Partition layouts
A partition layout defines how an operating system organizes partitions on a hard drive:
-
MBR (Master Boot Record) - a legacy partitioning scheme that uses a 512-byte boot sector to store the disk’s primary partition table.
MBR is supported by all modern operating systems but is considered outdated. Its main limitation is that it supports hard disk's size up to 2 TB only, that makes it impossible to use modern large size hard drives - the space beyond 2 TB remains inaccessible for the users.
-
GPT (GUID Partition Table) - a modern standard for partition layout used by default on UEFI-based systems. GPT supports disks and partitions up to 9.4 ZB (9.4 x 10^21 bytes) and overcomes the limitations of MBR.
A table below displays which operating systems support reading GPT disks and/or booting from such a disk:
| OS can read GPT disks | OS can boot from GPT disks | |
|---|---|---|
|
Windows 7 SP1 x32 |
YES |
NO |
|
Windows 7 SP1 x64 |
YES |
YES |
|
Windows 8 x32 |
YES |
YES |
|
Windows 8 x64 |
YES |
YES |
|
Windows 8.1 x32 |
YES |
YES |
|
Windows 8.1 x64 |
YES |
YES |
|
Windows 10 x32 |
YES |
YES |
|
Windows 10 x64 |
YES |
YES |
| Windows 11 | YES | YES |