GPT Partition Table on Windows 7?

Hi everyone,


Did I understand that right?

MBR is the standard Partition Table for Windows and only can be used for
the Hard disks WITH Windows on it.

However the GUID Partition Table (GPT) be used ONLY for additional Hard
disks under Windows?

I THINK only MACs and Linux can be installed on a GUID Partition Table
(GPT) System.


I`m curious,
John

Turtle:
Windows can't be intalled on a GPT partition:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device...e/GPT_FAQ.mspx
The article is rather old but it still applies.
However, if you have an EFI based system, the answer is yes, you can do it.
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device...e/GPT_FAQ.mspx
Carlos

"Turtle" wrote:

>
>
> Hi everyone,
>
>
> Did I understand that right?
>
> MBR is the standard Partition Table for Windows and only can be used for
> the Hard disks WITH Windows on it.
>
> However the GUID Partition Table (GPT) be used ONLY for additional Hard
> disks under Windows?
>
> I THINK only MACs and Linux can be installed on a GUID Partition Table
> (GPT) System.
>
>
> I`m curious,
> John
> .
>

Turtle wrote:

> Did I understand that right?
>
> MBR is the standard Partition Table for Windows and only can be used
> for the Hard disks WITH Windows on it.

MBR is the most commonly used partitioning scheme. It is not restricted
to Windows.

The biggest drawback of MBR is that it can't handle partitions over 2TB.

This is where GPT comes in. It's the "new boy" and has been designed to
avoid the restrictions of MBR.

> However the GUID Partition Table (GPT) be used ONLY for additional
> Hard disks under Windows?
>
> I THINK only MACs and Linux can be installed on a GUID Partition
> Table (GPT) System.

Nope. Windows can be installed and boot from a GPT disk.

Note that some versions of Windows have limited GPT support (XP Home
and lower).

--
Steve Foster
For SSL Certificates, Domains, etc, visit.:
https://netshop.virtual-isp.net

>> I THINK only MACs and Linux can be installed on a GUID Partition
>> Table (GPT) System.
>
> Nope. Windows can be installed and boot from a GPT disk.

GPT booting requires any x64 version of Windows Vista or 7.

Lynn

Lynn McGuire wrote:

> > > I THINK only MACs and Linux can be installed on a GUID Partition
> > > Table (GPT) System.
> >
> > Nope. Windows can be installed and boot from a GPT disk.
>
> GPT booting requires any x64 version of Windows Vista or 7.

x64 is not required.

I thought I'd typed in the caveat, but that hasn't shown up, so I must
have managed to send the post without it.

The caveat for booting from GPT is that the PC must be EFI-based.


--
Steve Foster
For SSL Certificates, Domains, etc, visit.:
https://netshop.virtual-isp.net

Steve Foster wrote:
> Lynn McGuire wrote:
>
>>>> I THINK only MACs and Linux can be installed on a GUID Partition
>>>> Table (GPT) System.
>>> Nope. Windows can be installed and boot from a GPT disk.
>> GPT booting requires any x64 version of Windows Vista or 7.
>
> x64 is not required.
>
> I thought I'd typed in the caveat, but that hasn't shown up, so I must
> have managed to send the post without it.
>
> The caveat for booting from GPT is that the PC must be EFI-based.

32-bit Windows cannot boot on GPT disks.

John

John John - MVP wrote:

> Steve Foster wrote:
> > Lynn McGuire wrote:
> >
> > > > > I THINK only MACs and Linux can be installed on a GUID
> > > > > Partition Table (GPT) System.
> > > > Nope. Windows can be installed and boot from a GPT disk.
> > > GPT booting requires any x64 version of Windows Vista or 7.
> >
> > x64 is not required.
> >
> > I thought I'd typed in the caveat, but that hasn't shown up, so I
> > must have managed to send the post without it.
> >
> > The caveat for booting from GPT is that the PC must be EFI-based.
>
> 32-bit Windows cannot boot on GPT disks.

Well, the GPT FAQ already linked to says otherwise.

I did search for a more definitive answer, and failed to find one,
though I did find lots of tales of woe related to GPT in general.

--
Steve Foster
For SSL Certificates, Domains, etc, visit.:
https://netshop.virtual-isp.net

Steve Foster wrote:
> John John - MVP wrote:
>
>> Steve Foster wrote:
>>> Lynn McGuire wrote:
>>>
>>>>>> I THINK only MACs and Linux can be installed on a GUID
>>>>>> Partition Table (GPT) System.
>>>>> Nope. Windows can be installed and boot from a GPT disk.
>>>> GPT booting requires any x64 version of Windows Vista or 7.
>>> x64 is not required.
>>>
>>> I thought I'd typed in the caveat, but that hasn't shown up, so I
>>> must have managed to send the post without it.
>>>
>>> The caveat for booting from GPT is that the PC must be EFI-based.
>> 32-bit Windows cannot boot on GPT disks.
>
> Well, the GPT FAQ already linked to says otherwise.

