SSD on Master Boot Record or Guid Partition Table.

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Chris9937

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Dec 6, 2015
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Apologies if this has already been answered before, but I could't find anything quite like this to help me out.

Basically I've got an Asus z97 pro motherboard, that supports UEFI, and decided to upgrade my pc with a Samsung Evo 850 250GB. As I want my Operating system running from this. However, my concern is, would I benefit more with the GPT over MRB, when intialising the disk in "disk manager", if I my board supports UEFI? Or does it not really matter which one I choose because it isn't over 2TB?

Cheers in advance. Really appreciate some sound advice :)
 
Solution
drtweak
lol a little wrong.

UEFI is only needed when BOOTING from a GPT disk which is also only really needed if you need Secure boot or to boot off of something larger than 2TB since anything larger than 2TB requires GPT.

So if you are in legacy, a 240GB SSD fromated as MBR, and you have a 4TB data drive you still format it as GPT.

The only real restruction to GPT is that XP and below are unable to use GPT disk. Only Vista and up can use and access GPT disk.
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drtweak

drtweak

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Sep 17, 2012
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Honestly the only REAL difference between UEFI/GPT and MBR is Secure boot which your motherboard has to support. This prevent Virus from changing the boot code and if a device is NOT a secure boot device the PC can't boot from it.

But unless you plan on booting from a driver that is LARGER than 2TB using GPT or MBR doesn't really matter. If you boot your media as a UEFI drive though when you install windows it WILL install it as a UEFI windows. If it is MBR boot it will install as MBR. You know this when you go to the boot menu. It will seperate legacy and UEFI boots. You want legacy if you want MBR
 
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Chris9937

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Dec 6, 2015
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Ahhh right. So MBR is legacy mode then? Well, I've just checked my Bios mode and atm it is in legacy mode. So I'm assuming things are all in MBR currently.. Is this okay for an Asus z97 pro? Maybe I should change/update it to UEFI mode since that's what it supports and not bios. Or would that be too much faffing about since I'd probably have to reinstall everything? (windows and programs etc..) Sorry about this, I did custom build my pc over a year ago but didn't really pay attention to what my bios mode was. Oh dear, I am a silly goose :/

p.s. Hopefully I'm understanding this and am not overcomplicating things :')
 
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drtweak

drtweak

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If you want to reinstall and do UEFI be by guest but there isn't any real difference honestly. unless you need secure boot or the way Windows 8/10 OEM recovery for people like Dell, HP, etc then they all use UEFI. Yea you can go back to legacy and MBR but have to reinstall and you lose the factory recovery options.
 
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Chris9937

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Dec 6, 2015
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Fair one then :) I'll just initialise my SSD disk now as MBR. But just to be clear (and for those who wish to use this as a reference, in the future, if they wish) my bios mode is all ready set to "Legacy". Meaning that any other hard drive that I currently have (right now) MUST all ready be set to "Master Boot Record" (MBR) and not Guid Partition Table (GPT)? As that would require me all ready being in UEFI, and not legacy, in order to use GPT in the first place; correct me if I'm wrong.
 
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drtweak

drtweak

Illustrious
Sep 17, 2012
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38,640
lol a little wrong.

UEFI is only needed when BOOTING from a GPT disk which is also only really needed if you need Secure boot or to boot off of something larger than 2TB since anything larger than 2TB requires GPT.

So if you are in legacy, a 240GB SSD fromated as MBR, and you have a 4TB data drive you still format it as GPT.

The only real restruction to GPT is that XP and below are unable to use GPT disk. Only Vista and up can use and access GPT disk.
 
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Solution
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Chris9937

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Dec 6, 2015
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4,510
Thank you for taking your time to respond btw. I appreciate it.

So I can have MBR and GPT together by the sounds of things. As long as I keep my boot drive on something under 2TB, and nothing under vista, I have nothing to fear. So say I have a 4TB (for storage) with a 240GB SSD (to boot from) and a 1tb (more storage) hard drive. I can keep in legacy mode and set the 4TB to GPT without needing to switch to UEFI mode. haha got it!

P.s. Choosing UEFI over leagcy sounds really pointless the way you're telling it. You only need it if you're super paranoid about people lol.
 
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