Switch from CSM to UEFI

[Per E. Johannessen]

Thanks to all for info, I haven't decided what "route" to take yet but will report when done.
The MBR-to-GPT converter developed by Rich would be a great tool to have, and I would not expect it to be freeware.
Hope that AN can imagine a use for it now. (USD 2500 is a bit too much for my budget, although I'd happily pay a reasonable fee for a user license.)

[Andi B.]

Sorry Rich that I've to say that, but ArcaNoae offers a way to convert MBR to GPT via dfsan. I found it in one of the ArcaOS readme files. Maybe gpt.txt? I already saw a menu entry in DFSee some time ago doing that. ArcaOS also comes with a simple GPT partition creation tool (PTE.exe I think). I created a 2TB partition with it on a 8TB disk a few days ago.

[ivan]

DFSee 17.0 also has the ability to convert MBR to GPT and also do any other required changes.  I would think that every OS/2 user has a copy of that free release.

[Rich Walsh]

ArcaNoae offers a way to convert MBR to GPT via dfsan. [...] I already saw a menu entry in DFSee some time ago doing that.

When you select that menu entry in DFSee, the one-line help at the bottom of the screen says:
"Convert an MBR-style disk to an EMPTY GPT one [...]". In contrast, my tool takes an in-use MBR disk with up to 127 partitions and converts it in-place without the loss of a single byte of data. They're just not the same.

ArcaOS also comes with a simple GPT partition creation tool (PTE.exe I think).

I wrote PTE. It was intended to be a temporary GPT partition table editor for use until GPT support could be integrated into existing tools. I did so subsequently by adding GPT support to MiniLVM. As such, PTE is obsolete (though still functional) and should be removed from the distro.

[Rich Walsh]

DFSee 17.0 also has the ability to [...] do any other required changes.

Actually, it doesn't.

While a disk is identified by OS/2 as "MBR", DFSee can convert it to GPT and (presumably) create GPT partitions. However, once you reboot and OS/2 identifies the disk as "GPT", DFSee is incapable of performing any changes to the partition table because it is read-only. DFSee doesn't know how to get write-access nor does it know how to coordinate the physical GPT partitions with the emulated MBR disks that LVM sees. The GPT disk itself is invisible to DFSee.

Honestly, this is waaaaay more complicated than it looks. Skip DFSee and use David A's 'InitDisk.exe' to do a destructive conversion, then reboot and use MiniLVM to create partitions (including the UEFI system partition).

Note: DFSee is still able to perform operations within a partition (e.g. finding lost files or editing binary data) because the GPT partitions are always read-write. However, what DFSee thinks it's seeing is the only partition on an MBR disk.

[Andi B.]

Rich thanks for clarification.

I tried to setup this new 8TB drive with MiniLVM as GPT but couldn't find out how to do. Maybe I have to create an EFI partition there? But I've already 2 EFI partitions on other drives. I really tried with MiniLVM but it does not work (for me). I can't convince MiniLVM to create a GPT layout. I also can't add another 2TB partition on this 8TB drive with MiniLVM cause there is no free space anymore. PTE can't do this too.

PTE - looks a bit strange cause the big font. But it worked for at least one nearly 2TB partition.

[Dave Yeo]

Rich thanks for clarification.

I tried to setup this new 8TB drive with MiniLVM as GPT but couldn't find out how to do. Maybe I have to create an EFI partition there? But I've already 2 EFI partitions on other drives. I really tried with MiniLVM but it does not work (for me). I can't convince MiniLVM to create a GPT layout. I also can't add another 2TB partition on this 8TB drive with MiniLVM cause there is no free space anymore. PTE can't do this too.

PTE - looks a bit strange cause the big font. But it worked for at least one nearly 2TB partition.

Too old of a minilvm? Note that the latest is called the "Installation Volume Manager" and seems to handle GPT fine.

[ivan]

OK. I stand corrected especially since I have no intentions of changing what works for me to something that might not work - that is why I have several computers at my desk connected by an HDMI/usb switch.

[Andi B.]

Too old of a minilvm? Note that the latest is called the "Installation Volume Manager" and seems to handle GPT fine.

v 2.52. Included with ArcaOS 5.1.0 EN. Built 2023-08-23. Maybe that's to old. But I really tried. Even looked into the help without any hint.

I even cleared start of the disk with DFSee and started again. But could not find how to select GPT when creating the first partition.

[Steven Levine]

Andi,

GPT maintains two copies of the GPT tables.  To clear them completely with dfsee, you need to clear both the first and last cylinders of the disk when booted to a setup that does not load the GPT filter driver.  The other option is to use InitDisk.

[Rich Walsh]

v 2.52. Included with ArcaOS 5.1.0 EN. Built 2023-08-23. Maybe that's to old. But I really tried. Even looked into the help without any hint.

I even cleared start of the disk with DFSee and started again. But could not find how to select GPT when creating the first partition.

I think there's a basic misunderstanding here: neither MiniLVM nor PTE _create_ a GPT disk. They are partition editors that know how to manipulate an *existing* GPT disk. To create one, you must use 'InitDisk.exe' or DFSee.

After a reboot, MiniLVM will clearly identify which disks are GPT and which are MBR. 'PTE' will only display GPT and will ignore MBR (IIRC). The other partition editors ('lvm.exe' and that java thing) are useless for GPT because they can't see the actual GPT disk.

[Andi B.]

v 2.52. Included with ArcaOS 5.1.0 EN. Built 2023-08-23. Maybe that's to old. But I really tried. Even looked into the help without any hint.

I even cleared start of the disk with DFSee and started again. But could not find how to select GPT when creating the first partition.

I think there's a basic misunderstanding here: neither MiniLVM nor PTE _create_ a GPT disk. They are partition editors that know how to manipulate an *existing* GPT disk. To create one, you must use 'InitDisk.exe' or DFSee.

After a reboot, MiniLVM will clearly identify which disks are GPT and which are MBR. 'PTE' will only display GPT and will ignore MBR (IIRC). The other partition editors ('lvm.exe' and that java thing) are useless for GPT because they can't see the actual GPT disk.

Does make sense now. But maybe you understand the confusion. Usually we used the standard tools (fdisk, lvmgui, MiniLVM) or DFSee to create all partitions and volumes. There is also the strong advise to only use ArcaOS tools to create volumes. I guess most of us know about these mentioned tools.

But I for myself never heard about (maybe I've heard but didn't recognize) InitDisk or PTE until a few days ago. Although I created one of my disks with GPT layout, probably during one of my ArcaOS installation trials, I didn't know InitDisk is needed.

So thanks for clarification.