A hard drive as a storage device is useless without special settings. Without it, it is impossible to install an operating system on the hard drive and launch it. It is impossible to record, store and read information in the usual way.

Hard drive partitioning

For interaction between a computer and a hard drive, markings must be applied to the latter. With its help, the computer, its BIOS, is found on the hard drive places where the OS starts loading. Using this marking on the hard drive, it is indicated which space is used for what.

For user convenience, manufacturers produce hard drives with markings already applied, and the average user does not have to deal with the initial configuration of the disk. But when working on a computer, situations arise when the user needs to know about the hard drive partitions, their types and purposes.

Currently used There are two main ways to partition a hard drive:

• MBR is a popular markup that was used previously and is still used today.
• GPT – partition style – modern markup designed to work with modern equipment.

MBR

Disk partitioning began to be widely used in the 80s of the last century, as the only one used on PCs. At that time, personal computers were coming into life; they worked under the DOS operating system, which required booting from a third-party media. Windows appeared a little later.

To boot the system on the hard drive boot sector is created. When the computer starts up, it accesses it, the initial boot has occurred. The initial boot items are loading. Then control is transferred to the main bootloader, usually the installed operating system.

Essentially, when you turn on the computer, the master boot record is accessed. This is exactly how the English abbreviation MBR is translated - Mster Boot Record.

When this markup appeared and was widely implemented, its capabilities more than satisfied the equipment requirements. But with the introduction of new technologies, the standard has exhausted itself. Limitations of using MBR, incompatible with modern equipment:

1. Use of hard drives with a capacity of no more than 2 TB.
2. A hard drive can contain no more than four main partitions, as a result there is a limit on the number of simultaneously installed working operating systems (in the case of Windows 7.8 - no more than two).
3. Low reliability of markings. If the boot sector is damaged, the OS cannot start.

Despite its advanced age and limitations, MBR will remain the most popular boot record style. The main advantage for users is the ability to simply and quickly install any combination of operating systems.

GPT

The GPT markup style appeared relatively recently. For a partition on the media, a unique identifier, the partition name, is used. The character length of the name allows you to create so many names that among all the partitions of existing hard drives there will not be two with the same name.

When using GPT partitioning, the first system, boot partition is created on the hard drive, which stores the information necessary to boot the computer. This section will replace the computer's BIOS. There can be 127 other sections. Each of them can be the main one and each can have a separate operating system installed.

Partition data is stored in several places on the HDD, which speeds up hard drive access time and information security. If data is damaged, it can be restored from another copy.

Limitations on the size of GPT partitions are imposed by the file system and operating system capabilities. The conditional disadvantages of such disks include the fact that despite the possibility of installing an unlimited number of operating systems, in reality you can only install free or licensed ones.

Windows OS manufacturers tie the product license not to the user’s hardware, but to the unique name of the hard drive partition where the system is installed. When changing a partition or replacing a hard drive, the license must be reset.

GPT compatibility

New GPT markup style imposes compatibility restrictions:

Also worth mentioning about compatibility is the security mechanism of GPT media: the security MBR. When trying to partition a modern hard drive software for MBR partitioning, the program will see one large MBR partition and will not be able to mark up data on it. This will prevent you from losing information on the GPT media.

How to find out MBR or GPT

To find out the MBR or GPT disk partition, you just need to use standard Windows tools. Click the "Start" button, right-click on "Computer" in the menu. In the menu that appears, select “Management”. Computer Management will open. You can also go here from “Control Panel”, “Administration”.

In the left column, select "Disk Management". A list of disks will appear in the central column at the top. Below is a visual representation of the devices. In the lower window on the media of interest, right-click and select “Properties” in the menu that appears.

The hard drive properties window will open.. The Volumes tab will show the partition style as Master Boot Record (MBR) or Table with GUID, which means GPT disk.

You can also find out the markup using the DiskPart system program. To start, press Win+R on your keyboard, enter Diskpart, enter, agree to the security system question. In the program interface, enter “List disk” and press enter. In the list of disks owned by the system, disks with a GPT structure will be marked with an asterisk in the GPT column.

Creating and converting disks

When converting disks, the data contained on the hard drive will be irretrievably lost. Create a disk backup.

