A Brief Introduction to MBR Disk and GPT Disk
Master Boot Record (MBR) and GUID Partition Table (GPT) are two partition styles. They each have advantages and are suitable for different system and partitioning needs.
Advantages of MBR:
- When your motherboard doesn’t support UEFI boot, you can choose to boot from an MBR disk.
- When you are using a 32-bit Windows, you need to choose MBR because only 64-bit Windows versions can boot from GPT disks.
- When you are using an older Windows system like Windows XP, you have to choose MBR.
Advantages of GPT:
- GPT supports more than four primary partitions (up to 128 primary partitions in Windows). MBR disk can only hold 4 primary partitions at most.
- GPT supports disks larger than 2 TB on both hard disks and SSDs.
- GPT is more secure and reliable than MBR. This is because the GPT disk has a built-in auxiliary partition table. Once an error is detected on the primary GUID partition, the entire partition table can be restored from the backup GUID partition header.
- It is faster and more stable to boot Windows from a GPT disk.
For more information about MBR and GPT, you can refer to this article: MBR vs. GPT Guide: What’s The Difference and Which One Is Better.
Due to their different characteristics, many users tend to convert MBR to GPT or vice versa.
However, when you try to convert an MBR disk to a GPT disk in Disk Management or by using the diskpart command line, you need to remove all the data and partitions on the MBR disk. Yet, some users are not sure about this, so their files get lost after a disk MBR to GPT conversion. Here you can see a true example:
When I curiously selected "create a new partition table" and the new type of it is GPT, it pops up a warning message that "I may loss all...", but I still clicked yes, as I thought all the operations on the disk would be listed in a window and waited for my confirm. But no, the creation just started immediately, and all my data and partition got lost now. How to recover the lost data and partitions after the conversion is finished?
unix.stackexchange.com
How to recover lost data after disk MBR to GPT conversion? Keep reading to find out the answer.
How to Recover Lost Files After MBR to GPT Conversion
Tip: When your files get lost during or after converting the MBR disk to GPT, you need to stop using the disk immediately, such as creating new partitions to prevent data overwriting.
Now try the following ways to recover files deleted due to a disk conversion.
Way 1. Recover Lost Files After MBR to GPT Conversion Using MiniTool Power Data Recovery
With the rapid development of data recovery services, lots of data restore tools are released to help you restore lost or deleted files.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery is the best free data recovery software that works great on computer hard drive data recovery, USB drive data recovery, SSD data recovery, and so on. It supports recovering files from various data loss situations, such as recovering data from formatted hard drives, recovering data from damaged file systems, and more.
Besides, MiniTool Power Data Recovery is fully compatible with almost all Windows versions including Windows 11/10/8/7.
Now click the button below to get MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free installed and start data recovery.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Major steps to recover lost files after MBR to GPT conversion using MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
Step 1. Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery to enter its main interface. Here you can see two data recovery modules – Recover Data From Logical Drives & Recovery Data From Devices.
- Logical Drives: This module displays all partitions on your computer, including partitions on the internal hard drives, external hard drives, USB drives, SD cards, etc. Lost partitions and unallocated space are showing up here as well.
- Devices: This module includes all devices connected to your computer such as memory cards, CDs/DVDs, and more.
You can stay at the Logical Drives module and select the target partition that is lost, then click the Scan button to scan for data on it.
Step 2. To get the best scan and data recovery result, you had better wait for the scanning process to finish. And, this data recovery service offers you several useful features to help you find needed files faster.
- Preview: You are allowed to preview multiple types of files, including pictures in PNG, JPEG, JPG, etc. picture formats, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, PPS, XLS, XLSX, PDF, and other files.
- Filter: You can make use of this feature to filter out unwanted files by file size, file type, file category, and date modified. For example, you can select to show pictures, videos, and documents only.
- Search: By using a file name, you can search for a certain file from found files.
Step 3. After previewing found files, now you can select all desired data and then click the Save button to choose an appropriate location to store them. It is strongly recommended to select another drive to store your files, otherwise, they could be overwritten and become unrecoverable.
This is the whole process of recovering lost data by using MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
Tip: MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free supports up to 1 GB of data recovery totally for free. To break this data recovery limitation, you need to choose an advanced edition like MiniTool Power Data Recovery Personal Ultimate. This ultimate edition provides you with a lifetime free upgrade and allows you to recover data from an unbootable computer.
