Summary :

MBR VS GPT, which one is better for SSD? What is

the difference between MBR and GPT? This post will
show you the answers. Also, you will know how to
initialize disk MBR or GPT without losing data for
better performance with a professional partition
manager, MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Quick Navigation :

 Hard Disk Style: MBR and GPT

 MBR VS GPT
  MBR VS GPT for SSD: Which One Is Better
 MBR VS GPT SSD, Make a Conversion?
 Bottom Line
 User Comments

Hard Disk Style: MBR and GPT

In general, MBR and GPT are two types of disk
styles. As you know, before you first use a new hard
drive, Windows will prompt a message saying "You
must initialize a disk before Logical Disk Manager
can access it" to tell you to initialize this disk with
Windows built-in Disk Management.

If you plug an SSD, an external hard drive or other

data storage device to your computer for the first
time, you should choose to initialize this device to
MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID Partition
Table).
Usually, the default setting of Windows is to initialize
to MBR and most of you straightly click "OK" to
perform this initialization without choosing GPT.

Furthermore, after a period of time, you will find this

partition style you have selected for your SSD or
other storage devices is unable to meet some needs,
and you have to change your disk to GPT.

Tip: Do you want to convert the disk between MBR

and GPT without data loss? The third-party tool -
MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition is a good
choice. Download it to have a try on your data disk.

Here you probably are wondering: what is the

difference between MBR and GPT disk? Which one
should you use for your SSD, MBR or GPT? Please
keep reading to get the answers.
MBR VS GPT

MBR Layout VS GPT Layout

MBR is the abbreviation of Master Boot Record which

is an old standard to manage the partitions in a hard
disk. And nowadays this disk style is extensively
used by many of you. MBR refers to a specific boot
sector at the very beginning of the hard disk and it
holds some information on how the partitions are
organized in a hard disk.

Generally speaking, MBR is made up of three parts,

including executable code called the Master Boot
Code, the partition table for the disk and the disk
signature.

Moreover, the boot code can be used to scan the

partition table for the active partition, find the
starting sector of the active partition, load a copy of
the boot sector from the active partition into
memory and transfer control to the executable code
in the boot sector.

In one word, it can load up the OS boot code or

procedure from the active partition. Here is a picture
of the MBR disk layout:
GPT is short for GUID Partition Table which is
another disk type and it is the latest standard for
the layout of the partition table of a hard disk.
What’s more, GPT uses globally unique identifiers
(GUID) to define the partition.

As a part of the UEFI standard, it is used to replace

MBR which uses 32 bits to store logical block
addresses (LBA) and size information on a
traditional 512-byte disk sector. GPT adopts primary
and backup partition structures which respectively
locate at the beginning and the end of the disk to
provide redundancy.

Like traditional MBR, GPT also uses logical block

address (LBA) rather than relative sectors to identify
these structures. At the very beginning of GPT
partition table, there is Protective MBRwhich is
used to prevent disk tools not supporting GPT disks
from identifying the disk by mistake and damaging
the disk data. Here is a figure of GPT disk layout
below:
Want to know more information about MBR and GPT
disk in layout? Read Basic Disks and Volumes
Physical Structure now.

The Difference between MBR and GPT

After learning so much information about GPT VS

MBR for SSD in layout, now let’s make a comparison
for them in detail. When comparing MBR disk and
GPT disk, you can clearly get four evident
differences. Just read on.

① Partition Number
MBR: From the structure of Master Boot Record,
you can know it contains a 64-byte partition table
which is made up of four partition table entries and
each one needs 16 bytes. Therefore, for an MBR
disk, you are allowed to create four primary
partitions.

In order to create more partitions, it is OK to change

the fourth partition as an extended partition, and
then many logical drives can be created. Here
Microsoft supports the sub-partitions can be up to
128.

In other words, MBR disk supports up to four

primary partitions or three primary partitions plus
extended partition with up to 128 logical drives.
GPT: For a GPT disk, the partition table header
defines the usable blocks on the disk and the
number & size of the partition entries that make up
the partition table.

EFI requires that the partition table should be a

minimum of 16,384 bytes reserved, namely there
are 128 partition entries and each is 128 bytes. In
brief, you can create up to 128 primary partitions on
a GPT disk.

② Disk Size

In addition to MBR VS GPT in partition number,

there is an obvious difference in disk size. For a hard
drive of which sector is 512 bytes, the partition table
of MBR limits the maximum addressable storage
space to 2TB.

That is to say, MBR disk only supports up to 2TB in

capacity. If your disk is larger than 2TB, you will find
the rest disk space becomes "unallocated" in Disk
Management.
Unlike MBR, GUID Partition Table allocates 64 bits
for logical block addresses, hence a maximum disk
size of 264 sectors is a possibility. For a hard disk
with 512-byte sector, it is equivalent to 9.44 ZB (1
ZB is 1 billion terabytes) or 8 ZiB. All in all, GPT disk
supports up to 18EB in capacity.

③ MBR VS GPT in Security

Besides, there is another difference in security

between MBR and GPT. When observing the disk
layout of MBR and GPT, you will find there is primary
GUID partition table header at the beginning of the
hard disk and backup GUID partition table header at
the end of the disk.

Importantly, it also contains a CRC32 checksum for

itself and for the partition table. With the checksum,
the firmware, bootloader or operating system on
boot can verify whether there is something wrong
with the partition table. Once errors are detected on
primary GPT, it is allowed to recover the whole
partition table from the backup GUID partition
header.