Creating a GPT disk involves converting an MBR disk to GPT. To do this you need to go to "Disk Management"(See “How to find out the disk partition”). On the disk selected for conversion, you need to delete all volumes: in the upper part of the window, right-click on all volumes and select “Delete volume”.

After deleting the volumes, from below you need to right-click on the base GPT or MBR disk, select “Convert to GPT” or “Convert to MBR”. Then follow the instructions and provide the necessary explanations.

UEFI and GPT disks

With the advent of the new GPT markup style on the market, the old BIOS became irrelevant. The UEFI boot loader is used to start the computer with all its advantages:

The style of hard drive partitioning depends on the equipment and the tasks that the user sets for the computer. Despite the moral old age of MBR partitioning, it is rightfully considered the most convenient and understandable for the mass user. The absolute introduction of devices requiring GPT tagging has not yet occurred and will not happen soon. Also, the difference for the average user is almost invisible.

A computer's hard drive is a place where data is permanently stored. Unlike RAM, it is independent of connecting the computer to the electrical network and information is stored on it permanently until the user deletes it. Before talking about concepts such as GPT or MBR disk on a Windows computer, you need to understand what the device is and how it works.

How to determine the type of disk installed on a computer: GPT and MBR?

The storage of information inside the hard drive is a spinning disk, divided into tracks, each of which is divided into cells (sectors). The surface is covered with a special layer, thanks to which, through magnetization, information is recorded in position “1” or “0”. Each such cell is a bit, and any file is a set of many such cells. When unwinding (turning on the computer), information is read or written using a special head.

Basic concepts and operating principles

It is known that in order for the system to recognize data, it is necessary, i.e., it needs to be broken into parts. Physically, this has already been done by the manufacturer, each track and sector has its own number, which together constitute the address of the data unit accessed by the system.

Logical formatting is the organization of disk space, the creation of partitions, clusters, and file allocation tables. A hard drive partition is an area that works like one drive. For example, if a computer physically has one hard drive, then it can be logically divided into 2. One will be for system files, and the second for user files. And in the system they will be reflected as two different media, although physically they are one device.

Partitioning allows you to work with each one independently, including formatting for different file systems without losing data on the entire hard drive. Information about partitions is contained in the so-called partition table, of which there are two types: MBR and GPT.

ATTENTION. MBR (master boot record) - data and code that are located in the first physical sector of the media. Contains the bootloader code, partition table and signature (the last two bytes with the specified value). Used on 32-bit Windows systems, where the computer boots from the BIOS.

After checking the hardware, the BIOS accesses the bootloader code, the MBR determines which partition Windows is booting from, marks it as bootable, and transfers control to the operating system. Thus, it is possible to primitively describe this technology in the language of users. In practice, MBR is outdated and has the following disadvantages:

• inability to use on media larger than 2 TB;
• there cannot be more than 4 main sections.

ATTENTION. GPT is a standard that runs on UEFI technology instead of BIOS, short for GUID Partition table, located in the second sector of the disk. The first one, as before, hosts the MBR, but only for security reasons, to prevent erasing GPT by older systems that do not support this standard.

Advantages of GPT:

• There is no limitation on media size of 2 TB, theoretically possible volume up to 9 zettabytes (9 billion terabytes).
• The number of partitions is limited only by the capabilities of the operating system. For Windows - 128, for Linux - 256.

One of the disadvantages is that the standard is not supported by 32-bit Windows versions older than Vista.

Determination of the hard drive standard

If you don't know what kind of hard drive you have, MBR or GPT, you can easily determine this using a disk management tool or from the command line.

Do the following:

You can also check what kind of hard drive you have from the command line:

Finding out information about the type of disk is required when deciding to update software or hardware, because operating systems and special applications provide the ability to convert MBR disks to GPT and vice versa. For example, if you want to overcome MBR limitations, install a new 64-bit Windows 10 or, conversely, want to use a disk with a capacity of more than 2 TB on an older version of Windows that does not support GPT. In this case, however, you will lose some volume in the unlabeled area.

In general, in each specific case it is necessary to evaluate the feasibility of conversion, do not forget about the loss of data during such a procedure and that both MBR and GPT have their pros and cons.

