MBR System Disk Conversion for Itanium-Based Systems

Updated: April 28, 2006

Reviewed: July 8, 2008

Master Boot Record (MBR) Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) System Partition support and operating system installation partition support is not possible for versions of the Microsoft Windows operating system for Intel Itanium-based systems. Windows for Itanium-based systems requires GUID Partition Table (GPT) system disks.

Windows for Itanium-based systems will not install on, and will not boot from, MBR disks. Systems must have GPT partitions in order to support the new Boot Manager that is included in Windows.

GPT system disk partitions have many advantages over MBR system disks, including:

• Redundant partition tables.

• Ability to create partitions up to 18 exabytes (EB) in size.

• Defined partition scheme for storing specific data.

Beginning with Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows XP x64 Edition, GPT support is available on all versions of Windows for use with data disks. Only versions of Windows for Itanium-based systems support booting from GPT, however.

Note: For additional information about GPT disks, see the Windows and GPT FAQ.

On This Page

  Implementing GPT Partitions
  Repartitioning the Disk

Implementing GPT Partitions

To implement the GPT partitions, complete a clean install of Windows for Itanium-based systems from a CD-ROM image.

Follow these steps to determine whether the system has already been upgraded:

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.

   Select 64-bit snap-ins if prompted by a dialog box.

2. Click Disk Management.

3. Right-click Disk 0, and then click Properties.

4. Click the Volumes tab and review the Partition style entry.

   If the Partition style entry shows that there is a GUID Partition Table disk, then the system has been upgraded. If it shows that an MBR disk exists, the disk must be completely repartitioned and the operating system must be reinstalled.

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Repartitioning the Disk

Before repartitioning the disk, complete the following tasks:

• Move all data to another system or storage device.

• Obtain a copy of a CD-ROM containing Windows for Itanium-based systems.

To repartition the system disk, perform a clean install of Windows. To do this, you must force a boot from the Windows CD.

Important: The following steps show an example procedure for repartitioning the disk and installing the operating system. The steps required for your computer may differ from this example.

1. Restart the system and stop at the EFI Shell.

   To stop the system at the EFI Shell, press any key while the following message is displayed on the screen: Will launch... \os\winnt50\ia64ldr.efi Press any key to abort autoload

   This will cause the system to stop at the EFI shell prompt, Shell>.

2. Type map at the shell prompt to find the CD drive file system designator, fsx.Look at the device descriptions displayed on the screen for the disk devices in your system. The fsx entry will be similar to the following example:

                       fs1  : VenHw(Unknown Device:FF)/CDROM(Entry 1).
                     

   This CD drive designator is usually fs1. However, the number can vary if there are other hard drives on the system with EFI System Partitions (ESP).

3. Select the CD-ROM drive.

   1. Type fsx: where x is replaced with the number determined in the previous step.

   2. Press ENTER.

   The prompt will change to reflect the new selection; the prompt is now fsx: \>

4. Start Text Mode setup and delete partitions on Disk 0. To do this,

   1. At the fsx:\> prompt, type setupldr.

   2. Respond to the questions asked at the Setup Notification prompt, the Welcome to Setup prompt, and the 180-day License prompt.

   3. At the partition selection prompt, delete all of the partitions on Disk 0.

5. After the partitions have been deleted, an additional choice is offered for how to prepare a disk for Windows installation.
   Type S to select Change Disk Style.

6. Setup will indicate that an ESP is required, and ask if one should be created.
   Type Y at the prompt to create the ESP.

7. Create additional partitions.
   After a short delay (approximately 30 seconds) the system will have created the ESP, which will be approximately 100 MB, and Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR), which will be approximately 31 MB.

   Important: Do not delete the 100-MB ESP and 31-MB MSR partitions that Text Mode Setup will automatically create. The ESP partition appears as "Partition1 [FAT] 102 MB (101 MB free)." The MSR partition appears as "Partition2 [Unknown] 31 MB (0 MB free)".

   After these partitions have been created, it will be possible to create any additional partitions, including multiple partitions to support multiple operating system installations. To support multiple installations, create multiple data partitions in Text Mode Setup.

When these steps have been completed, continue with usual Windows Setup procedures.

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Related Links

• Windows and GPT FAQ