The partitioning tables of your computer: MBR and GPT

Introduction 
The MBR (Master Boot Record) 
The GPT (GUID Partition Table) 
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Introduction

When booting a new hard disk, it is necessary to choose between MBR (Main Boot Sector) and GPT (Partition Table GUID) before creating partitions on a disk. These are two partitioning table templates. 
The partitioning table is stored on the hard disk and provides the necessary information support for partitioning a hard disk into partitions.
Most computer users make their choices and move on to the next step without having the knowledge bases on the advantages or disadvantages among MBR and GPT.

What is a partitioning table for? What is the difference between MBR and GPT?

The MBR (Master Boot Record)

Before addressing the topic of MBR partitioning table, it is necessary to set the MBR.

The MBR (Master Boot Record) is the first sector of a hard drive, which contains hard disk boot information to load the operating system or bootloader, as well as the partition table.

When you turn on the computer, the BIOS hands over to the hard drive via the MBR.

The MBR is compatible with all 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. However, it has restrictions that have pushed manufacturers to create a new, more efficient partitioning table: the GPT. 
• 4 partitions maximum  
• Size of a partition limited to 2.2 TB (2 200 GB)  
• Unable to boot an MBR hard disk with a Unified Extensible Firmware Interface ( UEFI ) system On the  
another hand, a UEFI version of Windows perfectly recognizes a disk MBR, you can edit or delete your files as usual.

The GPT (GUID Partition Table)

The GUID Partition Table (GPT) is a new standard for describing the partitioning table of a hard drive, it has to replace the MBR because of the limitations of the latter which limits the size of a partition to 2.2 TB.

The GPT is part of the UEFI standard, that is, a UEFI operating system can only boot to a hard disk using a GPT partition table. Overall, a traditional BIOS cannot boot to a GPT disk.

It's advantaging over the MBR partitioning table: 
• 128 partitions maximum 
• the size of a partition can reach 256 TB

Versions of Windows that can read the contents of a GPT disk : 
All 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and the 64-bit version of Windows XP.

Windows versions that can boot to a GPT disk: In 
order to boot Windows to a GPT disk, you must enable UEFI in the settings on your motherboard and have a 64-bit version of Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7, or Windows 8 No 32-bit version of Windows can boot to a GPT disk. Even Windows XP 64-bit cannot boot to a GPT disk.

The possibility of having on one system an MBR disk and a GPT disk: 
For this, you must have a version of Windows that supports the GPT format.

The ability to convert a hard disk MBR to GPT and vice versa: 
For this, it is necessary for formatting the contents of your hard drive.

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