Convert flash drive for Windows 8.1 bootcamp installation from mbr to gpt

Question

Trying to run Windows 8.1 pro x64 on my mid 2010 15" macbook pro. Get stuck during bootcamp installation in Windows because my partition table isn't compatible (MBR but needs to be GPT). My hard drive seems to be Logical partitions/volume etc, while my flash drive was formatted into MBR seemingly by bootcamp, or otherwise not altered into the GPT like it maybe should have.
Generally followed this guide http://www.howtogeek.com/186907/how-to-install-windows-on-a-mac-with-boot-camp/
Steps I took:
Had to use terminal/Xcode to edit info.plist from bootcamp to allow flash drive installation through bootcamp on my mac (removed the "pre" method).
With all three bootcamp options selected, managed to partition the drive
When restarted, my computer had black screen with "no bootable device found".
Restarted again, holding alt/option
Flash drive was now available as one of two options (the other being my standard mac drive)
Windows Setup loaded. Selected language/imputed key/select version etc.
Here is the strange part, the division of the disk does not include "bootcamp" anywhere in the title (like it should according to the guide), and is about 10gb smaller than my partition (assume this is a normal result of windows installation/os files etc). When I try to format the partition, it says I can't, and explains that I can't use MBR, need to use GPT.
Attempted to rewrite disk with Shift F10 Diskpart, list disk, etc, but here it shows drive 0, 1, and 2, (rather than drive 0 partition 1,2,3,4, with 4 being my bootcamp I think). This seems to be a method for installing windows on a windows pc, and I didn't go through with it because I didn't want to loose my mac os yet.
I am not proficient with coding/terminal use, and don't know if there is an option to list partitions etc, so I'm stuck. I can backup my mac and potentially change my partition table etc, but I feel like restoring with time machine would then wipe my existing partition. Is there a workaround I could use? Is there a specific sequence of backups/restores that would work? I'm also okay with manually drag and dropping the files I want back onto a clean slate computer if necessary. Or would simply buying and burning a disc with windows save myself the hassle? Please advise.
Sorry for long question, wanted to get info out right away. Can include more if necessary. Thank you all for your time.

Answer 1

TheMonark wrote:
I input that into mac terminal while running os? And then you'd like me to post the results on this discussion board?
Yes. It also helps if there are any calculations to be done with disk sectors.
My optical drive works fine, but I moved to France and didn't bring any disks. Would it be easier and safer to just burn my windows iso onto a disc and run it through bootcamp that way? I'm thinking the answer is yes at this point.
Yes, if you have a built-in Optical drive, Bootcamp expects to boot from the Optical drive, because it sets the CSM-BIOS layer for Windows to boot from the Optical drive settings in the NVRAM.
I'm about to head out to celebrate a birthday, but I will post back here in about 14 hours.
Enjoy the party!
Do you recommend just buying a DVD and doing it that way? I could easily return my info.plist to normal, and as far as I know, my optical drive works fine. Seems simpler if it would work with my copies of osx and windows. What do you recommend?
The changes in info.plist enable creation of the USB, but do not influence the boot device pointer that BCA will set when switching to the Windows Installer. My recommendation is to get DVD writable media (DVD+R or equivalent) and burn the ISO to a physical DVD and use BCA to install windows using the BCA USB and DVD media.