This is an outstanding advantage of GPT, whereas

MBR doesn’t have such a feature. Once the partition
table is corrupted, the MBR disk is unusable. In this
aspect, GPT has higher security than MBR disk.
④ OS Support

The above content mentioned MBR VS GUID

Partition Table in three aspects, moreover, you also
need to pay attention to the supported operating
system and BIOS. Generally speaking, legacy BIOS
only supports MBR, but UEFI supports MBR and GPT.

When comparing MBR and GPT in OS support, you

should know all operating systems can be installed
on MBR disk, namely MBR supports all versions of all
OSs. However, on the contrary, not all Windows
systems supports GUID Partition Table.

OS Support on GPT
1.Windows Vista 32-bit and XP 32-bit, and the
early operating systems including Windows 2000,
Windows MS-DOS/NT, Windows 95/98 can’t
support reading, writing and booting from GPT
disk. 2. In Windows XP 64-bit, GPT disk can be
used for data storage instead of system
installation.
2.All versions of Windows Vista/XP/7/8/8.1/10,
Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016 can use
GPT disk to save data to. But only 64-bit editions
on UEFI-based systems can be used as system
disks.
3.Linux and Mac OS X10.6+ support GPT disk for
data storage and OS boot requires UEFI BIOS.
Click to tweet
MBR VS GPT for SSD: Which
One Is Better
After learning the difference between MBR and GPT,
then you may want to know: MBR VS GPT
performance, which one is better for SSD?

In conclusion, in our opinion, GPT is better. If you

want to create more than 4 primary partitions on
your SSD, or the SSD is large than 2TB, or UEFI
boot is supported on your computer or you seek for
security, please use a GPT disk.

But GPT is not always the right choice. If it cannot

meet certain requirements, you can only use MBR:
your motherboard doesn't support UEFI boot, or you
still use an old Windows OS, or you install 32-bit
Windows 7 to an SSD.

In a word, choose one according to your actual need

for better performance.

Hot article: MBR vs. GPT Guide: What's The

Difference and Which One Is Better
MBR VS GPT SSD, Make a
Conversion?
To get the best performance, you may need to
convert your disk to MBR or GPT. How to initialize
disk MBR or GPT without losing data? Actually, it is
very simple to achieve this aim with a professional
partition manager.

Here MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition is worthy

of being recommended since it provides many
reliable features to manage your disk and partitions
in Windows 7/8/10, especially convert the disk style
between MBR and GPT. Before you do, please
download MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition, and
then install it to your computer for a try.

Note: The Free Edition can only be used to convert

data disk to MBR/GPT. If you want to convert OS
disk to GPT/MBR, you need to purchase MiniTool
Partition Wizard Professional Edition. Click to learn
more edition comparison.
Free DownloadBuy Now
Importance:

If you want to deal with the system disk, do the

followings in advance in case of any accidents after
the conversion.

1.Create a bootable disc or USB drive with

MiniTool Partition Wizard.
2.Back up the whole system disk.
Here we take Professional Edition as an
example.

Convert GPT to MBR

As you know, not all operating systems can be

installed on a GPT disk, just as the above content
mentioned.

If there is already an OS on your computer, and you

want to install a second OS, for example, Windows 7
32-bit on a GPT disk, you will fail to do this work
with "Windows cannot be installed to this disk.
The selected disk is of the GPT partition style" error.

In this case, you need to convert this hard drive to

MBR from GPT. How to do this work? Follow the
guide.

Step 1: Launch this software to its main interface.

Then choose the GPT disk, and then select "Convert
GPT Disk to MBR Disk" function.
Warning: For OS disk, MiniTool Partition Wizard will
remind you that converting system disk may cause
your system to be unbootable. Please note that
before you do, you should ensure your motherboard
supports this conversion. After finishing this
conversion, please change BIOS setting.
Step 2: Finally click the "Apply" button to execute
this conversion. Then the early OS can be installed
on your disk.
Perhaps some of you don’t want to use a third-party
partition manager to convert to MBR disk and you
run Windows Disk Management. However, for data
disk, it is possible to be not workingunless
deleting all volumes. Otherwise, "Convert to MBR
Disk" is greyed out.

Moreover, this free tool can’t be used to convert OS

disk. Therefore, in order to avoid data loss, MiniTool
Partition Wizard should be a good choice.

Convert MBR to GPT

To create more partitions, make full use of your disk

more than 2TB or solve "Windows cannot be
installed on this disk. The selected disk has an MBR
partition table. On EFI systems, Windows can only
be installed on GPT disks" error message, you need
to convert MBR to GPT disk for the better
performance. MiniTool Partition Wizard also offers a
feature to initialize MBR to GPT disk without losing
data.
Free DownloadBuy Now
Step 1: Click the MBR disk, and then select
"Convert MBR Disk to GPT Disk" in the action
pane.
Note: Before converting OS disk from MBR to GPT,
please ensure your motherboard supports this
conversion. Then, MiniTool Partition Wizard will tell
you "To boot from the GPT disk, please enable UEFI
Boot Mode from BIOS after you apply the change".
Just do like this software shows.

Step 2: Hit "Apply" to execute this change. After

finishing this conversion, you can create up to 128
partitions on your SSD or make full use of the disk
space on a 2TB+ disk.
Bottom Line
Now, all the information about MBR VS GPT is told to
you. And you clearly know the difference between
MBR and GPT, GPT VS MBR for SSD: which one is
better and how to initialize disk MBR or GPT without
losing data with MiniTool Partition Wizard.