All but one of my storage drives in my main desktop are using MBR not GPT. Will that cause any problems?

[Bleedingyamato]

The other day I discovered that between the 512GB 960 Pro, 256GB 850 Pro, 120 Sandisk SSD Plus, and my 4TB WD Black HDD only the WD Black is using GPT.

 

All the others are using MBR.

 

What I need to know is will this cause any problems?    

 

In disk management there's an option for switching to GPT but it's greyed out on the drives using MBR.

 

Any idea why that is?

[bgibbz]

It's probably fine. Gpt is preffered, but mbr is still plenty sufficient for most users. 

[vanished]

afaik GPT is necessary for large drives (like 2 TB+) so that would be why your other ones aren't on it.

[Master Disaster]

5 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

afaik GPT is necessary for large drives (like 2 TB+) so that would be why your other ones aren't on it.

This, its 100% fine and won't cause you any issues.

 

That said I see your using Windows 10, which drive do you boot from? What mobo, CPU and GPU do you have?

[Bleedingyamato]

5 minutes ago, bgibbz said:

It's probably fine. Gpt is preffered, but mbr is still plenty sufficient for most users. 

Ok.  I'd seen this option in my bios about "storage boot option control" and it has settings for disabled, Legacy only, or UEFI only.

 

That's why I was asking about this because in another topic I'd made someone had mentioned it had to do with something related to MBR vs GPT.  

 

Currently it's defaulted to legacy only.

 

 

Idk what each "only" opyion does or what disabled would do.

 

 

 

My OS drive is using MBR so I assume at least I couldn't set it to UEFI only.

 

 

4 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

afaik GPT is necessary for large drives (like 2 TB+) so that would be why your other ones aren't on it.

GPT allows for other features besides just support for drives larger than 2TB I think though.

 

I guess I'd think using it is better but I don't understand why there would seem to be an opyion for converting to GPT but yet it's unavailable for the drives in question.  

[bgibbz]

1 minute ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Ok.  I'd seen this option in my bios about "storage boot option control" and it has settings for disabled, Legacy only, or UEFI only.

 

That's why I was asking about this because in another topic I'd made someone had mentioned it had to do with something related to MBR vs GPT.  

 

Currently it's defaulted to legacy only.

 

 

Idk what each "only" opyion does or what disabled would do.

 

 

 

My OS drive is using MBR so I assume at least I couldn't set it to UEFI only.

 

 

GPT allows for other features besides just support for drives larger than 2TB I think though.

 

I guess I'd think using it is better but I don't understand why there would seem to be an opyion for converting to GPT but yet it's unavailable for the drives in question.  

Try switching the setting to uefi only and disabled and see what happens, or read up on the setting in your mobo manual. 

[Bleedingyamato]

6 minutes ago, Master Disaster said:

This, its 100% fine and won't cause you any issues.

 

That said I see your using Windows 10, which drive do you boot from? What mobo, CPU and GPU do you have?

I was using the 850 Pro but I cloned it using Samsung's data migration utility to the 960 Pro.

 

So the 512GB 960 Pro is what I'm currently booting from.

 

My CPU is a 6700K and my GPU is a GTX 1070.  

 

 

[Bleedingyamato]

Just now, bgibbz said:

Try switching the setting to uefi only and disabled and see what happens, or read up on the setting in your mobo manual. 

I think I'd leave it along unless the manual or a Google search would explain what the other settings would do.  

 

My computer seems to work fine as is so I'm not eager to risk messing it up to satisfy my curiously.  

[Master Disaster]

Bgibbz is correct but doing that will require you to reinstall Windows from scratch however you really should consider it.

 

Your running a UEFI compliant system in non UEFI mode right now and because of that your missing out on some benefits, most important one is UEFI fast boot but also Secure Boot too.

 

It won't harm your computer running in legacy boot mode but it does mean your not running it to it's full potential.

 

Basically you need to go into your bios and set CSM (aka Compatibility Support Module) to disabled then set fastboot to enabled (don't use ultra fast boot mode though) and secure boot to enabled as well. Once you've made these changes reinstall Windows 10 from scratch, Windows should handle everything else automatically. You'll notice that your Windows drive will end up GPT after the reinstall, that's because Windows requires a GPT drive when running in UEFI mode.

 

As I said earlier, this is totally optional and running in legacy mode won't affect anything but you bought a UEFI computer, may as well use it, right? My 6700K SSD system goes from click of the power button to desktop in 7 seconds in UEFI fastboot mode!!!!

[Bleedingyamato]

3 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

Bgibbz is correct but doing that will require you to reinstall Windows from scratch however you really should consider it.

 

Your running a UEFI compliant system in non UEFI mode right now and because of that your missing out on some benefits, most important one is UEFI fast boot but also Secure Boot too.

 

It won't harm your computer running in legacy boot mode but it does mean your not running it to it's full potential.

 

Basically you need to go into your bios and set CSM (aka Compatibility Support Module) to disabled then set fastboot to enabled (don't use ultra fast boot mode though) and secure boot to enabled as well. Once you've made these changes reinstall Windows 10 from scratch, Windows should handle everything else automatically. You'll notice that your Windows drive will end up GPT after the reinstall, that's because Windows requires a GPT drive when running in UEFI mode.

 

As I said earlier, this is totally optional and running in legacy mode won't affect anything but you bought a UEFI computer, may as well use it, right? My 6700K SSD system goes from click of the power button to desktop in 7 seconds in UEFI fastboot mode!!!!

Why would I want to disable that compatibility support thing?  What does that do?

 

Isn't fastboot that thing that makes the computer skip showing the bios prompt screen during bootup? 

 

 

I might do that eventually but right now I'm not sure if I want to have to do a clean install.  I think I'd like to do it at some point but I'm too lazy to do it right now.  lol

 

 

[Master Disaster]

7 hours ago, Bleedingyamato said:

Why would I want to disable that compatibility support thing?  What does that do?

 

Isn't fastboot that thing that makes the computer skip showing the bios prompt screen during bootup? 

 

 

I might do that eventually but right now I'm not sure if I want to have to do a clean install.  I think I'd like to do it at some point but I'm too lazy to do it right now.  lol

 

 

CSM means your motherboard is running in legacy boot mode which means it has compatibility with non UEFI hardware (in real terms GPUs that are pre GTX7xx or HD7xxx). Since your GPU is fully UEFI compliant you can safely disable CSM and allow your board to run in full UEFI mode.

 

UEFI fastboot means your PC will skip certain tests during post that just aren't necessary anymore making your PC boot up faster. Ultra fastboot is what your thinking of and yes, if you enable that then you can no longer access your bios during your PCs start up (though you can hold down shift during a Windows restart to access your bios when running in UEFI mode anyway so you can always get back into your bios).

 

Yeah I know its a pita but just keep it in mind and next time you do a reinstall of Windows its worth doing.