In modern operating systems of the Windows family and other operating systems, one of two standards can be used to store information about the hard disk partition table. There is an old standard MBR(Master Boot Record) and new GPT(GUID Partition Table - GUID partition table). In Windows, the topic of the partition table in use has become especially relevant since the mass production of OEM computers with Windows 10 and Windows 8 pre-installed began. In this article, we will show how to use the built-in Windows tools to find out what type of partition table is used on your drive (this may be both a regular hard drive (HDD) and a high-speed SSD or flash drive).

Note. The GPT partition table is gradually replacing MBR (which is used in the classic BIOS) and is the new standard for placing tables on a physical disk. In turn, GPT is used by UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), which should completely replace BIOS on new computers in the next few years. Unlike the MBR, which is stored at the beginning of the disk (this is the boot sector), the GPT partition table (GUID table) is stored in multiple copies throughout the disk with CRC storage, ensuring that lost partition problems can be quickly identified and recovered. Each section is assigned a unique global identifier. On Windows, the partition table reserves 128 entries, allowing you to create up to 128 partitions. An important difference between a GPT and MBR partition table is the ability to create a partition larger than 2 TB on a disk.

To determine whether your disk is using a GPT or MBR partition table, there are three simple and accessible tools: Disk Management, the Diskpart command-line utility, and PowerShell.

How to view the partition table style using the Disk Management snap-in

Determining the partition table type using DiskPart

To get the partition table type for each of the disks available on the system, start a command prompt with administrator rights and run the following commands in sequence:

diskpart
list disk
exit

Notice the last column named Gpt. If it contains an asterisk (*), then it uses a GPT partition table. If there is no label, most likely the partition table type is MBR, or the system could not determine the disk type.

How to Find Out a Disk's Partition Table Style Using PowerShell

You can also determine the type of disk partition table using PowerShell. Launch a PowerShell console with administrator rights and run the following cmdlet:

For convenience, in order not to display unnecessary information, you can use the following command:

The partition table type for each disk connected to the system is indicated in the PartitionStyle column. In the example, disk with index 1 has a GPT partition table, and disk 0 has an MBR partition table.

The GPT hard disk partition style offers more benefits than the legacy MBR standard to both the commercial sector, which uses equipment to store huge amounts of data, and ordinary users. The advantages of GPT disks for ordinary people are better performance and a greater likelihood of recovering accidentally or accidentally destroyed data. If the computer motherboard supports the operating mode (an indispensable condition for working with GPT disks), but for some reason the hard drive with the formed partition structure and stored data has the MBR partition style, everything can be changed. Not without harm to the operating system, but with preservation of the disk structure and files on non-system partitions. Windows will still have to be reinstalled. Of course, there is a way to do without reinstalling Windows, but it is complicated by the process of restoring the ability of the current operating system to boot. After all, you will have to manually create a recovery partition and an encrypted EFI partition (used instead of the “System Reserved” boot partition on the MBR disk), and then restore the UEFI system boot loader. When you reinstall Windows, all these issues will be resolved automatically. Plus, we will get a clean operating system without old operating errors.

So, below we’ll look at how to install Windows on a disk converted from MBR to GPT without losing data on non-system partitions. But first, let's talk about how Windows is installed on a GPT disk with the loss of markup and stored data.

1. Installing Windows on a GPT disk with data loss

Preserving the partition structure and data of an MBR disk does not always make sense. For example, when connecting a hard drive purchased on the secondary market. What to do in this case? Since BIOS UEFI only works with GPT disks, it is therefore necessary that this firmware operating mode is active, and the Windows installation process is carried out from a UEFI bootable USB flash drive. We will return to these points when we consider how to install Windows on a GPT disk without losing data and partitions. But if the hard drive was initially initialized as MBR, then during the Windows installation process with the BIOS UEFI interface enabled, we will receive the following notification.

What can I do to make it possible to install Windows on a GPT disk? You need to completely delete all partitions on your hard drive...

And install the operating system on unallocated disk space. Or, using the “Create” button, create several partitions on the disk in order to indicate only one of them as the installation location for the system, and use the rest as file storage.

During the Windows installation process, the hard drive will be automatically converted to GPT.

