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Author Topic: Can you install 64 bit Winn 10 on a MBR disc?  (Read 2810 times)

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Geek-9pm

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Can you install 64 bit Winn 10 on a MBR disc?
« on: March 04, 2018, 12:09:27 PM »
This weekend I am playing with the  Gateway SX 2110G given to me by a friend.
It has  have a 400 GB hard drive that I have partitioned as a MBR type.
First I reinstalled windows XP sp3 pro  32 bit. After that, I install Windows 7 pro 63 bit. and it works. But it keeps getting updates. It is working  OK.
Now I am stumped. I made a USB device using the media creation tool from Microsoft.  It has 64 bit Windows 10. I do not know the build of version. It does not say.When
Here is the problem. When the PC starts to boot, I press the F12 key repeatedly untill I get the boot menu. It is rather confusing. Th USB device is called 'Kingston', the band of the USB device. There are two entry points  of interest:
Kingston UFI
Kingston
If I pick the first, it goes through a lot of  steps and then tells me it can not install on a MBR disc.
The other choice sends be to the Windows boot manager, which just shows what I already have, windows 7 and the older system. No joy.

This has me thinking that the Media Creation Tool will not let me create a Windows 10 package the can install on a MBR.

This is not a critical thing. I can live without an explanation. Just wondering what did I not see in the instructions. I know that I have installed 64 bit from a DVD. I have yet to try that again, but I do recall I did that last year. I think.  :-\
Any comments welcome.  :)

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Re: Can you install 64 bit Winn 10 on a MBR disc?
« Reply #1 on: March 04, 2018, 04:52:13 PM »
You have to turn off any and all UEFI modes within the system BIOS. If you can't, then you cannot install WIndows 10 on an MBR disk.
I was trying to dereference Null Pointers before it was cool.

Geek-9pm

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Re: Can you install 64 bit Winn 10 on a MBR disc?
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2018, 05:28:16 PM »
Right.!   :)
I taught I did that. I first made a MBR disc using another tool and then install Windowsd 7 64 bit on the MBR dis. So I thought I was ready for Windows 10 64 bit. Apparently I did something wrong.

I had used the 'media creatio0n tool' for setting up a USB device.
Right now I am doing a download of the ISO for Windows 10 64 17025 insider build. Then I will bypass the media creation tool and burn it to a DVD.

My guess is the DVD will work the way I except it to. The DVD  setup  will  bring up the 64 bit installer and it will install on the MBR drive I have prepared. I hope.

This is the only way I know of to get Windows XP onto the same disk with the 64 bit Windows 10. The Windows XP loader can not work on a GPT drive no way Jose.
Bu there is an article on Tom's hardware that says that issue was resolved years ago.
It seems they mean that XP and read a GPT with some help. But  it will not boot from GPT.

However,  If there is enough space inside the box, I could put another hard drive inside. The BLIOS firmware   does allow that. I think.

Do you know anything about that?

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Re: Can you install 64 bit Winn 10 on a MBR disc?
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2018, 12:33:22 AM »
Update.
Got it to work. Yes, you have to turn off anything related to UEFI ** to get Windows XP to boot. And then then you have to make sure the USB stick will not be UEFI.

The Gateway firmware on the SWX2110 is strange.There is some documentation, but it is hard to understand. So trial and error was used.

** UEFI -  Unified Extensible Firmware Interface.
By default the Gateway SX2110 is set for UEFI mode, which means the hard drive can not be MBR.  It has options for legacy mode. However, it is not just one simple switch. If the hard drive is MBR and the USB device is not, Windows 64 bit will not install. No explanation.

Anyway, it now works.  ;D