Changing bios Legacy to UEFI in Windows 10

[jagged yarrow]

hello everyone
i just want to know how to convert my OS from working in bios legasy to uefi
i did some search and they say i have to use some CMD command or download some 3 party apps that i dont trust
and if possible can you tell what are technical details for it
im still searching in this topic so anything can help
thx

all sys and hard info

win 10 x64
cpu i3-2120 3.3ghz
bios is ami 4.6.5
board chip h61
ram 4gb
storage hdd 500gb

i did try this command and it did not work : MBR2GPT.EXE /convert /allowfullos

btw my bios is set to use boat of legacy and uefi mode

[jagged yarrow]

i know that my pc is old but it support uefi in bios

if its a hard wear problem i just upgrade the pc
i wanna use it as a nas home server and game server

[pliant slate]

Why do you wana switch, and you can with mbrtogpt or whatever its called, but it can cause problems

[jagged yarrow]

Sorry for the late reply

1. For a peace of mind on my end and compatibility of some OSs
2. Will the problem still exist I do a fresh install
   And I well not sticking to win for long I'm only using it because of some program compatibility stuff that i did not troubleshot or re-code yet

[pliant slate]

You can reinstall orchange wihr a chance your data breaks

[drifting notch]

You want ti change to uefi? That will be a little hard

[jagged yarrow]

I have back ups and a complete system images if something comes up and all of them are in a nother system

[jagged yarrow]

I don't mind at all

[drifting notch]

does your pc have UEFI support?

[jagged yarrow]

Yes my motherboard have uefi support

[jagged yarrow]

.

[drifting notch]

alright

first, you need to launch the command prompt as administrator

this is very important

then type diskpart and click enter

there, execute these commands

sel dis 0
conv gpt
cre par efi size=512
format fs=fat32 quick
assign letter w
exit

then, do bcdboot C:\Windows /s W:\ /f UEFI

and your done

restart your computer, enable uefi and it should boot

[jagged yarrow]

Thx men you are the goat
I try it later im at work at the moment

[drifting notch]

np

[jagged yarrow]

Btw if all goes well it well not gonna make some errors on my end right

[drifting notch]

yeah

[pliant slate]

Try the MBR2GPT conversion tool

As an alternate approach, you can use the MBR2GPT.EXE tool to convert the MBR disk to the GPT partition format. Keep in mind that the tool can be more complicated to use than the diskpart process. For details, see Convert MBR partition to GPT.

-- microsofts website

[jagged yarrow]

thx im reading it now

[jagged yarrow]

hey i tryed to follow your cammand and it gived me this error

im googleing it now

do i have to do it on a new install ?

[jagged yarrow]

i just read it and it says that i have to format

MBR2GPT.EXE did not like to open so i download win pe and try from there

if noting works i just format and re install

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Euw2IChp6cc

like this

[drifting notch]

Bro

Just shrink a drive

By 512 mb

Using diskmgmt.msc

[jagged yarrow]

wen i end this i make a tutorial step by step so no one can sufer as i did

ok

[drifting notch]

Or I can show you how to do it using diskpart

[jagged yarrow]

that we be help full to

[drifting notch]

Alright

These are the commands

Diskpart
Sel dis 0
Sel par 1
Shrink desired=512

[drifting notch]

Then do these

[jagged yarrow]

ok

it did not work on partition 1 so i sellected 2

it worked

on 2

[jagged yarrow]

it did not work same error

and i think its because i dont have free space that ihave

one sec i have a idea

it did not work

[jagged yarrow]

f@@@ it im gonna upgrade to a ssd anyway so i just try this

[ocean zenith]

did you try mbr2gpt command?..

[drifting notch]

It is because 512 mb of unallocated space cannot be found by diskpart

[jagged yarrow]

Do i need to make it in to a partition

[jagged yarrow]

Yes

[drifting notch]

Yeah

In diskpart

Do this

Cre par efi size=512

Format fs=fat32 quick

Assign letter w

Cre par pri

Format fs=ntfs quick

Assign letter c

Exit

Cd /d D:\sources

[jagged yarrow]

Ok i try it later

[drifting notch]

After that

Do this

Dism /apply-image /imagefile:install.wim /index:6 /applydir:C:\

And then you just reboot and your done

[jagged yarrow]

Thx

[drifting notch]

This will take a while btw

[jagged yarrow]

Ok 👌

[jagged yarrow]

now this

[jagged yarrow]

men im googleing but idk what to do

[drifting notch]

just use gptgen

it is a free tool that converts mbr to gpt for you

@jagged yarrow .

