Question

Explain the purpose of the Master Boot Record (MBR) as it relates to providing an OS with information about existing partitions. Emphasize that because the MBR is limited to devices that are less than 2TB in size, newer devices and devices larger than 2TB use a GUID Partition Table (GPT) instead of an MBR.

Answer 1

The master boot record is a boot field category and the very first industry to be contained in computer mass storage media, such as fixed discs and removable computer drives. Details on loading the operating system and also on the partition of the hard disc is given by the master boot record. The programmes in the master boot record help to decide which partition during booting needs to be used. The master boot record is absent on non-partitioned computers designed in such a way, such as mega floppies, floppies or other computers.There are the following characteristics of a master boot record: It is often stored in the first sector of the hard disc. Cylinder 0, Head 0, Sector 1 is the hard disc 's unique address of the master boot record. It contains information about the partition organisation and about the file system. Generally, 512 bytes or more is a master boot record. Users can build a master boot record for DOS and Windows systems by using the FDISK or MBR commands. The master boot record is capable of running outside of the operating system as a chain boot loader. The master partition table, master boot code and disc signature are the three key components of the master boot record. In Windows 7 and Windows Vista, a damaged master boot record can be restored using the 'bootrec' command that is included in Device Recovery Options. The command to be used for restoring Windows XP is "fixmbr". The GUID partition table is one of the new alternatives to the master boot record.It is a part of the specification for the single extensible firmware interface.

GPT requires an infinite number of partitions, while MBR only requires 4 partitions.
GPT requires a partition to have an infinite capacity, while MBR requires just 2 TB.
GPT stores a copy of partition data enabling recovery in the event of corruption in the primary GPT header; MBR stores only one copy of partition data in the first hard drive block, making the drive unavailable in the event of partition data damage.
To keep checking if the data on the drive is still intact and to do the necessary fixes from other parts of the disc in case of loss, GPT stores cyclic redundancy check values; MBR has no means of telling if the data on the drive is still intact, you can only figure out when the machine fails to boot or when partitions vanish.

With either MBR or GPT, one can be relaxed. But given the advantages, as listed earlier, GPT has over MBR, and the fact that modern computers are transitioning to it, you might consider using GPT. You'll have to stick to MBR if your goal is to help older systems or if you want to boot a device that uses the standard BIOS.