This is a way to install Windows on a GPT disk, losing the partition structure and stored data. But what if the MBR disk is filled with information, and there is a lot of it? Even if there is somewhere to temporarily transfer important data - to another hard drive or removable media, with large volumes, the procedure for transferring files back and forth will take time. If there is nowhere to temporarily place the data, there is only one way out - converting the disk from MBR to GPT and then reinstalling Windows on the system partition.

2. Preparatory stage

Before you begin the conversion process, you need to check a few things and prepare your working tools. Need to:

• Make sure that the BIOS actually supports the UEFI interface;
• Burn a bootable UEFI USB flash drive with the installation process of 64-bit Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 (done using the Rufus program or the utility for downloading the distribution kit for versions of the system 8.1 and 10 Media Creation Tool);
• Save important data of the current Windows, in particular, files in user profile folders, export settings of important programs, extract license keys and perform other actions as before the usual process of reinstalling the operating system;
• Download from the official website and install the AOMEI Partition Assistant program on your computer (in the current Windows on an MBR disk), with the help of which the process of converting the hard drive from MBR to GPT will be carried out. The program can be downloaded in the free Standard Edition; among other functionality, it provides the ability to convert disk partition styles.

3. Converting a disk from MBR to GPT

Having carried out all the steps listed above and prepared the necessary tools, launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. In our case, in the program window we will see two computer hard drives: one of them has already successfully completed the conversion procedure from MBR to GPT, and the other, an MBR disk, has yet to undergo it.

On the MBR disk, call up the context menu, select the “Convert to GPT disk” command, then in the confirmation window for starting the operation, click “OK”.

A software window will appear with advice before starting the operation to make sure that the motherboard supports the BIOS UEFI operating mode. This window also informs you that if the converted disk is bootable and has an operating system installed on it, the latter will no longer be able to boot after the operation is completed. That is why it is important to take the preparatory stage of the operation seriously and carry out all the actions recommended in the previous paragraph of the article. Click “Yes”.

At the top left of the window, click the “Apply” button.

Clicking “Yes” is the point of no return, the current Windows will no longer be able to boot as the hard drive will be converted to GPT upon completion of the operation. The completion of the operation will be notified by such a program window, in which the only possible action will be to click “Ok”.

Before clicking “Ok”, check whether the UEFI bootable USB flash drive with the Windows installation process is connected. After clicking “Ok” the computer will reboot.

4. BIOS UEFI setup

The next time you start your computer, you must immediately enter the BIOS to set the UEFI operating mode. In the BIOS of the Asus motherboard, this is done as follows. In the main menu, press either the “Advanced settings” button or the F7 key.

By clicking “Ok” we confirm entering the advanced mode. Go to the “Download” tab, then select the “CSM” section (it must be enabled, that is, the value “Enabled” should appear opposite it). In the “Boot device parameters” column, set the value to “UEFI and Legacy UpROM” - a compatibility mode that allows booting in both UEFI and Legacy modes. Then use the “Back” button to exit the section settings.

If you are installing Windows 7 on your computer, you also need to (Secure Boot) - go to the “Secure Boot” section and in the “OS Type” column set the value to “Other OS”. And go up a level with the “Back” button.

In the list of boot devices, select the UEFI bootable USB flash drive.

We save the changes made to the BIOS: press the F10 key and select “Yes”.

In the BIOS of other motherboards, the settings will be different. But their essence will be the same as described for the Asus motherboard:

• Setting the UEFI operating mode (or compatibility mode, if supported, as in the example discussed);
• Disable secure boot for operating systems that do not comply with UEFI standard certificates;
• Setting boot priority from a UEFI flash drive;
• Saving settings.

5. Installing Windows on a GPT disk

After saving the BIOS UEFI settings, the computer will boot from the USB flash drive. We go through the initial stages of the installation process and will linger a little on choosing the installation location. In order for the data on non-system disk partitions to remain safe and sound, it is necessary to delete only two partitions that on the MBR disk were responsible for starting Windows - the first boot partition with a capacity of 350 or 500 MB (depending on the version of Windows) and the second partition on in which the operating system itself was installed. To avoid mistakes, especially if there are several hard drives connected to the computer, it is better to focus on the size of the partitions. In our example, the disk just converted from MBR to GPT is identified by the Windows installation process as Disk 0. We first delete the first partition using the “Delete” button.

