Run the Windows 7 Disk Management utility to remove a GPT or GUID Partition Table hard drive configuration and apply MBR or Master Boot Record with NTFS. GPT is not supported by operating systems such as older versions of Windows. Replace GPT with MBR and apply the NTFS format for backward compatibility. Replace GPT using Disk Management to enable hard drive accessibility for multiple operating systems.
Step 1
Click the Windows "Start" button and "Control Panel." Click "Administrative Tools," then "Computer Management."
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Step 2
Click "Yes" if prompted for confirmation that you want to open the Computer Management window.
Step 3
Click the "Disk Management" item. Identify the GPT hard drive you want to format by viewing the hard drive size.
Step 4
Right-click on each partition and volume displayed on the GPT hard drive you want to format and click "Delete Volume." Confirm that only "Unallocated" is displayed on the GPT hard drive.
Step 5
Right-click on the hard drive and click "Convert to MBR Disk."
Step 6
Right-click on the hard drive "Unallocated" area and click "New Simple Volume." Click the "Next" button in the "New Simple Volume Wizard" that appears.
Step 7
Enter the partition size in megabytes into the "Simple volume size in MB" box and click "Next."
Step 8
Click the "Assign the following drive letter" radio button and the drop down box. Click a letter you want to assign to the hard drive partition, then click "Next."
Step 9
Click the "Format this volume with the following settings" radio button. Type a partition name into the "Volume label" box.
Step 10
Click the "Perform a quick format" check box and "Next" and "Finish."
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