Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style

I too just upgraded to the same hard drive and now have the exact same issue with windows install. I have found nothing on the subject that helps.

I'm having the same issue, with the same drive with a late 2009 iMac.

GPT isn't supported on 32-bit Windows, nor is 64-bit Windows supported on 2006 or 2007 Macs of any kind.

32-bit OSes may be limited to drives of 2.1 TB or less, a limitation of the current Logical Block Addressing (LBA) sector-mapping method.

A new variant of this scheme known as Long LBA addresses the issue, but it is only available to 64-bit hardware under 64-bit OSes. Firmware must also be made competent to recognize Long LBA methods. Unfortunately, Mac lines older than '08 will most likely not get patched to deal with said new standard

For the poster with the '09 iMac, you *must* use a 64-bit OS to recognize the drive hardware properly.

Nate

Nathan, thanks for the clarification.

I am attempting to install the 64 bit version of windows. But it's just not working. I have yet to figure out how to correct the problem.

What I found:

If you install Windows to a 2nd drive and have 1st with OS X, Windows sees that OS X has GPT and balks.

Unplug the 1st drive and you are fine. Or if it doesn't have OS X and GPT.

Boot Camp Installation & Setup Guide

Tech_ Secrets of the GPT

GPT for Dummies

EFI + GPT Firmware vs PC BIOS

However the best article, ujpdated in April, is from Microsoft:

Windows GPT FAQ

GPT is not yet native support but Sandy Bridge boards are moving to UEFI gradually, and driven by the need to support booting from volumes greater than 2.2TB.

GPT has support for Master Boot Record. Windows installer will balk if there is another drive that is GPT (200MB) - and GPT includes EFI partition.

EFI and GPT go hand in hand. Microsoft refers to the EFI partition (128MB on Macs) as

Windows GPT ESP Implementation

And sometimes Windows XP SP3 would nuke the EFI/ESP. Rather more than one would guess.

A couple times there has been confusion over the 100MB (system recovery partition on native Windows 7) with 128MB EFI.

Sounds more like you have a 2nd drive than the one where you want Windows to go, and which has OS X possibly. For me, I always have had to remove all the drives than the one I installed Vista/7 to.

Windows x86 will not boot from a GPT volume. Don't know why exactly. My guess is laziness or the "lowest common denominator"; even current x64 PC's use a 32-bit BIOS at the lowest level. Laziness kicks in when you consider that MS has only tested EFI and GPT with the soon-to-be-obsoleted Itanium platform. If you don't know what Itanium is, it was Intel's trial run at a 64-bit CPU that never quite took off. EFI and GPT used in modern Macs came from the Itanium project.

You cannot at this time create more than two partitions using Boot Camp Assistant on computers with a single internal drive. It is unclear if or when this restriction will be lifted.

Normally, when you run Boot Camp Assistant, the hard drive's GPT is tweaked as such that an old-style Master Boot Record (MBR) is inserted, creating a hybrid partition table that is amicable to both Mac OS and Windows. Windows x86 can see and use GPT volumes as a result of the injected MBR, but can't start from such. Windows x64 will boot from a GPT volume but give priority to MBR volumes in hybrid schemes (Wikipedia entry on GPT).

But the '07 Macs need some coaxing to get x64 running, and even then, the ride can be bumpy since Apple will not grant its official support.

Hope this clears the air,

Nate

I too have the same problem with my newly installed 3TB Hitachi (late 2009 iMac), did you solve this problem?

Has anyone succesfully installed Windows 7 via Boot Camp on a 3TB drive or should I drop down to a 2TB drive?

GPT is req'd for UEFI, and UEFI is still very limited - a few recent Sandy Bridge boards.

Itanium had some support.

2.2TB limit for boot volume extends to Windows 7 64-bit also, it isn't just 32-bit issue.

Boot Camp is and has been a very limited partitioning environment.

3TB drives on PC would be easy to get around, there is even a patch from Paragon for XP.

In a perfect world you would put Windows boot volume first or in the 2TB range.

You may need to set aside 800GB of free space to get it to work.

Reminds me how OS 9 couldn't boot off volume greater than 195GB, course didn't find out until 250GB drives were available but 2.2TB limitations have been known.

Apple began to anticipate the need for GPT and large volume support but until actual products are there to test theory it is just that.

Apple's own Pro RAID controller sold as BTO in workstation Mac Pro and Xserve don't support 3TB drives, so go figure.

Thanks for taking the time to get back, looks like 2TB it is. At least I'll have a nice sized external drive with the 3TB in an enclosure.

I have Parallels, but it's too much of a resource hog.

People I was having the same problem "Windows cannot be installed to this disk. The selected disk is of the GPT partition style" simply DO NOT use boot camp to partition just 1) erase the partion in boot camp and return to normal, 2) then partition your hard drive using Utility and select FadEx as a format. It will clean the sectors of your partitioned section and will eventually let you proceed with installation. It works fine.

Thank you so much Mecdot!

For those who need additional steps, in order to partition your internal hard drive, you must start your iMac from Internet Recovery by holding Command, Option and R at the same time at startup, or else you will get an error trying to use Disk Utility to partition a disk you are currently using.

Also, it's ExFAT format that you need to format your Windows Partition as in Disk Utlity (not trying to nitpick, just incase anyone can't find the correlation).

PS: I have this issue with a iMac 27" (2013) with 1TB of HD storage so it's not an issue with 3TB drives, at least for me.

Disable FileVault. Solved my problem!