Benefits of GPT vs MBR Primary and MBR Logical Partitions ?

What kind of software is this that worries about your partition type? Partitioning software? If you aren't using paid software then refresh your software collection.

Also, "UEFI BIOS" is better expressed as "UEFI firmware".

It's not an economically justifiable shift, from MBR to GPT, right now, but you'll want to consider just how many different implementation quirks have been shoved into a "specification" for MBR to work. It's stable and working to the extent it is because of a large number of workarounds implemented in every little low level program that accesses disks. Not robust by design.

Why would you want to use MBR for the sole purpose of using an old tool? What if I told you 1 bit unexpected corruption could potentially cause your entire partition to become useless? Does MBR still seem like a great default system?

It's the equivalent of your surgeon being a decrepit old man/woman with shaking hands and stinking white(?) coat. Sure xe may be more familiar. But do you think xe's reliable? No problems till you need a surgery, but what might happen during one?

Like I said, it's not something you can justify for an audit. It just vastly decreases the probability of ambiguity when modifying partition tables.

In my opinion it can be dangerous for a Partition Manager to modify the partitions of the drive that holds the live Windows C:\ partition which it is running under.
Safer to use a Boot CD.

Question :-
Is it safer to use a Boot CD from a third party that has :-
a newly developed (i.e. Beta release) GPT capability on a drive with an allegedly "less ambiguous" Fake MBR plus GPT partitions;
or well established and finely honed capability on a drive with MBR partitions ?

There are tools that can make and restore image backups of "Track Zero",
which I believe holds the MBR and the primary and extended partition tables,
so hopefully it is possible to promptly correct any sort of disaster when altering MBR partitions.

Is it possible to promptly correct any sort of disaster when altering GPT partitions ?

Regards
Alan

It's not "beta" at all. It's been around for about ten years now and defined before 2000s.

What do you have against the "fake" MBR? It's a partition covering the entire interior of the disk, and ANY TOOL that does not understand GPT will refuse to work with it. 0xEE is unknown for all pure-MBR tools. It's not fake except in a VERY narrow sense.

Besides, I have had serious problems on computers of 2009-10 with MBR partitions with tools like diskpart AND gparted. Five partitions had been created somehow, and I have no idea which other partition got sacrificed. No more "finely-tuned" than GPT tools. Other than that, witness the steady stream of problems people have even today with partitioning : a direct consequence of how badly MBR was designed and how precariously it has been made to work today.

Again, Track 0 DOES NOT hold EBR and logical partition table. They start from the beginning of the Extended Partition and CHAIN each logical partition to the next in LINKED-LIST style. So no, Track 0 backup CANNOT restore any of your logical partitions.

Yes you CAN take Backups of GPT. It's just as simple as that of MBR, take 1st 34 sectors backup. One such backup is stored at the end of the disk, COMPULSORILY. Only thing to be careful about is to not use sector by sector copies of GPT disks, the partition GUIDs must be set to zero.

"Beta Release" refers to the first generation/issue/release of a Partition MANAGER.
I was not applying the term "Beta Release" to the definition of GPT Partitions.


I have nothing against the "Fake MBR" other than it is an extra detail to understand.
Please note that I was not being derogatory by calling it a "Fake MBR",
I was just using the term which I once saw in a technical article.


You might have experienced a loss of an MBR partition when using Diskpart and Gparted.

I have lost ALL GPT PARTITIONS on a complete W.D.C. drive due to Windows 7 incompatibility with GPT drives connected via SATA.

Microsoft have published a "USER BEWARE AND DEAL WITH IT" type a KB????,
warning that they are NOT going to deal with their own stupid mistakes.
When physical drives are connected via SATA,
Windows Disk Management allocates drive numbers from 0 to (number of physical drives-1)
in "order of enumeration", and NOT in a sensible fixed basis of physical port numbers etc.

The consequence is that my physical drives are numbered after a cold start-up as
W.D.C. GPT HDD = 0
Samsung MBR HDD = 1
OCZ MBR SSD = 2
That numbering is changed by a RESTART when Windows starts up and finds the HDD's are running at speed.

Windows is full of race hazards.
I guess that when I did a cold start-up and BRIEFLY examined a BIOS setting before allowing the boot-up to continue into Windows,
the drives were at partial speed and as a result of some race hazard,
Windows REPLACED the W.D.C. GUID with an exact duplicate of the Samsung 8_Hex_Digit Disk Identity,
and then complained about having two disks with the same Identity,
and then put the Samsung OFFLINE.

The W.D.C. GPT Disk was seen as MBR style with a couple of RAW partitions and everything else was alleged to be "Unalllocated Space".

I was able to put the W.D.C. OFFLINE and then make the Samsung ONLINE and the Samsung has not lost any data.
There seems to be no way that I can replace the incorrect 8_Hex_Digit Disk Identity with an appropriate GUID,
and no partition manager is able to deal with this horrendous situation because Windows insists it is an MBR drive.

Freeware LAZESOFT has rescued all the files that were ever on the W.D.C. when it had been seen as a GPT style.
Unfortunately this also includes files which I had recently deleted but which had NOT been over-written with more recent files.
Lazesoft Recovery Suite Home Free Download

LAZESOFT has also shown there seem to be 3 MByte partitions between the partitions that I knew were on the drive before the catastrophe.
I had assumed that each of these 3 MB partitions held another link in the link-list of GPT partitions.
Whatever they are - they are another mystery.

Summary of my experience :-
MBR partitions all immune to catastrophic disaster,
GPT partitions very susceptible and NOT easily repairable.

My decision :-
Never again have a mixture of GPT and MBR drives connected via SATA.

Regards
Alan