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→An Overview of MBR and GPT Partitions Styles
== An Overview of MBR and GPT Partitions Styles ==
Before a disk can be used to store data it must first have partitions created on it. These partitions are then formated with a particular file system (FAT, FAT32, NTFS) and used either as a basic disk or as dynamic disk). ObviosulyObviously, the operating system needs some mechanism for organize organizing and manage managing these disk partitions and Windows Server 2008 provides two such partitioning styles known as Master Boot Record (MBR) or GUID Partition Table (GPT).
The MBR style was originally developed for x86-based computer systems is by far the most common style in use at present. GPT, on the other hand was originally developed for 64-bit Itanium based systems. With the arrival of Windows Server 2008 both x86 32-bit and 64-bit systems support MBR and GPT partition styles. It is important that 32-bit systems can only boots from MBR disk partitions and 64-bit systems can only boot from GPT partitions.