Then we repeat the procedure with the second section.

Click on the unallocated space created as a result of deleting partitions and click the “Next” button to continue the Windows installation process.

Have a great day!

When you install a hard drive on a computer running Windows 7, you can choose one of two partition schemes:

• Master Boot Record (MBR) – basic partitioning scheme
• Globally unique identifier (GUID) partition table (GPT) - basic partitioning scheme.

The following are common reasons for partitioning a disk:

• Operating system files, data files and user files are separated from each other
• Application files and data are located in one place
• Placing cache, log and swap files separately from other files
• Create a multiboot installation environment.

You can use Disk Management to perform hard drive-related tasks, such as creating and formatting partitions and volumes and assigning drive letters.

An MBR disk is a bootable hard disk that contains an MBR. MBR is the first sector on a hard drive. An MBR is created when a disk has been partitioned and contains four partitions, describing the size and location of the partition on the disk using a 32-bit Logical Block Address (LBA).

The MBR is stored in one location on the physical disk, allowing the computer's BIOS to reference it. During the startup process, the computer examines the MBR and determines which partition on the installed disks is marked as active. The active partition contains the operating system startup files.

The MBR scheme imposes some restrictions, which include:

• Four partitions on the disk
• Maximum partition size 2 Terabytes (TB)
• Data redundancy is not provided.

What is a GPT disk?

As operating systems evolve and hard drives increase in size, MBR restrictions on disk partitions reduce the viability of this partitioning scheme in many scenarios. Consequently, a new disk partitioning system was developed: Globally unique identifier (GUID).

GPT contains an array of partition records that describe the beginning and end of the LBA of each partition on the disk. Each GPT partition has a unique GUID and partition content type. In addition, each LBA described in the partition table is 64-bits in length. Both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows operating systems support GPT disks for data on BIOS systems, but they cannot boot from them. 64-bit Windows operating systems support GPT for boot drives on UEFI systems.

GPT disks support:

• 128 partitions per disk
• Disk size 18 exabytes (EB)
• Redundancy.

The following sectors are defined on a GPT partitioned disk:

• Sector 0 contains the security MBRs. They contain one primary partition that spans the entire disk.
• Sector 1 contains the partition table header. The partition table header contains the unique disk GUID, the number of partition entries (typically 128), and pointers to the partition table.
• The partition table starts in sector 2. Each section entry contains a unique section GUID, section offset, section length, type, attributes, and name.

Disk management tools.

You can use the Disk Management Console (MMC) or diskpart.exe to initialize disks and create and format file system volumes. Additional common tasks include moving disks between computers, converting between basic and dynamic disk types, and changing the style of disk partitions. Most disk-related tasks can be completed without rebooting the computer or interrupting user sessions, and most configuration changes will take effect immediately.

Disk management.

Disk Management in Windows 7 provides the same features familiar from earlier versions of Windows, but also includes some new features:

• Simplified partitioning
• Disk conversion options
• Enlarging and shrinking partitions.

To open Disk Management, click Start, type "diskmgmt.msc" in the search box, and then click diskmgmt.msc in the list of results.

Diskpart.exe.

DiskPart.exe allows you to manage fixed disks and volumes using scripts or commands entered at the command line. Below are the general diskpart actions:

• To run diskpart.exe, open a command prompt and type "diskpart"
• To view a list of diskpart commands at the DISKPART>command prompt, enter "commands", or open Disk Management and then "Help Topics" from the Help menu.
• To create a diskpart session log file, enter "diskpart/s testscript.txt>logfile.txt".

Convert MBR partition to GPT partition.

An example of using the diskpart command line tools and Disk Management to manage disk types.

Convert a GPT disk using Diskpart.exe.

1. Launch an elevated command prompt.
2. Run diskpart.exe and use the following commands to convert the disk:

• list disk
• select disk 2
• convert gpt.

Convert disk 2 to GPT disk using Disk Management.

1. Launch Disk Management
2. In the Initialize Disk dialog box, convert disk 2 to a GPT disk.

Checking the disk type.
In Disk Management, check the type of each disk.