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My Sony Vaio laptop was giving lot issues so I decided to re-install the OS. I saw few videos on the YouTube on how to re-install the OS on Sony Vaio laptop and proceeded for re-installation.

I deleted the OS partition and few other smaller partitions which were mentioned as system, oem reserved etc... Even after deleting the partitions they are not merging together and when I try to install the OS, installer is complaining about GPT partition type.

I have 2 partitions on the same disk with important data.

All the workarounds on the internet speak about cleaning the entire disk. If I go with this option, I'll lose the important data on other 2 partitions.

Experts, kindly help me in solving this problem. Please see the image below for the disk partition details.

Disk Partitions Status and Error Message

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  • You might downloaded the 32-bit version of Windows. GPT disk requires 64-bit Windows.
    – harrymc
    Nov 27, 2020 at 19:43

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You would have been better off not removing those partitions. The standard procedure is to download the Windows ISO, using the Microsoft Media Creation Tool to create a repair USB drive, and use that to update Windows, while keeping your files.

Since you've effectively destroyed the original partitioning scheme, your best bet is to salvage what you can, reformat the disk, and install an OS de novo.

  • On another PC, create a USB flash drive with imaging tools, such as Macrium Reflect.
  • Select the USB drive in the Boot Order menu (perhaps F11 on the Vaio).
  • Connect an external HDD with sufficient room for the used partitions on the disk.
  • Image your disk to the HDD. If the imaging software has the capability, a "smart" copy, where the software decides which sectors are empty or unrecoverable, takes less space. A forensic copy, including every bit on the HDD, might be safer, though.
  • Recover data from the disk image, rather than the HDD, to avoid loss of data.
  • Now try a clean installation of Windows.
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  • Trial version of the mentioned software enough to achieve my requirement? Thank you.
    – inpuram
    Nov 27, 2020 at 20:23
  • Macrium Reflect has a free version, which should suffice, unless used for commercial purposes. Nov 28, 2020 at 23:06
  • I never knew such a thing was possible. I followed your steps and was able to restore one partition successfully and currently in the process of restoring the 2nd partition. Thank you so much for your kind help.
    – inpuram
    Nov 29, 2020 at 1:51
  • Glad it helped, @inpuram. To prevent such issues in the future, it's useful to make an image of the HDD on a regular basis, using such tools as Reflect. If the HDD fails, or if files are deleted, you lose no more than the work done since the last image. Nov 29, 2020 at 3:26

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