When you are initializing a new hard drive in Windows built-in Disk
Manager, a window pops up and asks you to choose between MBR (master
boot record) and GPT (GUID partition table) disk. What's the difference
between them and is there any benefit to choose one over the other?
As known to us, a brand new hard disk must be initialized before you can partition it for data storage. So when you install a new hard drive to the computer, it will first initialize the disk and ask you to choose between MBR and GPT partition style. Typically, most people would straightly click next step without knowing any of the advantages or disadvantages among MBR and GPT. However, the default setting of Windows would initialize the disk to MBR partition style or even you choose GPT, someday, you may find it not meet your needs.
In details, the organization of the partition table in the MBR limits
the maximum addressable storage space of a disk to 2 TB (232 × 512
bytes). And it only supports up to 4 primary partitions, or 3 primary
partitions and 1 extended partition combination. However, with the
progress of the times, larger storage devices need to be applied to the
computer field. Therefore, the MBR-based partitioning scheme is in the
process of being superseded by the GUID Partition Table (GPT) scheme in
new computers because of GPT partition table disk supports a volume up
to 2^64 blocks in length e.g. for disks with 512-byte sectors, that
would be 9.44 ZB – zettabytes, 1 ZB is 1 billion terabytes, and the
ability to have up to 128 primary partitions. A GPT can coexist with an
MBR in order to provide some limited form of backward compatibility for
older systems.
To sum up, you may see that GUID partition scheme has more advantages, is that mean you can adopt this kind of partitioning scheme to every disk? No, not all Windows systems support this partitioning scheme.
The major differences between MBR and GPT disk are mentioned above. So you can choose GPT or MBR depending on what you have and what you need to do.
Tips: If you have initialized your new hard disk to either MBR or GPT, and stored data or installed system on either of them, however, you want to apply the other disk layout because of 2TB disk space limit or incompatible OS problem, AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro allows you to realize the conversion between MBR and GPT without data loss.
Via http://www.disk-partition.com
As known to us, a brand new hard disk must be initialized before you can partition it for data storage. So when you install a new hard drive to the computer, it will first initialize the disk and ask you to choose between MBR and GPT partition style. Typically, most people would straightly click next step without knowing any of the advantages or disadvantages among MBR and GPT. However, the default setting of Windows would initialize the disk to MBR partition style or even you choose GPT, someday, you may find it not meet your needs.
Comparison of MBR and GPT disk layouts
The MBR, short for Master Boot Record, is an old and commonly-used disk layout. The GPT, short for Globally Unique Identifier Partition Table, is a new disk layout associated with UEFI. Firstly, you may know something about MBR like how to fix MBR, which leads you to think MBR just refer to a specific important data. Actually, MBR and GPT also determine the style of the disk between MBR and GPT. After initializing it, we can call a disk as MBR disk or GPT disk. The two different styles of disk own different schemes to manage the partitions on a disk. The differences between them are caused by the rapid development of the information age. The older scheme shows more and more disadvantages, so there introduced a new scheme to fit the changes. Once a hard disk is initialized, the structured information will be recorded and stored to a particular segment of the disk. On the other hand, the information will change with the changes of partition information so that it is called partitioning scheme.
Which one to choose - MBR or GPT?
Be careful when creating a 5th partition on a MBR disk. If you want to create more partitions, you have to create a structure of no more than 3 primary partitions plus an extended partition and then create more logical partitions resides on the extended partition. Otherwise, the disk will be converted to dynamic disk. It is not recommended to average users as some users may encounter dynamic disk invalid problems and unable to install OS on a dynamic disk.To sum up, you may see that GUID partition scheme has more advantages, is that mean you can adopt this kind of partitioning scheme to every disk? No, not all Windows systems support this partitioning scheme.
- Windows XP 32-bit, Windows 2000, Windows NT 4, or Windows 95/98 cannot read, write, and boot from GPT disks, they will see only the Protective MBR.
- Windows XP x64 Edition can use GPT disks for data only.
- All versions of Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows 2003 Server, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2012 can use GPT disk partition for data. Booting is only supported for 64-bit editions on UEFI-based systems.
The major differences between MBR and GPT disk are mentioned above. So you can choose GPT or MBR depending on what you have and what you need to do.
Tips: If you have initialized your new hard disk to either MBR or GPT, and stored data or installed system on either of them, however, you want to apply the other disk layout because of 2TB disk space limit or incompatible OS problem, AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro allows you to realize the conversion between MBR and GPT without data loss.
Via http://www.disk-partition.com
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