Restore an MBR to a GPT partition

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RFSndrs
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:42 pm

Restore an MBR to a GPT partition

Post by RFSndrs »

I have finally realized I have to convert my MBR drive to GPT. I have Ubuntu 20.04, Windows 10, and Linux Mint 20.04 installed. I have found out Ubuntu 21 requires an EFI partition. Now, I am using BIBM for my boot manager, but I own BIU as well. If I save my DATA partition from MBR can I simply restore it to GPT? If so, can I convert my present OS's to EFI, save them on a separate hard drive, and restore them to a GPT partition? Then I gotta work out how to combine the EFI's. Thanks.
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: Restore an MBR to a GPT partition

Post by Brian K »

Bob,

You can convert your MBR system to GPT. With a bit of work.

A short story. My wife has an old Dell computer. MBR system, no TPM and a second generation Intel CPU. It wouldn't upgrade to Win11. An image of the OS partition was restored to my UEFI system (recent hardware) and some TeraByte magic helped it to boot. Now it could be upgraded to Win11. An image was created and then restored to her computer. Some TeraByte magic helped it to boot. Win11 and Win10 are running fine on her computer.
RFSndrs
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:42 pm

Re: Restore an MBR to a GPT partition

Post by RFSndrs »

Thank you, Brian. I hope mine works as well, but I have many OS's to work on.
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: Restore an MBR to a GPT partition

Post by Brian K »

RFSndrs wrote: Sun Nov 07, 2021 5:57 pm , but I have many OS's to work on.
Bob, it shouldn't be a problem. Just use your current disk and this tutorial...

https://kb.terabyteunlimited.com/kb-art ... bs-script/

Then install BIU.

You should then be able to boot Win10 from the BIU Boot Menu. Get back to us about creating Boot Items for the Linux OS.
RFSndrs
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:42 pm

Re: Restore an MBR to a GPT partition

Post by RFSndrs »

OK. I will look at this.
Today I was trying to boot into my BIU flash drive and could only get the drive image portion. It had backup, restore validate, etc. No way did I get a where to install BIU. I had a clean drive with no BIBM or BIU on it. It was formatted in GPT, but nothing else on it.I tried it in my laptop which is GPT and has BIU installed and still got the same menu. How do I get the "install" part of it going?
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: Restore an MBR to a GPT partition

Post by Brian K »

Bob, can you check your flash drive in Windows Explorer?

Does it have an efi folder and 1 file or an efi folder and 5 files?

How many folders are in the efi folder? Names?
RFSndrs
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:42 pm

Re: Restore an MBR to a GPT partition

Post by RFSndrs »

Brian - Sorry it has taken me so long to answer. There is 1 EFI folder and a license.txt file on my BIU flash. It is now booting OK. Don't know what I did. Anyway, after a lot of researching on DuckDuckGo, my original statement way back when was stated wrong. What I meant to say was I want to change my main boot drive from BIOS-MBR to GPT-EFI. So I really have a double conversion. I think you have answered my original thought which was "can I restore an MBR partition to a GPT partition". You have done both ways with your wife's computer. So now, I have to make a plan to convert my Windows and Linux drives to EFI, image them, and restore them to an EFI-GPT drive. There is lots of stuff out there. Thank you for your help.
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: Restore an MBR to a GPT partition

Post by Brian K »

RFSndrs wrote: Tue Nov 09, 2021 2:44 pm So now, I have to make a plan to convert my Windows and Linux drives to EFI, image them, and restore them to an EFI-GPT drive.
Bob, a restore isn't needed. Just follow the TeraByte tutorial.
RFSndrs
Posts: 106
Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:42 pm

Re: Restore an MBR to a GPT partition

Post by RFSndrs »

I have been up to my eyeballs in this and am ready to give up, BUT someday, whether I like it or not, I'm going to have to go to EFI. So, by your last reply, if I take my original BIOS-MBR drive and to the tutorial "https://kb.terabyteunlimited.com/kb-art ... bs-script/" I will end up with a GPT-EFI drive except for BIU? Sounds way too good to be true. I have had Terabyte products since the days of BING and have never used the TBOSDT before. That will be another learning experience. However, I have taken all of my OS's and put them on a stand alone MBR drive and converted them to GPT-EFI through several steps and imaged them. Now I can't get the images to boot in BIU after I restore them.
Brian K
Posts: 2214
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2011 1:11 am
Location: NSW, Australia

Re: Restore an MBR to a GPT partition

Post by Brian K »

Bob, were the OS booting from the standalone MBR drive before you converted the drive to GPT? Did you have BIBM on that drive?
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