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Convert MBR disk to UEFI (GPT): Problems with existing or future backups?

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My old PC supports UEFI, but upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 10 left it in MBR or "Legacy" mode.

Now that Microsoft has provided a simple program for doing the conversion, I'm prepared to do it, but would like to know in advance what sort of trouble I might be causing myself.

Anything I need to do or think about before doing the conversion?

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Bert, if your old PC is working happily with Legacy / MBR then perhaps the real question here is 'Do you really need to both with converting it from MBR to GPT?'

Obviously, if you want to take advantage of the larger disk sizes enabled by using GPT & UEFI, then the above question has an answer!

The normal advice is offered for if making any significant change:

  1. Make a full disk backup before starting, and check that this was successful and that you can browse the contents in Explorer.
    This has 2 potential purposes!
    First it is your safety net in case of issues arising and the need to recover back to the starting point.
    Second, you can use it to do the conversion by booting the ATI Rescue Media in UEFI boot mode to convert from MBR to GPT during a disk restore / recovery.
     
  2. Make a second full disk backup for extra safety!  To a different backup drive / location.
     
  3. Be prepared to make new backups after doing the conversion.  This is because you are making a significant change to both the partition scheme and to the partition GUID identifiers for all the partitions on the same disk drive, therefore your current backup tasks will error saying the Source disk not found, and if you reselect, it would make a full backup in size even for a new incremental backup.

Point #3 was what I needed. I was pretty sure that the partition scheme change would confuse the current backup settings, so thanks for the confirmation.

One last thing though; I'll be able to restore files from old backups, since that shouldn't depend on the partition scheme?

 

I have a month's worth of weekly full backups and daily incrementals and I'm always going back to them when I've screwed something up.

Bringing back files & folders from existing backups shouldn't be an issue as can be done via Explorer or the ATI GUI.