MBR VS GPT, which one is better for your computer?

MBR VS GPT, which one is better for your computer? How to choose partition table style while installing Windows 10? This post will explain the difference between MBR and GPT and tell how to choose partition table.

MBR Partition Scheme

MBR partition table scheme saves partition information on the first sector of disk. The entry for each partition is 16 bytes and the total is 64bytes, thus the maximum entries MBR partition table can save is four. That is to say MBR partitioning can have up to 4 partitions. But many users are not satisfied with 4 partitions and want to create more partitions. To eliminate this limitation, extended partition is introduced. Users can create multiples logical partitions in an extended partition. The following picture shows MBR partition scheme. 

GPT Partition Scheme

Compared with MBR, GPT is relatively new partitioning scheme. If your computer is brand new and it is likely to use GPT partitioning scheme. GPT is much more complicated and this part will dig a little about it. If you are not into technical details you can skip this part to read its main features.

First, you may notice that this picture uses LBA 0, LBA 1…to represent disk address, which used CHS (Cylinder-Head-Sector) addressing method. LBA (Logical Block Addressing) method is another important method to partition mass storage device such as hard drives and SSDs. LAB 0 means the first sector whose physical number is 0 and LBA represents the second sector whose physical serial number is 1.

How to choose partition plans between MBR & GPT?

This post talks about MBR and GPT partition able and the previous section explains basic information about BIOS and EFI. This part devotes to how to choose partitioning scheme.

BIOS + MBR

If motherboard in your computer is BIOS or UEFI with BIOS mode, MBR partition plan is the correct choice.

UEFI + GPT

Oppositely, if your computer is using UEFI motherboard and enables UEFI mode, then please employ GPT partition scheme.

You might be confused by the conclusion above, as there are many guides online teaching users to install operating system on BIOS+ GPT or UEFI +MBR. My advice is that if you are not technical geek or professional user, you’d better choose BIOS + MBR or UEFI +GPT, as you can benefit:

1. Better performance in hardware and software, faster speed.

2. Avoid many potential issues that may occur to installation or running Windows. Professional users can easily fix these problems, but common users can’t get rid of any system errors easily.

Some users may ask whether it is OK to use Legacy BIOS if the motherboard is UEFI. The advice is that for the consideration of performance and speed do not use Legacy BIOS unless hard drive’s capacity is very small. EFI+GPT takes more disk space (100MB or so) than BIOS+MBR, if 100MB matters much on your hard drive, you can choose Legacy BIOS.

How to convert MBR to GPT without data loss?

Step 1: Launch PartitionGuru from your computer. Select hard drive you want to convert and click “Disk” to select “Convert to GUID Partition Table”.

Step 2: Click “Yes” on the message box. Please note that only new operating system can use GPT disk, for example, 32-bit Windows XP does not support GPT disk. Also, only the EFI-based computer can boot from GPT disk. Thus your computer won’t be able to boot normally if it doesn’t support GPT and you need to reinstall Windows.

Step 3: Click “Save All” button and the conversion takes effect.

Article source: http://www.eassos.com/tutorial/hard-drive/mbr-vs-gpt.php

Important Advice to Avoid Data Loss In Modern Society

Either companies or individuals depend on computers and internet to simplify works, promote products and services, shopping, learning, etc. Personal files or company data is saved on computer or cloud disk, and everything goes virtual since people seldom use papers in office. Virtual working environment improves working efficiency, but it does not have strong immune to data loss or file corruption. Thus protect data from damage or loss is very important task.

File loss such as accidental deletion is one of the challenges to companies, especially small business. Having a good understanding of knowledge and skills about file protection will be helpful to handle data loss related problems. This article lists several tips to helps users or origination to safeguard data.

Backup data regular with different methods

For many people, backup of data means make a copy of data only. Actually, that is not the whole story. Data backup should be an organized job and gain attention. As to company, full backup and incremental backup should be performed on regular basis. What’s more, local backup, remote backup and cloud backup should be considered. There should be trained staff to take the responsibility. Obtaining regular backup can maximize loss when file loss happens.

As to home users, backup will be easy to complete. We can simply make an extra copy of personal files like family photos to another drive and update backup file when new files are created.

Prepare at least one effective data recovery plan

Data protection can be guaranteed by one or more data recovery plans. Some may think data recovery is redundant action since backup have been created. In fact, file recovery plan is a blessing in disguise. Computer and Internet really brings merits to life and working, and it makes everything easy. Current computer technology has come up with effective and usable solution to file loss, say, data recovery programs, related services and machines. With regard to companies, their staff of IT department should be aware of data recovery technology and have contingency plans to handle common data loss issues, such as recover deleted files from emptied Recycle Bin. There is no need to purchase professional machines to recover data, but it’s necessary to have a recovery program at hand.

Make sure storage devices are well maintained

Storage devices are not as strong as you assumed, and they are actually fragile to various damages. Thus it’s correct to follow certain rules to unplug or eject USB drive, handle hard drives gently, etc. Otherwise, hard disk might get damaged and became inaccessible. That’s why some users may get the error message “The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable”.

In short, either common users or organizations should try to avoid data loss issue as much as possible and try all possible methods to protect data.