MBR vs GPT

[ilyas001]

hi guys need your hep i have some questions 

1- mbr is limited to 2tb's per partition or by hdd ? 

2-are the limitations only with the hdd that contain the OS so i mean i have another hdd i ave no limitations ? 

3-does it work the same with external storage drives do i have the same limitations ? 

4-if a uefi have a gpt and bios have a mbr and they arent compatible with each other why in this website i see that the pc is giving the user a choice http://www.howtogeek.com/193669/whats-the-difference-between-gpt-and-mbr-when-partitioning-a-drive/

5-i don't really understand how the system partition the boot ligne with the bios works together i mean when you choose in what device you want to boot in the bios start launching a boot code if i'm not wrong then what ? how does it know what partition have windows in it to boot and if it needs the system partition to know where is windows  then how can he know where is the system partition in the first place ? if i'm totally wrong please correct i'm trying to learn more about it 

6-the system partition help recover windows in case of probleme then how a 350 mo partition can help recover a 30 go system ? 

that's what come into my mind for now thanks for the answers 

[DaftBehemoth]

1 - MBR cannot handle HDDs 2TB or bigger.

2 - You will have to pick MBR or GPT for each physical disk in your system individually. 

3 - You won't have to worry about it on an external drive.

4 - There is basically no reason to use anything other than GPT at this point. It'll work with everything.

5 - When you boot your system your motherboard basically just goes through the boot order you set in bios and launches whatever it can first.

6 - This is also probably something you won't have to worry about. Windows just needs those files for... reasons... lol. 

 

Edit: I should also say that the system reserved partition will not allow you to recover your system in the event of major software failure. It's just there to keep track of boot data for Windows. 

[ilyas001]

lol thanks for the answers i'm just studying the subject and like i said so i need to know these " raisons " give me good links please that explaines well 5 and 6 i really need to understand it lol good day sir 

[Captain_WD]

4 hours ago, ilyas001 said:

~snip~

Hi there ilyas001

 

@DaftBehemoth gave you some excellent answers! 

Here are my two cents on this:

 

MBR (Master Boot Record):

• Dates back to March 1983
• First introduced in IBM PC with DOS 2.0
• It is located at the beginning of the storage drive
• Stores the "Boot Loader" plus information about the partitions on the drive
• Works with drives up to 2TB in capacity
• Supports up to 4 primary partitions
• You can have more partitions by creating logical partitions in a "Extended Partition"

Here's how the data is distributed across a MBR drive:

 

GPT (GUID (Globally Unique IDentifier) Partition Table):

• Came in the late 1990s
• Officially part of UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) standard as of 2010
• Practically every partition on every drive in the world has its own unique identifier
• Supports up to 128 partitions
• Stores multiple copies of the partitioning and boot data across the drive (unlike MBR)
• Features CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) which enables it to self-correct corrupted data
• Contains a "Protective MBR"

Here's how the data is distributed on a GPT drive:

 

Here are some screenshots that show you what OSs can boot from or use GPT drives:

Unix:

 

32-bit Windows OS:

 

64-bit Windows OS:

 

Post back if you need more info

 

Captain_WD.

[ilyas001]

@Captain_WD

thanks for such an answer 

1-what does MRB takes precedence in hybrid configuration ? 

2-i know that uefi can only boot gtp but sometimes bios can boot both is it why sometimes it requires uefi obligatory sometimes in the table ? 

3- where can i find more informations about that boots tables bacause still i don't get how that boot code is related to the bios and why the entries have a number of 128 does have something to do with the nomber of partiton and my main question is for both gpt and mbr how can know what partition is what ? and i still don't get enough what the system partitions and other hiden partitions do ? 

[Unhelpful]

4 hours ago, ilyas001 said:

 

Add an "@" before his name to notify him of your response, or hit quote to quote him. @Captain_WD

[Captain_WD]

15 hours ago, ilyas001 said:

~snip~

 

Hey You are most welcome! Happy to help!

 

• You can read a bit more on the Hybrid MBRs here. 

 

• UEFI is generally an improved BIOS. It's like an update to a basic BIOS and incorporates pretty much all important features. You can have a motherboard work either in a UEFI mode (if it supports it) or in Legacy mode (which omits the UEFI features) or in a combination. Current setups usually work well with UEFI systems and you are not likely to encounter problems. It is recommended to use Legacy mode when using older hardware or older OSs. 

 

• MBR and GPT are styles with which the whole drives is treated. You can't really have one partition set as MBR and another as GPT. The partitioning style itself sets the limits of what you can do with a drive (e.g. the number of physical partitions, allowed operational capacity, etc.). system and hidden partitions are usually reserve for system usages, recovery and booting. For example, when you start your computer the system doesn't directly go to your C drive and read the OS. It goes to a small part of your drive ( a hidden partition) so it can figure out what to do and where to get the required files from. These partitions are hidden from users so you don't alter them as it would cause problems and crashes. You can actually see them in Disk Management in Windows. 

 

Feel free to ask if there are further questions! 

 

Captain_WD.