Reference Guide

16 Installing Windows Small Business Server
Master Boot Record Scheme
Master boot record (MBR) scheme is a legacy partition scheme that can be
used by most operating systems. The total data storage space of a computer
hard drive is divided into at most four primary partitions.
GUID Partition Table Scheme
GUID partition table (GPT) scheme is a new standard for the layout of the
partition table on a physical hard drive. It is part of the extensible firmware
interface (EFI) standard, which is a replacement for the system BIOS.
Ta b le 1 provides information about the basic level of support provided by
each of these partition schemes.
Table 1. Support Level Provided by Partition Schemes
Support MBR Hard
Drive
GPT Hard
Drive
Support on legacy operating systems like DOS,
Microsoft Windows 98 and so on
Yes No
Support for more than 2 TB hard drive size No Yes
Support as data hard drive in x86 version of operating
systems
Yes Yes
Support as data hard drive in x64 version of operating
systems
Yes Yes
Support as boot hard drive in x86 version of operating
systems
Yes No
Support as boot hard drive in x64 version of operating
systems
Yes Yes
Support for more than four primary partitions No Yes
Booting support through BIOS mode Yes No
Booting support through UEFI mode No Yes
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