[jagged yarrow]

ok thx and sorry for all the trubel

[drifting notch]

launch it as admin

[jagged yarrow]

ok

it did nothing

[drifting notch]

gptgen.exe -w .\physicaldrive0

in cmd

admin

[drifting notch]

if that fails, try this

gptgen.exe -w \\.\physicaldrive0

[jagged yarrow]

do i put 512 as the size

?

@drifting notch i dont know what size to put ?

[drifting notch]

dothis @jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

ok and

[drifting notch]

y

i will guide you on how to make it bootable if it fails

[jagged yarrow]

its done

i check

[drifting notch]

type bcdedit

and click enter

and send pic

@jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

here

[drifting notch]

type mountvol click enter and send a pic

[drifting notch]

copy the one that says *** NO MOUNT POINTS ***

and do this

mountvol V:\ {Copied text here}

[jagged yarrow]

mountvol V:\ {000186de-0000-0000-0000-c09019000000}

[drifting notch]

brooooooo

the command

should

be

like this

mountvol V:\ \\?\Volume{Copied text here}

@jagged yarrow

[drifting notch]

no space

in the \\?\Volume part

[jagged yarrow]

done

[drifting notch]

send a pic

[drifting notch]

reboot

it should boot

[jagged yarrow]

it well boot to uefi or it be gpt

[drifting notch]

uefi

[jagged yarrow]

thx its gpt

[drifting notch]

first enable efi on your motherboard's bios

[jagged yarrow]

its on mix at the moment

see you in a sec

Now my drive is not detected 😭

@drifting notch

[drifting notch]

ye?

[drifting notch]

UEFI only

@jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

Ir reboot to bios

[jagged yarrow]

I can not see the drive in bios

[drifting notch]

oh

you need a usb

do you have one? @jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

And I don't have a usb stick

[drifting notch]

hmmmmmm

[jagged yarrow]

No

[jagged yarrow]

No

[drifting notch]

yeah you forgot to create boot files for it

@jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

So what now

[drifting notch]

you will need a way of accessing bcdboot

from my knowledge, you need a windows setup disk

[jagged yarrow]

I have a drive of win 7

[drifting notch]

good

@jagged yarrow boot from it

[jagged yarrow]

Ok

[drifting notch]

@jagged yarrow tell me when you booted from it

[jagged yarrow]

Ok

But i have to put the sara mode on ide not ahci

It we'll be stuck on re boot

[drifting notch]

boot into it

@jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

Sorry but my internet is having a stroke

[drifting notch]

ok

lol

[jagged yarrow]

Lmao

Im in

I can see my drives

[drifting notch]

press shift + F10

@jagged yarrow

and do these commands

diskpart
sel dis 0
sel par 1
assign letter w
exit

[jagged yarrow]

Nothing

[drifting notch]

?

[jagged yarrow]

In f10

[drifting notch]

shift + f10

are you in the setup or the os? @jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

Os

[drifting notch]

open cmd as admin

@jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

Ok and i have a installer for win 10 FR

[drifting notch]

did you open cmd as admin? @jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

Yes and im typing

[drifting notch]

do these

@jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

Ok one sec im changing the keyboard from France to English

[jagged yarrow]

Im back

@drifting notch

Sorry I call my isp for the internet black out

[jagged yarrow]

And i did that

[drifting notch]

oh

now

do this

[drifting notch]

you need to find the partiton where your windows installation is

@jagged yarrow

i will refer to the drive as D:\

[jagged yarrow]

I did the cmd

[drifting notch]

do this

bcdboot D:\Windows /s W:\

@jagged yarrow remember that D:\ is just an example and should be replaced with the drive where your windows 10 is installed

yo @jagged yarrow did you do it

[jagged yarrow]

Ok

@drifting notch

[drifting notch]

ye?

[drifting notch]

?

so can you boot into windows 10 now? @jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

One sec i try

[drifting notch]

ok

[jagged yarrow]

Same problem

Im re doing it

The last part

[ocean zenith]

You still havent converted your disk to gpt?...

[jagged yarrow]

@drifting notch

[ocean zenith]

Oh I see..you did convert to gpt with the help of eagle..

[jagged yarrow]

It's not booting now

[ocean zenith]

Whats wrong now?..

[jagged yarrow]

My bios is not recognising it

As a boot drive

[ocean zenith]

Boot partition created for the uefi?..

and did you check the boot menu for the list of boot devices in your bios?...

[jagged yarrow]

Yes

[drifting notch]

looks like windows 7's diskpart does not support shortcuts

diskpart
select disk 0
select partition 1
assign letter w
exit

@jagged yarrow

[drifting notch]

you need to create the boot files for it

first, you need to find the install partiton for windows 10

[ocean zenith]

Proceed with creating boot files..with the help of eagle...

