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The selected disk is of the GPT partition style - MBP 2013

Hi,


I get this error dialog in the windows 8.1 installer, when newly installing windows into a bootcamp created partition.


Machine:

* 2013 Macbook pro with retina display.

* 16GB RAM

* 1TB SSD


Reproduction:

* Use Bootcamp Assistant to create a USB stick with the Win8.1 Enterprise ISO, and the "Windows support files" (check the box in bootcamp assistant).

* Bootcamp restarts the laptop into the Windows 8.1 installer

* In the win 8.1 installer, On the Partitions screen I see 4 options

* Partition 1 (EFI)

* Partition 2 (OSX 600GB)

* Partition 3 (small - likely the recovery partition)

* Partition 4 (BOOTCAMP 120GB)

* Selecting Partition 4, gives the warning message "Windows can't be installed in drive 0 partition 4 (show details)" and the detail gives the error message "The selected disk is of the GPT partition style". The next button is disabled.



Does anyone know how to get past this?


Cheers!

MACBOOK PRO (RETINA, 15-INCH, LATE 2013), OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Nov 12, 2013 1:10 AM

Reply
18 replies

Jul 12, 2017 1:28 PM in response to Speedgor

I was experiencing the same GPT error ⚠ whilst installing Win 10 on my Late 2013 15" MBPr.


Following the instructions provided here: How to install Windows 8.1 on Haswell MBP (Which was originally linked in this discussion by user 3sidedcoin; see above ⬆)


Although everything seemed to be going according to plan, when I selected the "Windows" orange external boot device option, I was still hitting the proverbial brick wall.


It wasn't until I tried what Speedgor mentioned: instead of selecting the "Windows" option, I reverted to the "EFI" alternative. Since I had already formatted the BOOTCAMP partition from exFAT to NTFS via Windows Setup during the previous install attempt, all I had to do was select the fourth partition (which was spot on if you ensure no other external drives are connected; which in all actuality they shouldn't be, to avoid any confusion for the Windows Setup)


After the initial Windows Setup procedures (Copying, Getting ready, Installing Features, Installing Updates with their visually relieving green checkmarks ✅) I ensured the install process continued correctly by intrerupting the boot sequence and selected the newly provided "Windows" orange silver-colored INTERNAL drive icon.


Currently as I write this it appears that Windows is "Getting devices ready 37%," so that's a good sign. tin


I will probably continue to interupt the boot sequence to further ensure that the internal Windows partition is booted from.


Thanks for the help everyone! I usually NEVER post in the apple discussions, but the friendly cooperation of fellow Apple Hardware users enticed me to contribute my $0.02! 👍✌💙


User uploaded file

-- Dion | 4i0n.com(My personal website if anyone is interested in connecting with me :-) )

Jun 4, 2017 5:00 PM in response to sfchew.geo

I did that but I am stuck when I get back to the install as it doesnt show the formatted partition, it shows drive O, Partion 1 through 3 and then drive 0- unallocated space.

The unallocated space was previously labeled as bootcamp but i read that if pressing format then delete, it will format to the correct one, however, it seemed to be for windows 8 whereas I am trying to run windows 10, any help would be appreciated!

Aug 3, 2014 4:38 PM in response to 3sidedcoin

hello, i was able to fix this on a intel I5 iMac as follows

- use Disk Utility

- click on the partition tab

- select the partition that was created by bootcamp, in my case it was named untitled but I could tell by the size that is was the one created by bootcamp

- delete this partition by clicking on the minus key

- create a new partition by clicking on the plus key

- give it a name and specify format as exFAT

- restart the computer and hold down the option key until you see the startup options

- select the device that contains your windows install iso image either USB or DVD drive

- win install will ask you to select the partition to install to

- select the partition you created with Disk Utility

- installer will complain that the partition format needs to be NTFS

- click on the Format button and the partition will be formatted as NTFS

- continue with the install

May 8, 2016 12:22 AM in response to 3sidedcoin

FYI everyone: THERE IS A VERY EASY FIX! I was attempting this convoluted method of making it work and I made a much simpler discovery!


If you have multiple drives, and the drive you are installing Windows on will not have any other OS files on it, JUST SET IT UP AS MBR!


With disk utility, instead of playing around with the partitions on the drive, just select the drive on the left side and create a single exFat partition. Disk Utility will make it MBR for you. It's really very simple. When you get into the Windows OS install, format the drive NTFS from exFat (Since Apple doesn't support NTFS in DiskUtility. I don't blame them on this - it would cause them to have to pay licensing fees to Microsoft. Booooo!)


You only need the goofy hybrid configuration if you are using multiple OS'es on the same drive.


So, for instance, I have my MacPro 1,1 booting Window 10x 64bit and MacOS 7.5. I had MacOS 10.11 on this but an update wiped out boot.efs (another topic all together really). Since then for some reason I've never been able to boot my MacPro on an unsupported OS. I think Apple did something to the firmware in the latest OS that prevents MacPro 1,1 from using unsupported MacOS'es. That's why I pursued Windows, because I'm not ready to pronounce this hardware investment dead. Whether they did or did not mess with my system, I have grown tired of their ARBITRARY forced hardware upgrade simply because they're too lazy to support 32bit EFI in their later OS'es. It's been proven that it's not a limiting factor as Piker and others have developed boot.efi files that "thunk" the 64bit commands to the 32bit EFI. Don't ask me how it works but it does, and frankly it's criminal that Apple has not allowed more modern OS'es on their original MacPro's. Just goes to show you that it really is all about the almighty $$ with them, despite all their claims to be more interested in the customer than Microsoft and others. At least Microsoft keeps making sure they build-in compatibility layers for former hardware technologies.


If you read this through, you might detect a bit of hostility towards Apple. It's because I am not terribly wealthy and have loved Apple tech, even though being a Windows System Admin. But when they pull crap like this, it really burns me up. After all, MacPro systems are VERY EXPENSIVE!


So - for all those fellow MacPro users and others who have been abandoned by Microsoft - If you use a full drive for bootcamp, you CAN USE MBR formatted partitions with Windows 7, 8, and 10. It's a whole lot easier, and there is no disadvantage unless you can't use the full drive for Windows.


Happy Computing! OOPS(Update.... make sure to keep the name "BOOTCAMP" on the drive when using Disk Utility to make it exFat!)

Jul 18, 2016 9:48 PM in response to GeekyBryan

I have an old MacPro too! 😎 But mine is not as old as yours. I have a 3,1 from Early 2008.


After fighting with Boot Camp trying to install Windows on my main drive along with OS X, it finally dawned on me that I have four drive bays and several extra drives. 😊 So why not install Windows on its own drive, right? I thought that Boot Camp would just do the right thing if I selected "Erase drive and create a single partition for Windows." I mean, after all, this is a Mac, right? That didn't work. 😕 So I tried erasing the drive myself and creating a single NTFS-formatted partition. (I have a utility that can format NTFS, and I probably paid Microsoft a licensing fee. Boo!) That didn't work either. 😠 So I tried erasing the drive with Disk Utility's defaults. Once again that didn't work. 😠😠


It was at this point I got the GPT partition style error. Up to this point I had been getting messages that stated that I had to check the system log files to find out what went wrong. Now that I had a concrete error that I could search for, I quickly found this post. I reformatted the disk as MBR with a single exFat partition named BOOTCAMP. I then rebooted directly into the Windows installer (skipping Boot Camp altogether lest it mess things up again 👿). And the installation has gone just fine. 🙂


Anyway, thanks!

The selected disk is of the GPT partition style - MBP 2013

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