6 replies to this topic

[AimLXJ]

So my HDD came in today and it's going to be used under Windows 7 64-bit and RAID0 for just storing games(not a boot drive), so which is better, GPT or MSDOS? GPT seems more reliable and has more advantages than MSDOS, so GPT seems better; therefore, am I missing anything from MSDOS or is GPT good to go? I do know that 32-bit Windows cannot utilize GPT drives.

[The_Decryptor]

If it can boot off GPT, use GPT, otherwise use the old partition scheme

[AimLXJ]

The_Decryptor, on 12 December 2012 - 04:01, said:

If it can boot off GPT, use GPT, otherwise use the old partition scheme

My motherboard can't boot GPT so I'm planning to only use the drive to hold games. Any reason why I should use MSDOS over GPT?

[xorangekiller]

A GPT partition table has many advantages over a MBR, so long as your operating system supports it. It is only a necessity, however, if you need a partition larger than 2 TB. Besides the partition size limitation, the only other thing you need to consider is comaptibility: you must have 64-bit Windows Vista or newer to read the partitions on the disk.

Check out Petri's GPT vs MBR Disk Comparison article. It is very well written and goes into much more detail than I can.

[AimLXJ]

xorangekiller, on 12 December 2012 - 04:15, said:

A GPT partition table has many advantages over a MBR, so long as your operating system supports it. It is only a necessity, however, if you need a partition larger than 2 TB. Besides the partition size limitation, the only other thing you need to consider is comaptibility: you must have 64-bit Windows Vista or newer to read the partitions on the disk.

Check out Petri's GPT vs MBR Disk Comparison article. It is very well written and goes into much more detail than I can.

Gotcha, I made the drive GPT since I know that I won't boot from a drive that only hold games, plus I can always convert it back with GParted

[xorangekiller]

AimLXJ, on 12 December 2012 - 12:56, said:

Gotcha, I made the drive GPT since I know that I won't boot from a drive that only hold games, plus I can always convert it back with GParted

You can convert it to MBR using GParted, but not without losing data. Your partitions and everything else on the drive will be wiped when you convert it from GPT to MBR or visa-versa.

[LogicalApex]

AimLXJ, on 12 December 2012 - 03:44, said:

So my HDD came in today and it's going to be used under Windows 7 64-bit and RAID0 for just storing games(not a boot drive), so which is better, GPT or MSDOS? GPT seems more reliable and has more advantages than MSDOS, so GPT seems better; therefore, am I missing anything from MSDOS or is GPT good to go? I do know that 32-bit Windows cannot utilize GPT drives.

Windows 32bit can't boot off a GPT volume, but it can see and use GPT storage drives connected to it. In the case you described, as a storage drive, I would just do GPT and call it a day.