Converting my hard drive from MBR to GPT (is somehow a hard process)

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After cloning my main hard drive to another one and use it, I thought it would be a neat idea to convert it to GPT, the newer partitioning scheme, as I depended on MBR, and I now have a UEFI-compatible PC.

GPT has better features, such as creating partitions up to 128 (and, depending on the storage, even more than that), instead of just 4. You could dual-boot plenty of operating systems if you want to. It also allows Secure Boot, and, you can allow to change the Windows boot logo using 3rd-party tools.

I was searching about it, and Windows has a tool for converting, called MBR2GPT. Simple as that.

I booted into the installation media, ran "mbr2gpt /validate", to check if I'm able to convert, and, it failed.

This makes sense, as I have the partitioning limit from MBR. I have a Windows partition, a Linux partition, and two partitions for storing software, some games, and personal files.

I had to delete the Linux partition using a Linux live CD, as I currently don't need it anyway, make a small (200MB) partition just for the EFI / the boot manager, and move it as the first partition. That taken almost an hour.

I came back to the Windows installation media, ran the command again, and it validated! I ran "mbr2gpt /convert", and it gave me the same error as before (with converting instead of validating), and the troubleshooting got longer.

I booted into the Linux live CD again and merge the small partition to the Windows partition.

I waited for an hour again, came back to the Windows Command Prompt from the installation media PE, same thing.

I started to lose my mind. I now have 3 partitions, not 4. There is no empty partitioning either.

I had to search for a bit about the error, and people suggested "shrinking" the Windows partition from its Disk Management utility. I was a bit confused, because I already shrank before using GParted. Why use Windows for that? I was like, maybe it does something different that GParted doesn't. (Windows did what Lididnt-)

It gave me this error.

What.

Do you mean.

There is no way I have to Chkdsk my Windows partition that got larger thanks to me merging it with the now-deleted Linux partition.

I ran "fsutil dirty query C:" in the Command Prompt to really check if my Windows partition really needs to be checked, and yep. I have to.

I was like, alright. Fine. I'll Chkdsk my damn Windows partition.

I manually ran the chkdsk command with the arguments /f /r (for realistic no capture or whatever they say), to force repairing any corrupted file if found. This obviously needs the partition to be unmounted, so Windows also needs to be rebooted.

I did, and it was taking so long that I thought it was stuck and my hard drive disconnected. I had to forcefully reboot (which is something no one should do) while I thought it was stuck, Windows booted fine and everything, but the partition is still detected being "dirty."

I rebooted to the Windows installation media again, and ran the command from there.

It had taken, two, hours. And it FOUND "NO PROBLEMS."

BUT YOU SAID YOU WERE DIRTY EARLIER???

But, anyway, I ran "mbr2gpt /convert" one last time, and it did it. My hard drive is officially GPT.

Worst Windows troubleshooting 2k25.