Initialising my hard drive

TNortham112 · July 21, 2015

Hi, I have just installed a hard drive in my computer and have noticed that I need to initialise it in order to get it working.

Which partition style do I need to select?
- MBR (Master boot record)
or

- GPT (GUID Partition Table)

Note:
This is not the hard drive I am/ will be booting from, I have an SSD for that.
This Hard drive will just be for some programs and documents.

TheMcSame · July 21, 2015

It doesn't really matter unless the drive has a capacity higher than 2TB or if you need legacy support.

If you need legacy support then MBR.

If you doubt you'd need legacy support or your drive has a higher capacity than 2TB go for GPT.

Mighty_Miro_WD · July 22, 2015

Hi there @TNortham112!

IMHO for programs and mass storage location you will be fine with either MBR or GPT (though I personally would go with GPT). Basically speaking it is only in situation when you would like to have a partition bigger than 2TB, or when you would like to have more than four primary partitions, that you need to use GPT.

Also, for the newer model of computer that uses UEFI, it will only support GPT.

Hope this helps.

Cheers!