I have a 3TB drive that is currently in MBR format, so I can only see 2TB of it. I used MBR because I didn't have a UEFI BIOS, and Windows won't boot from a GPT drive without UEFI. I figured I'd fix it after I bought a new motherboard on Black Friday. So my new motherboard is here, and I want to convert the drive to GPT and get my extra terabyte back. I have Paragon HDM12, and it has an option to convert drives from MBR to GPT without deleting the data. My questions are: a) Has anyone done this, and can you confirm that it doesn't destroy the data on the drive b) Does it do this quickly, by just rewriting the partition tables and boot sector, or does it have to copy and rewrite the data --- kind of like the difference between a quick format and a full format. If it takes a long time, then I'd just as soon copy the data to an external drive and start fresh. Oh, and I know I'll have to reinstall Windows, but that's OK; it's in a separate, small partition. It's my data partitions that I'm worried about. Thanks for any help.
A) No it does not destroy the data as long as the process is not interupted. B) From what I remember when doing this it was quick, but I was also on a test system with minimal installations and no data what so ever. C) Just as small suggestion, perform a backup of the OS partition only then do your clean install, after the clean install restore your OS partition from the backup to the clean installed OS partition and you are back up and running with minimal reconfiguring of your system.
Thanks for your response, but I'm not sure that I made my circumstances clear. I will be doing a clean Windows install because it's a new motherboard, therefore it will need new drivers. If I restore an image from the old OS it will have the old drivers, so there is no point to doing that, is there?
That all depends on what version of Paragon you have, because you would still have the option of performing the P2P adjust with any one of the paid products (B&R or HDM) which will bypass that issue as well.
I have the fully paid version of HDM12, at least I assume it's the full version, because it was a free upgrade from a fully paid HDM11. But I've tried to do MUCH simpler stuff (like verifying an archive) that didn't work with Win 8.1, and I was told here that HDM12 doesn't support Win 8.1.
If I understand correctly it's easy if all your data is stored in the partition. enabled uefi 1. booting from Paragon 12 Rescue Media 2. Delete system partition and convert HDD to GPT (any order you can convert then delete WinPart) 3. Profit Shuts down the PC. Booting from the Windows installation media and choose to install the first unallocated space since the beginning of the HDD. Windows itself mark up partitions how to need.