[ocean zenith]

It actually does...the iso is probably old..

[drifting notch]

then, create boot files with bcdboot

[jagged yarrow]

The win install or boot install

[drifting notch]

your windows 10

[drifting notch]

first, open explorer

[jagged yarrow]

Fond it

[drifting notch]

find the partition for your windows 10

[jagged yarrow]

It's f

[drifting notch]

@jagged yarrow so F:\ is the partition for windows 10. is that correct?

[drifting notch]

ok

[jagged yarrow]

Yes

[drifting notch]

open cmd as admin

[jagged yarrow]

It's open

On dickpart

[drifting notch]

do this

[drifting notch]

exit it

[jagged yarrow]

Ok

[drifting notch]

just type exit

[jagged yarrow]

I did

[drifting notch]

then, do this command

bcdboot F:\Windows /s W:\ /v

then send the output @jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

Ok

bcdboot F:\Windows s W:\ /v

It's all in french

And my internet is no longer having a stroke

[ocean zenith]

Spell error...

[drifting notch]

put a space after W:\ @jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

Ok

[jagged yarrow]

.

[drifting notch]

are you sure that f is windows 10?

[jagged yarrow]

Yes 100%

[drifting notch]

alr

do this command

bcdboot F:\Windows /s W:\ /f UEFI

@jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

Ok on it

[jagged yarrow]

It's giving me the same error

[jagged yarrow]

.

[drifting notch]

hm

go to explorer

and go to F:\Windows

[jagged yarrow]

Ok

[drifting notch]

look for the folder "boot"

[jagged yarrow]

Ok done

[drifting notch]

go in it

[jagged yarrow]

Im in

[drifting notch]

oohhhhhhhh

maybe

it is case sensitive

@jagged yarrow is the folder "boot" start with the capital b?

[jagged yarrow]

Yes

In Boot

[drifting notch]

rename it to a small b

[jagged yarrow]

It's not letting me

[drifting notch]

do these commands

takeown /f F:\Windows\Boot /r /d y
icacls F:\Windows\Boot /t /Grant Users:F

then rename it

@jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

Ok one sec

[drifting notch]

then do this @jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

.

[drifting notch]

oh my goddddddddddddddddddddddd

freaking windows 7

you can do it using explorer

i will send an archive containing the actual boot folder of windows 10

[jagged yarrow]

Ok

[drifting notch]

paste it where you can

then remember the path

[jagged yarrow]

I'm really sorry for the headache

[drifting notch]

for example: if you decompress the archive in the root of the C: drive

the command will look like this

bcdboot C:\ /s W:\ /f UEFI

[jagged yarrow]

Ok

[jagged yarrow]

I'm ready

[drifting notch]

no password

extract it somewhere you want

like your desktop

remember the path of the directory

not the path to the folder

i am gonna say that "user" is the folder containing the folder as an example

[jagged yarrow]

Like this

[drifting notch]

replace user with your user name in windows 7.

bcdboot C:\Users\User\desktop /s W:\ /f UEFI

send the output @jagged yarrow

@jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

Same pr

[drifting notch]

oh my god

this is giving me a headache3

remove the /f part

[jagged yarrow]

Same

What about this

[drifting notch]

can you reboot from the windows 10 install media?

it will solve all this headache

[jagged yarrow]

I can try but i need a win key

[drifting notch]

just boot to it

[jagged yarrow]

I don't think i can

Give me a second

I try my old win key

[drifting notch]

we are not reinstalling windows

[jagged yarrow]

It we'll boot me to the installer and ask me to format first like wen you boot into usb

[drifting notch]

once you booted into it

press shift + f10

@jagged yarrow

[jagged yarrow]

I well

[drifting notch]

then do this

then find the windows 10 partition, as windows setup shuffles them up

[drifting notch]

then do this, replace F with your windows 10 drive letter

uh see you tmrw, i gotta sleep

[jagged yarrow]

Ok see you

[jagged yarrow]

I gon out and buyed a usb stick

I try again wish me luck

[jagged yarrow]

@ocean zenith can you help me for a sec

[ocean zenith]

whats wrong?..

[jagged yarrow]

Do i need to put my cmd like this bcdboot D:\Windows /s X:\ /f UEFI

D is my win

[ocean zenith]

what is X?..

[jagged yarrow]

I think its boot drive

[ocean zenith]

I dont know what other person did to help you...but it shouldnt have taken this long!.. anyways.. you bought the usb ..and did you make it bootable and boot from it?

[jagged yarrow]

Yes

[ocean zenith]

which one is your windows 10 drive letter?..

[jagged yarrow]

Its D

[ocean zenith]

did you create efi partition?..

