Computers with EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) use GPT (GUID Partition Table) as the standard hard disk partitioning system. Intel proposes EFI as the replacement for the PC BIOS that uses Master Boot Record (MBR).In GPT partitioned disks, data that is important to platform operation is placed in partitions and not in hidden or unpartitioned sectors as done in MBR partitioned disks. Due to this reason, you encounter issues while installing Windows operating system. To solve such issues, you might need to recreate all hard disk partitions and opt for suitable partitioning scheme. Recreating the partition structure erases all data and you need to use an updated plus valid data backup to restore the lost data. However, if data backup is not updated, is corrupt or absent, you need to use hard drive recovery applications to extract the lost or inaccessible data.
As a practical instance, when you attempt to install Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 64-Bit version or Windows XP, you might receive the below error message:
“Setup cannot install to the selected partition.
You can only install to GPT disks on IA-64 machines and MBR disks on X-86 machines.
You can only upgrade installations on GPT disks on IA-64 machines and MBR disks on X-86 machines.
To go back to the previous screen press ENTER”
Cause
This error message occurs if both these conditions are true:
1. An operating system is already installed on the hard drive or it had an operating system, which has now been removed.
2. Hard drive is using GPT
You fail to install the required operating systems on GPT hard drives because of the following reasons:
1 On GPT hard drives, you can only set up Windows Server 2003 for Itanium-based systems.
2 You can’t set up Windows x64 based and Windows 32-bit operating systems on GPT hard drives.
Solution
You need to convert your GPT hard drive to a MBR hard drive. You can use Disk Management snap-in or diskpart command for it, if an operating system is already installed. You can also delete all existing hard drive partitions using Windows Setup and opting for the option to convert the partitioning scheme. In Windows Server 2003-based systems, it must have Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 installed. After this, you can restore lost data from backup. If the backup is invalid (viz. causes one or more errors during restoration) or incomplete, you should use Hard Drive Recovery tools to recover your critical data.
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery is complete and robust hard drive recovery software. It is equipped with advanced features like disk cloning, drive imaging, RAW Recovery, Drive Status and more. The software supports FAT16, FAT32, VFAT, NTFS and NTFS5 file systems. This Hard Drive Recovery tool is compatible with Windows 7 (currently in RC1), Vista, XP, 2003 and 2000).