd, you need to backup all data on the disk first, then delete all partitionsand convert MBR. It’s quite complex. So some users will turn to a professional third-party tool like AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional for help. It can support many Windows operating system, such as Windows 7/8/10, Windows XP etc.

Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Profesisonal. (You can download Professional Demo versioin to try at first.)

Step 2. Enter the main page, click the disk you want to convert and select "Convert to MBR Disk".

Convert Data Disk to MBR

Step 3. Ensure the operation and click "OK".

OK MBR Data Disk

Step 4. Preview the result and click "Apply".

Apply to MBR Data Disk

Aside by converting GPT to MBR without data loss, users still can change partition style between GPT and MBR when needed.

How to convert GPT to MBR during Windows 10/8/7 install?

Step 1. Create a bootable media in AOMEI Partition Assistant.

Make Bootable Media

Step 2. Plug your USB hard drive, Boot your computer and change your boot sequence in BIOS, then press Enter to the main page of AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional

Change Boot Sequence

The rest of steps are similar to above. you can follow the steps from above to convert GPT to MBR.


Yes, you can convert GPT to MBR without data loss using command prompt if you have backup the disk at frist. However, the process appears to be complex. However, in AOMEI Partition Assistant, you can directly convert GPT to MBR without deleting any partition. Furthermore, you still can convert GPT to MBR during Windows 7/8/10 install effortlessly.

Aside by that, it owns a lot of magic functions than Disk Management including Convert FAT32 to NTFS without data loss, Disk Management Combine Partition, Convert Logical to Primary, Delete Extended Partition, Resize Partition etc.