[jagged yarrow]

Yes and my hhd is gpt

We forgot to add the efi boot

[ocean zenith]

which one is the efi partition?... screenshot using diskpart list vol/part..

[jagged yarrow]

Vol 3

But it doesn't have a letter

[ocean zenith]

assign a letter... and screenshot first!

[ocean zenith]

how is that efi?... it is formatted as NTFS...

you did not even create efi partition all this time?..

[jagged yarrow]

Dos it needs to be fat32

[ocean zenith]

yep!..

[jagged yarrow]

I'm gonna kill myself

[ocean zenith]

what did you do till now exactly?..

[jagged yarrow]

All that headache

Ok i turned my drive from mdr to gpt

[ocean zenith]

efi partition is a boot partition for the uefi system...

Is your bios in uefi only or uefi + legacy mode?..

and did you boot the usb in uefi mode or legacy?..

[jagged yarrow]

Uefi only now and im booting from a usb

[ocean zenith]

.

[jagged yarrow]

Uefi

[ocean zenith]

give full screenshot...we will create efi partition..

then you will use that bcdboot command on the efi partition...and you should be done by then!..

[jagged yarrow]

Of vol list ?

[ocean zenith]

yep!..

also you never told me you use windows 7...

[jagged yarrow]

Its a old drive i use 10

And Ubuntu

[jagged yarrow]

.

[ocean zenith]

delete vol 3...

I assume you know how to do that by now?..

[jagged yarrow]

Del vol 3

[ocean zenith]

screenshot afterwards..of the list vol

and list part

[jagged yarrow]

Its still up

[ocean zenith]

first type sel vol 3 ..then type del vol... not del vol 3

[jagged yarrow]

Ok

Done

[ocean zenith]

screenshot

[jagged yarrow]

On its way

[ocean zenith]

list part

[ocean zenith]

type list disk... then sel disk 0...then type create partition efi size=100

[jagged yarrow]

Ok

Done

Do i restart?

Now ?

[ocean zenith]

no

[jagged yarrow]

K

[ocean zenith]

sel part 3.. then type format quick fs=fat32

[jagged yarrow]

Its vol 5 now

And its fat 32

[ocean zenith]

volumes and partitions are listed differently..

[jagged yarrow]

Ok glad to learn

[ocean zenith]

sel vol 5 and assign a letter... I assume you know how to do that?..

[jagged yarrow]

Yes

[ocean zenith]

this is a laptop or desktop?...

[jagged yarrow]

Desktop

[ocean zenith]

I see!... did you assign the letter?

[jagged yarrow]

Yes

[ocean zenith]

exit diskpart... and type bcdboot D:\Windows /s G: /f UEFI

[jagged yarrow]

On it

[ocean zenith]

confirmed D is your windows 10?..

[jagged yarrow]

Yes

Its a win

[ocean zenith]

huh?..

[jagged yarrow]

It's been created

The efi

[ocean zenith]

do you know the shortcut key for the boot devices from the bios?..

[jagged yarrow]

What? Like opening my bios ?

[ocean zenith]

instead of opening bios..it will directly give you the list/option to boot from which device... if you dont know which key..then boot into bios ...the info should be there..also check the boot devices

your work here with diskpart is done...

[jagged yarrow]

I well

[ocean zenith]

exit and shut down...unplug the usb... start your pc and boot into bios..

[jagged yarrow]

Im doing it now

[ocean zenith]

screenshot where boot drives are listed...in the bios!

full screenshot..

[jagged yarrow]

It's booting into win thx 🙏 you guys

[ocean zenith]

it worked?..

[jagged yarrow]

Yes but its a lil slow from this hard drive

[ocean zenith]

glad you got it working!... ^^ and sorry for the delay in fixing your problem... our apology

[jagged yarrow]

It's me ho have to apologize for dragging you guys

[ocean zenith]

you can buy an ssd...to make your pc smoother and faster...

[jagged yarrow]

I know im using this one as a home server

[ocean zenith]

welp!... best of luck and have a great day! ^^

[jagged yarrow]

You 2

[ocean zenith]

mark the thread as solved...

[jagged yarrow]

Im on it

We'll it be deleted

?

[ocean zenith]

if you want to thank eagle...you can wait for them to come online and then mark it as solved...

[jagged yarrow]

Because i want to save it for the future i learn lot from you guys

Ok

[ocean zenith]

its okay!... you can always visit tech support...

[jagged yarrow]

@drifting notch if you are reading this thx you for all the work you put on helping me and im sorry for all the headache i caused you in the process thx 🙏

[drifting notch]

Glad you got it working! Also all the headache was bcdboot from the damned windows 7