3 Ways to Check MBR or GPT Partition Type in Windows 10

 You may not need to know which partitioning scheme your hard disk uses in most cases. However, if you have just built a new PC, you may be asked to choose between MBR and GPT partitions. In addition, some software needs to determine the partition scheme before the installation process. Therefore you need to know how to check the MBR or GPT partition type on your Windows operating system.

Maybe you've tried installing Windows 10 on a new computer and you've encountered an error message that says 'Windows cannot be installed to this disk'. It will ask you to change your USB disk schema to GPT because a bootbale USB prepared for MBR partition scheme cannot be used to install Windows 10 on a GPT style disk.

If you are wondering about the difference between the two, GPT is a modern partition scheme and is required if you boot Windows operating system in UEFI mode. On the other hand, MBR is meant for booting older versions of Windows in BIOS mode. If you want to install the latest Windows 10, you may need to use the GPT partition scheme.

How to Check MBR or GPT in Windows 10

You need to know the disk partitioning scheme before setting up a bootable USB drive to ensure an error-free installation of Windows 10. So, it is best to find out if the Disk drive is using GPT or MBR on your Windows 10 computer.

This time, we'll cover some of the best methods to check whether a disk is using GPT or MBR. Okay, let's just go straight to the discussion on how to check the MBR or GPT in Windows 10.

Through Disk Management

Through Disk Management

You can use Windows 10's built-in Disk Management utility to find out if a disk is GPT or MBR. Follow some of the simple steps given below.

1. First of all right-click on the Start button and select 'Disk Management' to open the Disk Management tool.

2. After the Disk Management tool opens. Right-click on the disk on the left (usually it's called Disk 0 or Disk 1) whose partition scheme you want to know and select 'Properties.'

3. In the next window, select the 'Volume' tab.

4. Now check on the Partition style section, there it will tell you about the partitioning scheme used on the disk.

Using Command Prompt

The Command Prompt method may not be the easiest, but it's still quite effective. Follow some of the simple steps given below to check whether the disk is using GPT or MBR partition style.

Using Command Prompt

1. First of all, click Windows search and search for CMD. Right click on CMD and select 'Run as administrator'.

2. At the Command Prompt, enter the command 'diskpart' and press the Enter key.

3. Next, enter the command 'list disk' in the Command prompt and press the Enter key.

4. If the disk is GPT, it will have an asterisk character (*) below the GPT column. If the asterisk character is missing from the GPT column, it's an MBR disk.

Using Powershell

Like the Command prompt, you can use Windows Powershell to determine whether the disk drive is using the GPT or MBR partition style.

Using Powershell

1. First of all, search for Powershell in Windows search. Now right click on Powershell and select 'Run as Administrator.'

2. In Powershell, type 'Get-Disk' and press Enter key.

3. Now, look at the 'Partition Style' column. This column will list whether the disk drive uses the GPT or MBR scheme.

Conclusion

So that's how to check the MBR or GPT in Windows 10. Now you already know how to check the partition scheme or type that you have on the Windows 10 operating system and you can also now determine which partition scheme is suitable to use when booting your USB drive.