GPT VS MBR

Legacy (CSM) booting vs UEFI
booting
CSM (Legacy) and UEFI (Universal Extensible
Firmware Interface) are mutually exclusive boot
options you choose within BIOS (Basic Input Output
System). BIOS applies to much more than legacy
(CSM) booting:
Some operating systems (like Windows) even only

support booting MBR disks in BIOS mode and GPT disks
in UEFI mode. Linux systems with e.g. GRUB generally
have no problems with mixing those either way.
 MBR is a disk partitioning scheme used by the old
firmware (BIOS). At the time of it's development, drives
were very small. As drives got larger, the MBR standard
was "patched" to accommodate; however, there are
many limitations. Legacy Boot can not read GPT
partitioning because it is not build into the BIOS. This
limitation only applies to BIOS; see the note below
about bootloaders.
 As EFI was developed, they also developed a new
partitioning scheme (GPT) that makes better use of
large drives. EFI Firmware can read and use MBR
partitioned disks, but usually a factory install will use
the better GPT partitioning.
 Legacy (CSM) and UEFI are different ways to boot from
storage disks (which often take the form of SSD these
days).
 CSM uses an MBR (Master Boot Record) in a specific
format of 512 Bytes to boot the operating system.
 UEFI uses files within a large partition (typically 100
MB) to boot the operating system. Typically they still
require the MBR to be present.
 MBR and GPT are different specifications for disk
partition formatting. You can have UEFI boot on an MBR
formatted disk. You can have MBR boot on a GPT
formatted disk (in non-Windows environments).
Note:
 Some OSs, such as Win10, will require GPT
partitioning for an EFI install even though the
EFI firmware does not require it.
 Although, the EFI standard doesn't require GPT,
specific implementations may. Some computers
will automatically drop to Legacy support mode
if it encounters an MBR disk.
 Some boot loaders, like GRUB, can put a BIOS
Partition (MBR) on a GPT disk. BIOS can read
this partition and load the bootloader. Once the
bootloader is loaded, the bootloader can read
the GPT partitions.
MBR’s Limitations
 MBR was first introduced with IBM PC DOS 2.0 in 1983. It’s called Master Boot
Record because the MBR is a special boot sector located at the beginning of a drive.
This sector contains a boot loader for the installed operating system and information
about the drive’s logical partitions. The boot loader is a small bit of code that generally
loads the larger boot loader from another partition on a drive. If you have Windows
installed, the initial bits of the Windows boot loader reside here—that’s why you may
have to repair your MBR if it’s overwritten and Windows won’t start. If you have Linux
installed, the GRUB boot loader will typically be located in the MBR.
 MBR does have its limitations. For starters, MBR only works with disks up to 2 TB in
size. MBR also only supports up to four primary partitions—if you want more, you have
to make one of your primary partitions an “extended partition” and create logical
partitions inside it. This is a silly little hack and shouldn’t be necessary.
GPT’s Advantages
 GPT stands for GUID Partition Table. It’s a new standard that’s gradually replacing MBR. It’s associated
with UEFI, which replaces the clunky old BIOS with something more modern. GPT, in turn, replaces the clunky
old MBR partitioning system with something more modern. It’s called GUID Partition Table because every
partition on your drive has a “globally unique identifier,” or GUID—a random string so long that every GPT
partition on earth likely has its own unique identifier.
 GPT doesn’t suffer from MBR’s limits. GPT-based drives can be much larger, with size limits dependent on
the operating system and its file systems. GPT also allows for a nearly unlimited number of partitions. Again,
the limit here will be your operating system—Windows allows up to 128 partitions on a GPT drive, and you
don’t have to create an extended partition to make them work.
 On an MBR disk, the partitioning and boot data is stored in one place. If this data is overwritten or
corrupted, you’re in trouble. In contrast, GPT stores multiple copies of this data across the disk, so it’s much
more robust and can recover if the data is corrupted.
 GPT also stores cyclic redundancy check (CRC) values to check that its data is intact. If the data is
corrupted, GPT can notice the problem and attempt to recover the damaged data from another location on
the disk. MBR had no way of knowing if its data was corrupted—you’d only see there was a problem when
the boot process failed or your drive’s partitions vanished.
Compatibility
 GPT drives tend to include a “protective MBR.” This type of MBR says that the GPT drive
has a single partition that extends across the entire drive. If you try to manage a GPT disk
with an old tool that can only read MBRs, it will see a single partition that extends across
the entire drive. This protective MBR ensures the old tools won’t mistake the GPT drive for
an unpartitioned drive and overwrite its GPT data with a new MBR. In other words, the
protective MBR protects the GPT data from being overwritten.
 Windows can only boot from GPT on UEFI-based computers running 64-bit versions of
Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, and corresponding server versions. All versions of Windows 10, 8,
7, and Vista can read GPT drives and use them for data—they just can’t boot from them
without UEFI.
 Other modern operating systems can also use GPT. Linux has built-in support for GPT.
Apple’s Intel Macs no longer use Apple’s APT (Apple Partition Table) scheme and use GPT
instead.
windows OS
Linux OS

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Legacy (CSM) booting vs UEFI

Some operating systems (like Windows) even only

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