No, it doesn't. It says that only the 64-bit version of Windows XP can
read and write to GPT disks and it says that the 32-bit version of
Server 2003 can also read and write to GPT disks. Other than that it
says that only the Itanium versions of these operating systems can
*boot* off GPT disks. Reading and writing to disks once the operating
system is booted is not the same as booting off the disk.


> I did search for a more definitive answer, and failed to find one,
> though I did find lots of tales of woe related to GPT in general.

Booting on GPT disks is done via EFI (aka UEFI) and in view of the
inevitable displacement of 32-bit with 64-bit Microsoft had decided long
ago not to provide EFI support for its 32-bit operating systems, they
make mention of this here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930061

John

John John - MVP wrote:

>
> Steve Foster wrote:
> >
> > Well, the GPT FAQ already linked to says otherwise.
>
> No, it doesn't. It says that only the 64-bit version of Windows XP
> can read and write to GPT disks and it says that the 32-bit version
> of Server 2003 can also read and write to GPT disks. Other than that
> it says that only the Itanium versions of these operating systems can
> boot off GPT disks. Reading and writing to disks once the operating
> system is booted is not the same as booting off the disk.

I'm presuming that the focus of the discussion is Vista/7, rather than
XP (which is after all, almost 10 years old, and 2 versions out of
date).

Anyway, FAQ #16:

"16. Can Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 read, write, and boot
from GPT disks?
Yes, all versions can use GPT partitioned disks for data. Booting is
only supported for EFI-based systems."

Which implies that a combination of an EFI PC + Vista/7 x32 ought to be
able to boot from a GPT disk.

> > I did search for a more definitive answer, and failed to find one,
> > though I did find lots of tales of woe related to GPT in general.
>
> Booting on GPT disks is done via EFI (aka UEFI) and in view of the
> inevitable displacement of 32-bit with 64-bit Microsoft had decided
> long ago not to provide EFI support for its 32-bit operating systems,
> they make mention of this here:
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930061

Oh my, that does look a mess.

--
Steve Foster
For SSL Certificates, Domains, etc, visit.:
https://netshop.virtual-isp.net

On 8/7/2010 9:22 PM, Steve Foster wrote:
> John John - MVP wrote:
>
>>
>> Steve Foster wrote:
>>>
>>> Well, the GPT FAQ already linked to says otherwise.
>>
>> No, it doesn't. It says that only the 64-bit version of Windows XP
>> can read and write to GPT disks and it says that the 32-bit version
>> of Server 2003 can also read and write to GPT disks. Other than that
>> it says that only the Itanium versions of these operating systems can
>> boot off GPT disks. Reading and writing to disks once the operating
>> system is booted is not the same as booting off the disk.
>
> I'm presuming that the focus of the discussion is Vista/7, rather than
> XP (which is after all, almost 10 years old, and 2 versions out of
> date).

Well, the name of this group is microsoft.public.windows.64bit.general...



> Anyway, FAQ #16:
>
> "16. Can Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 read, write, and boot
> from GPT disks?
> Yes, all versions can use GPT partitioned disks for data. Booting is
> only supported for EFI-based systems."
>
> Which implies that a combination of an EFI PC + Vista/7 x32 ought to be
> able to boot from a GPT disk.

NO! Microsoft's offering of 32-bit operating systems *CANNOT* boot EFI!

Quotes and links:

Installing Windows to an EFI-Based Computer
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/l...64(WS.10).aspx

"If you are installing Windows to an EFI-based computer, you must enable
EFI mode in the computer's firmware. You must enable EFI mode in both
attended and unattended installations. You must boot to 64-bit EFI-mode
preinstallation media (64-bit Windows PE in EFI mode, or 64-bit Windows
Setup in EFI mode). You cannot install Windows to UEFI-based computers
in BIOS mode."

(x86 operating systems are BIOS-based operating systems)



You cannot install or start Windows Vista when the volume of the system
partition is larger than 2 terabytes
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946557

This issue occurs for one of the following reasons: [...]

You configure the GUID partition table (GPT) disk as the boot partition.

"When you start an operating system from a GPT disk, the Extended
Firmware Interface (EFI)-based BIOS is required. However, the EFI-based
BIOS is not supported in Windows Vista 32-bit editions. Additionally, it
is not supported in Windows Vista 64-bit editions unless you install
Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)."



In this Microsoft PowerPoint presentation you can read:

- 32-bit UEFI support is currently not part of our long term client and
server roadmaps

- 32-bit systems must boot Windows via BIOS

In the same presentation you can see a chart clearly indicating that
none of the 32-bit Windows can boot EFI.

Inside the Windows Pre-Boot and Boot Environment [WinHEC 2006 ...]
PowerPoint file:
http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...pa051_wh06.ppt

Same as above online (no ppt viewer required)
http://www.scribd.com/doc/31814277/CPA051-WH06



More links telling you that 32-bit Windows does not support EFI:

UEFI Support and Requirements for Windows Operating Systems
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...e/uefireg.mspx

Installing Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 on UEFI Systems
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...uefiguide.mspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Pa...2-bit_versions

John