Forum Discussion
MBR2GPT Disk layout validation failed
Watch this video. https://youtu.be/ytRJhwL6vAg
Rasel2500 has provided an answer that most people - including most in this thread (from everything I've read in the entire thread) - overlooked.
Watching the video provided a VERY good answer that the video just glossed over...even though the person in the video just quickly mentioned the logs and where to find them.
Here's the video he posted - Watch this video. https://youtu.be/ytRJhwL6vAg
Read the log reports "after" running \Windows\system32>mbr2gpt /validate /allowfullos in the command prompt as admin.
What "I" found was in the last entry in the log found in C:\Windows\setupact.log
Run mbr2gpt validate again and read the "last" entry, the "last" line in that entry. Here was the entry I found in the last line the last time I got the failure error:
ValidateLayout: Last partition too close to the end of the disk. Should end at offset 1000204869120 or below, found at 1000204886016
What that's saying is the third partition I have was too close to the end of the drive and the size of the volume (partition) needed to be reduced.
I calculated the difference between what was the expected end ("should end at") and the actual end of the partition. Using that number I used "Disk Management" in Win 10 to "Shrink Volume" by the amount of the "difference" between the 2 numbers. (In my case, I needed to shrink the volume by 16,896 MB.)
After I shrank the volume by the specific difference between the 2 log numbers, I ran mbr2gpt /validate one more time.
It passed!
I was then able to use mbr2gpt /convert and the conversion worked!
Nothing was lost (other than a lot of hair), and I checked the system with PC Health and got confirmation - the system requirements for Windows 11 are now met! I can install 11...whenever it's rolled out to my computer...
The "secret" to watching the video wasn't all the steps. The secret was that the video shows you how to look at the log files and see "why" the error message appears, but the guy in the video didn't even say that - he just turned a light bulb on in my head that said to "check the logs".
Check your log entries!
Every time you run mbr2gpt it's logged. Everything that happens when you run that command is detailed in the log.
Comply with the details in the log to correct the error and you are then ready to run mbr2gpt successfully!
Thanks Microsoft for letting us all know there is a critical step to get answers about why our system does not meet the Win 11 requirements.
It's too bad we all have to spend an inordinate amount of time jumping through these hoops. But now you have a "great" way to find a resolve.
Your system may have a different reason the validation failed, but looking at the log entries will tell you the answer to your error.
I hope this makes a lot of people smile after all the frustration they've had.Thank you, finding that log file was the key. I just needed to free up 1024mb of space at the end of the disk. Job done.
where can i find the logs?
Bless you!
you should only follow this advice if you want to lose 16gb of space for no reason. The numbers returned are in bits -- you only need ~16mb to make the validation pass.
Came to comments to verify I wasn't missing anything since I also thought it's in bytes and I was correct - as are you mostly - but one should follow your advice only if they want to lose 16Mb (really 15Mb) of space for no reason. 16XXX is 16kb not Mb :)
I just did this and shrank by 1Mb which is the smallest that drive manager allows to shrink and it worked wonders.Unless there's something very weird going on the partition end should never be far enough to warrant any more than the 1Mb minimum shrink.
TLDR: To save time just shrink by 1Mb without even bothering to check logs. Only if that doesn't work check the logs.
