what hard disk format to use for both mac and windows

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, in turn, replaces the clunky old MBR partitioning system with something more modern. It’s associated with UEFI, which replaces the clunky old BIOS with something more modern.

It’s a new standard that’s gradually replacing MBR. NTFS: What's the Difference? GPT’s Advantages This is a silly little hack and shouldn’t be necessary.

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. For starters, MBR only works with disks up to 2 TB in size. If you have Linux installed, the GRUB boot loader will typically be located in the MBR. 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. The boot loader is a small bit of code that generally loads the larger boot loader from another partition on a drive. This sector contains a boot loader for the installed operating system and information about the drive’s logical partitions.

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. RELATED: What Is the System Reserved Partition and Can You Delete It? MBR’s Limitations This is why you have to choose MBR or GPT before creating partitions on a drive. This information includes where partitions begin and end on the physical disk, so your operating system knows which sectors belong to each partition and which partition is bootable. MBR (Master Boot Record) and GPT (GUID Partition Table) are two different ways of storing the partitioning information on a drive. You have to partition a disk drive before you can use it.

What hard disk format to use for both mac and windows