Before reinstalling Windows 10 on your computer, you might want to check if the partition scheme on your PC is GPT or MBR so that you can prepare the correct bootable Windows 10 USB for the installation.
As you likely know, a bootable USB prepared for the GPT partition scheme cannot be used to install Windows 10 on an MBR partition-style drive. It is crucial to prepare a bootable USB with the correct partition style to avoid errors during the Windows 10 installation.
This guide will discuss the three easy ways out there to check if the partition scheme of a disk is GPT or MBR.
Tip: You can convert an MBR disk to GPT without any data loss.
Method 1 of 3
Check if a disk is GPT or MBR via Disk Management
Step 1: Open the Disk Management by right-clicking on the Start button on the taskbar and then clicking the Disk Management option.
Step 2: In the Disk Management window, perform a right-click on the disk (you can click any of the partitions of that disk) and then click the Properties option. This will open the disk properties dialog.
Step 3: Here, you need to switch to the Volumes tab. Under the Volumes tab, the Partition style field displays the partition style as either MBR or GUID Partition Table (GPT). That is it!
Method 2 of 3
Use Command Prompt to check if a disk is MBR or GPT
Step 1: The first step is to open the Command Prompt as an administrator. To do that, type CMD in the Start/taskbar search field, right-click on the Command Prompt entry, and then click Run as administrator option.
When you get the User Account Control prompt, click the Yes button.
Step 2: At the Command Prompt window, execute the following commands to know if a disk is GPT or MBR.
Diskpart
(Press Enter key after typing the above command)
List Disk
(Press Ener key after the above command)
As you can see in the picture above, there is a column called GPT. If a disk is GPT, an asterisk (*) mark will show up next to the disk. In the picture below, on my PC, partition style of the Disk 0 is GPT and Disk 1 is MBR, and hence, there is an asterisk mark next to Disk 0. If the disk is MBR, the GPT column will be empty (as you can see in the picture above for Disk 1). That is, an asterisk will not appear.
Method 3 of 3
Check if a disk is MBR or GPT via Settings
Note that the feature is currently available in Windows 10 Insider builds only.
Step 1: Open the Windows 10 Settings app. Navigate to System > Storage.
Step 2: In the More storage settings section, click on the Manage Disks and Volumes link.
Step 3: When you get the following page, perform a right-click on the drive (and not on partitions) to reveal the hidden Properties button. Click on it.
Step 4: Finally, scroll down the page to see the Partition Style section. The Partition Style section displays if your selected disk is GUID Partition Table (GPT) or MBR.
