Welcome guest. Before posting on our computer help forum, you must register. Click here it's easy and free.

Author Topic: Installing Windows 10 on new desktop when needing to reformat SSD  (Read 13348 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

jcdarden

    Topic Starter


    Newbie

    • Experience: Beginner
    • OS: Windows 10
    Hey there, sorry if this is out of place as I'm unfamiliar with the forum but I'm at a loss here. I'm not great with computers and ordered a prebuilt, which was supposed to have Windows 10 pre-installed, but as far as I can tell, it was not. On startup it detected the SSD I have installed but did not list it as an available boot device and just left me to mess around in BIOS settings.  I went ahead and set up a USB in order to boot from so I could install Windows, but now I'm getting a message saying that I cannot install Windows onto any of the internal SSD partitions because they are all MBR and need to be GPT.

    I'm very wary about using what's build in to the Windows installer to reformat because it's saying it will lose data. This is a brand new PC and I have no idea what sort of system files I could lose by reformatting and I don't have anything with which to back them up available (and wouldn't know how to do it without an OS installed).  I looked around on the internet for some tools I might be able to use, but everything I found seemed to have guides for reformatting when Windows was already installed, and again, as far as I can tell it never was. I'd really appreciate any advice on how to proceed and let me know if there is more info you all need. Thanks for any help you can offer!

    carlos1001



      Beginner

      Thanked: 3
      • Computer: Specs
      • Experience: Beginner
      • OS: Linux variant
      Re: Installing Windows 10 on new desktop when needing to reformat SSD
      « Reply #1 on: August 05, 2021, 09:35:38 PM »
      Hey, not sure if you've solved your problem. I'm thinking that your Firmware may have secure boot enabled and legacy mode disabled. If the firmware has legacy mode disabled, it won't boot off of MBR formatted disks in most situations. Converting GPT will 100% wipe the data on the drive because it's changing the structure and locations of the partition tables with different offsets for partitions.

      It's been a while since I've played around with the windows installer, but does it show you a disk map with the list of partitions? How far do you make it into the install process before you're prompted to reinitialize the disk?

      ngc2392



        Beginner

        Thanked: 6
        • Experience: Familiar
        • OS: Windows 10
        Re: Installing Windows 10 on new desktop when needing to reformat SSD
        « Reply #2 on: August 19, 2021, 01:30:26 PM »
        It's kinda strange that you ordered preinstalled system but it wasn't. I for sure would check the order first if that is the case. And then I would simply return the pc to the shop and ask/demand for installing the system.
        If you didn't payed for preinstall, then you should enable full uefi in bios. Or, like the previous post suggested, enable legacy mode.

        patio

        • Moderator


        • Genius
        • Maud' Dib
        • Thanked: 1769
          • Yes
        • Experience: Beginner
        • OS: Windows 7
        Re: Installing Windows 10 on new desktop when needing to reformat SSD
        « Reply #3 on: August 21, 2021, 07:15:52 PM »
        He hasnt been back since early July
        " Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist should have his head examined. "