Way 2. Recover Lost Partitions Using MiniTool Partition Wizard
In addition to recovering data from a lost partition by using MiniTool Power Data Recovery, you can try to recover the whole partition and data on the partition together. To achieve this goal, MiniTool Partition Wizard is highly recommended.
MiniTool Partition Wizard is a professional, safe, and reliable partition manager. It offers you a built-in feature called Partition Recovery. This feature is used to recover partitions lost by Windows updates, wrong deletion, partition table damage, virus attacks, etc.
By using MiniTool Partition Wizard, you are not only capable of recovering the lost partitions but also data saved on the selected partition.
Note: MiniTool Partition Wizard Free does not support saving found partitions but supports scanning for and showing lost partitions. So, you can download the free edition to make sure the needed partitions can be found and then choose a full edition to save them.
Click the button below to download MiniTool Partition Wizard and install it on your computer to carry out partition recovery.
MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 1. Run MiniTool Partition Wizard. In the main interface, select the disk where partition loss happens and then click the Partition Recovery button.
Step 2. Click Next to continue. In the new window, select the disk you’d like to recover and click the Next button.
Step 3. Choose a scanning range from the options of Full Disk, Unallocated Space, and Specified Range, and then click on the Next button.
Step 4. In the pop-up window, select a scanning method (Quick Scan and Full Scan) according to the instructions on the screen. After that, click the Next button.
Step 5. After the scanning process is finished, MiniTool Partition Wizard will list all partitions that have been found. You need to check all needed partitions and then click the Finish button.
Tip: Existing partitions will be checked by default, so you just need to check lost or deleted partitions.
Step 6. Click on the Apply button located in the lower left corner to make the pending operations take effect. Then the lost partitions and data on it should be recovered.
For a more comprehensive guide for partition recovery, you can refer to this post: How Do I Recover Hard Disk Partition With Ease.
Way 3. Recover Lost Files After MBR to GPT Conversion From Backup Files
In addition to data recovery software, you can recover lost files after MBR to GPT conversion from backup files if you have made a backup in advance. For example, you can restore lost files from cloud drives such as OneDrive and Google Drive. Also, if you backed up your files using a third-party data backup software, you need to use the corresponding tool to restore the data.
If you are looking for a piece of professional and secure data backup software, you can use MiniTool ShadowMaker. It provides perfect data protection services and disaster recovery solutions for PCs. You can use it to back up files, folders, Windows operating systems, entire disks, and so on.
The trial edition of MiniTool ShadowMaker allows you to enjoy all its features within 30 days totally for free. For example, you can use the trial edition to back up data without booting Windows.
Besides, MiniTool ShadowMaker offers you clear and concise interfaces that make it easy to carry out data backup.
Click the following button to download MiniTool ShadowMaker and give it a try.
MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
How to Convert MBR To GPT Without Losing Data Free
As said before, converting an MBR disk to a GPT disk by using Disk Management and the command line needs you to delete all partitions on the disk. You may be wondering “Is it possible to convert MBR to GPT without data loss” and “How to convert MBR to GPT without losing data”.
Fortunately, you can carry out MBR to GPT conversion without data loss free by using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition.
MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Note: The Free Edition can only convert a data disk to GPT. If you want to convert a system disk to GPT, you need to upgrade to a full edition.
Major steps to perform an MBR to GPT conversion without data loss free.
Step 1. Launch MiniTool Partition Wizard Free to enter its home screen.
Step 2. Select the MBR disk that needed to be converted to GPT. Then click the Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk feature from the left panel.
Or you can right-click the MBR disk and select Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk from the context menu.
Step 3. Click Apply to finish this task.
See! It is easy to finish the MBR to GPT conversion without data loss free with the help of MiniTool Partition Wizard.
Bottom Line
To sum up, this post mainly explains the advantages of MBR disks and GPT disks and how to recover lost files after MBR to GPT conversion. At the same time, it shows you how to convert MBR to GPT without losing data.
Should you have any questions about this article or MiniTool software, please feel free to let us know by leaving your comments in the comment zone below. Or you can send your emails to us directly via [email protected]. We will solve them as soon as possible.
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Shirley graduated from English major and is currently an editor of MiniTool Team. She likes browsing and writing IT-related articles, and is committed to becoming a professional IT problem solver. The topic of her articles are generally about data recovery, data backup, and computer disk management, as well as other IT issues. In spare time, she likes watching movies, hiking and fishing.