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I have a existing Arch Linux system and want to install windows 10 on it. I booted windows installation media from a USB stick, I do have a NTFS partition to install windows.

When I go to install it says that it can't install to that partition because it is GPT.

Tried Diskpart but didn't work.

Please Help !

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  • Have you disabled UEFI boot on your motherboard for the arch install? Iirc Windows works with GPT but only if the mobo isn't set for legacy mode (BIOS)
    – nerdwaller
    Commented Oct 8, 2015 at 5:19

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Windows is picky about what partition table types it'll accept for its system disk – which is either MBR on BIOS systems, or GPT on UEFI systems (unlike Linux where any combination works).

One option is to boot both systems in UEFI mode, if it is available. (Most modern PCs do use UEFI, though sadly often UEFI-based boot needs to be enabled manually, as many PCs are set to "legacy" aka "BIOS emulation" aka "CSM" mode by default.)

This is the more modern method (and might in fact be required for certain Windows 10 features), but switching to it needs some work:

  • create an "EFI system partition" where all UEFI bootloaders will be stored;
  • install an UEFI bootloader (systemd-boot, grub2) for your Arch Linux;
  • dig around firmware settings and switch it to UEFI-style booting;
  • boot into Linux via UEFI, and install the same UEFI bootloader again (so that it could set certain parameters that it couldn't have done the first time);
  • perhaps remove the BIOS-mode bootloader;
  • finally, boot the Windows USB in UEFI mode (should happen by default).

Most of those steps are documented in Arch Wiki; otherwise post a new question here about converting a BIOS-mode Arch system to UEFI-mode.

(Note: The official Microsoft's tool for making Windows 10 USBs is UEFI-compatible. But if you used something like Rufus to make your USB, you need to do it again and make sure the correct type (UEFI, not CSM) is selected.)

Note that UEFI supports multiple installed bootloaders. Once you install Windows, you can use Linux' efibootmgr to select the primary one (the BootOrder).

Now, if your system is so old that it doesn't have UEFI (or has a very buggy firmware), then your other option is to convert the disk to MBR partitioning. This might go smoothly or might not work at all, depending on how many partitions you have and some other factors.

This can be done using gdisk – under the r recovery menu, you have the g "Convert to MBR" option. (Don't touch the "Hybrid MBR" option, it leads to delayed pain.)

After doing this, you again must reinstall the Linux bootloader so that it'd pick up the new partition layout... and you'll need to do it later again after installing Windows, as BIOS only has space for one bootloader, so Windows is going to overwrite yours.

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