How to Check If a Disk Drive is GPT or MBR in Windows 10 (3 Methods)

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Written By Larious

Larious is the Executive Editor of LowkeyTech. He is a tech enthusiast and a content writer. 

 

 

 

 

Last Updated on March 25, 2021 by Larious


If you have ever tried to install Windows 10 on a new computer, you might have come across an error telling ‘Windows cannot be installed to this disk.’ It will ask you to convert your disk to GPT because the bootable USB prepared for an MBR partition scheme can’t be used to install Windows 10 on a GPT-style disk.

You don’t need to know which partition scheme your hard disk is using in most cases. However, if you have just assembled a new PC, you might be asked to select between MPR and GPT partition. Also, a few software needs to specify the partition scheme before the installation process.

If you are wondering about the difference between the two, GPT is a modern partition scheme and is required if you are booting Windows operating system in UEFI mode. On the other hand, MBR is needed for booting older Windows versions in BIOS mode. If you want to install the latest Windows 10, you might need to use the GPT partition scheme.

Also Read: 10 Best Tools To Check & Repair Hard Disk Errors

Steps to Check If a Disk Drive is GPT or MBR in Windows 10

You need to know the disk partition scheme before preparing a bootable USB drive to ensure an error-free installation of Windows 10. So, it’s always best to know if a Disk drive uses GPT or MBR on Windows 10 computer.

In this article, we will share few best methods to check if a disk is using GPT or MBR. Let’s check out.

1. Through Disk Management

Well, you can use the built-in Disk Management utility of Windows 10 to know if a disk is GPT or MBR. Follow some of the simple steps given below.

Step 1. First of all, right-click on the Start button and select ‘Disk Management.’

Disk Management

Step 2. This will open the Disk Management tool.

Step 3. Right-click on the disk whose partition scheme you want to know and select ‘Properties.’

select 'Properties.'select 'Properties.'

Step 4. On the next Window, select the ‘Volumes‘ tab.

select the 'Volumes' tabselect the 'Volumes' tab

Step 5. Now check the Partition style. The partition style section will tell you about the partition style used on the disk.

partition style sectionpartition style section

That’s it! You are done. This is how you can check if a disk drive is GPT or MBR in Windows 10.

2. Using Command Prompt

Well, the Command Prompt method might not be the easiest, but it’s still pretty effective. Follow some of the simple steps given below to check if a disk uses GPT or MBR partition style.

Step 1. First of all, click on the Windows search and search for CMD. Right-click on the CMD and select ‘Run as administrator.’

Select 'Run as administrator.'Select 'Run as administrator.'

Step 2. On the Command Prompt Window, enter ‘diskpart‘ and hit the Enter button.

enter 'diskpart'enter 'diskpart'

Step 3. Next, enter ‘list disk’ on the Command prompt and hit the enter button.

enter 'list disk'enter 'list disk'

Step 4. If a disk is GPT, it will have an asterisk(*) character under the GPT column. If the asterisk character is missing from the GPT column, it’s an MBR disk.

1616649796 69 How to Check If a Disk Drive is GPT or1616649796 69 How to Check If a Disk Drive is GPT or

That’s it! This is how you can use the command prompt to check if a drive uses GPT or MBR partition style.

3. Using Powershell

Like the Command prompt, you can utilize the Windows Powershell to determine whether the disk drive is using GPT or MBR partition style.

Step 1. First of all, search for Powershell on Windows search. Now right click on the Powershell and select ‘Run as Administrator.’

select 'Run as Administrator.'select 'Run as Administrator.'

Step 2. On the Powershell Window, type in ‘Get-Disk‘ and hit the Enter button.

type in 'Get-Disk'type in 'Get-Disk'

Step 3. Now, look at the ‘Partition Style’ column. The column will list if a disk drive uses a GPT or MBR scheme.

look at the 'Partition Style' columnlook at the 'Partition Style' column

That’s it! You are done. This is how you can check if a drive uses GPT or MBR partition style on Windows 10.

This article is all about how to check if a drive is using GPT or MBR partition style on Windows 10. I hope this article helped you! Please share it with your friends also. If you have any doubts about this, let us know in the comment box below.

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