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I have bought Seagate Barracuda 3tb hard drive. When I start to install windows 8 x64 on that it tells me that

Windows cannot be installed on this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style (GUID Partition Table) type disk

It tells me that at first you must convert disk type to MBR (Master Boot Record) type which does not allow you to use more then 2TB space. On the other hand I need to install windows on the 3tb space!

Eventually I found out that if my BIOS is not UEFI BIOS I can not install windows on that GPT type disk. all this means that my BIOS does not support UEFI.

My motherboard is ASUS P5LD2-X/1333, my CPU is Pentium D 820 it is dual core! So whats wrong with my PC? Should I upgrade my hardware? or should I upgrade my BIOS as software? I downloaded the latest BIOS of my motherboard at ASUS.com but it still does not supports UEFI. What should I do? Should I upgrade my chip on my motherboard?

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    seriously, please cut down on the excessive bold styles, it does not improve the readability and just makes it worse
    – Sathyajith Bhat ♦
    May 7, 2013 at 10:14
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    Also, you cannot "install" a UEFI system, neither will a BIOS upgrade help. If you need UEFI, you'll need to replace your motherboard which means replacing your entire system - RAM, GPU, CPU etc. I'd grab Gparted live CD, and split the hard drive into smaller partitions & convert to MBR type.
    – Sathyajith Bhat ♦
    May 7, 2013 at 10:16
  • OK, but what about parts of motherboard?
    – user169106
    May 7, 2013 at 10:19
  • which part is mainly important for UEFI BIOS?
    – user169106
    May 7, 2013 at 10:19
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    You don't replace part of your motherboard - you replace it all. It is a board. It is either built for UEFI or not.
    – Rory Alsop
    May 7, 2013 at 10:40

4 Answers 4

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As you correctly stated, you will require a UEFI BIOS to use the GPT partition scheme on Windows.

The only way that you can install Windows on your 3TB drive with your current hardware is to format the disk using MBR and use two partitions for your data - my suggestion is 200GB for your O/S and applications, then split the remaining space depending on how much data you have (e.g. movies, music, documents, photos) - e.g. if you have a lot of movies, create a large partition for that and use the rest of the drive for your other data.

If you want to run a UEFI BIOS and use the GPT partition scheme, you will need to buy a new motherboard, CPU and RAM as a minimum. Your GPU - if you have one - can most likely be moved across to your new board, though you may also require a new PSU if your current model cannot provide the more up-to-date CPU power (the P5LD2-X has a 4-pin power socket, where most current models have 6- or 8-pin sockets).

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  • what do you mean by this word "Your GPU - if you have one"
    – user169106
    May 7, 2013 at 12:20
  • Graphical card is not important in this case!!
    – user169106
    May 7, 2013 at 12:21
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    I think that if I will upgrade chip or chipset on my motherboard with my Soldering Iron, it will be possible to install new BIOS as UEFI BIOS written in Assembly language!
    – user169106
    May 7, 2013 at 12:23
  • Please, please _please_ do not attempt soldering a new chip to your motherboard - you will likely damage your board. If you want to upgrade to a UEFI BIOS, you will need to buy a new board. If you choose to ignore this advice, it is at your own peril and you risk damaging your board beyond repair. If you don't have a GPU, you don't need to worry about upgrading it.
    – Craig Watson
    May 7, 2013 at 14:29
  • You can actually combine the two partitions into a single "volume" using Windows "Dynamic Disk" functionality, see my answer.
    – Stu
    Jun 6, 2013 at 8:10
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It is possible to install a sort of "software EFI" on a strictly BIOS-based computer. The trick is to use something called the Developer's EFI Environment (DUET), which is an EFI implementation that boots like a boot loader from a BIOS. The problem is that DUET is, as the name suggests, a developer's tool. Thus, installing it can be awkward and it doesn't always work. If you're willing to invest an hour or two, though, you can try it out with little risk (none if you have nothing but an empty disk plugged in when you try it). The process is too lengthy for me to describe in detail here; instead, see my Web page on the topic. In brief, you'll need to download a Linux emergency disc (to be used for installation) and a package that includes DUET and a few other pieces of "glue." You'll then boot the Linux emergency disc, partition the hard disk, and run an installation script that installs it all on the disk. If this is successful, then when you boot from the hard disk, you'll end up in an unfamiliar EFI environment. You should then be able to install Windows to the disk. My Web page includes notes on installing Windows 7 under DUET, but things may have changed a bit for Windows 8.

As Craig suggests, it's also possible to split the disk into two sub-2TiB partitions and boot in a standard BIOS way. This works in Windows, but aside from questions of how to split the disk space, there is a caveat: Some partitioning tools react badly to MBR disks that are bigger than 2TiB in size. IIRC, the standard Windows tools handle it OK, but some other tools balk or misbehave. Thus, I recommend caution when using unfamiliar low-level disk utilities on such a disk.

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  • Thank you. First idea is new for me, it is interesting and maybe it will work correctly! The second idea is not accessible for me. I will never split one physical disk to two logical disk. If hard drive size is more than 2TB I will only use GPT type!! All this means that I must use first idea!
    – user169106
    May 10, 2013 at 5:27
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You can also use a Linux rescue disc and use GParted to partition your disk as GPT. Make sure that you add a small EFI partiton to it.

Then you can install Windows if it recognizes the EFI partition. Mine does.

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Another option would be to set the HDD up as a Windows "dynamic" disk and use a multi partition volume. This makes it so that the disk has two (or more) partitions, but Windows combines these into a single volume with a single drive letter.

I've never actually done this myself, but I understand that it's a fairly straightforward thing to do post-install in the Windows "Disk Management" tool (Windows+R, diskmgmt.msc).

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