New hard drive - should GPT be used

[chiefjim]

3TB drive soon to arrive. From my readings it appears GPT would allow additional partitions to be created and used to help isolate and protect data. Such as read only archives. Installing in legacy mode would ensure compatibility with my other drives that are legacy mode. Am I correct so far?

Curious related side question. One of my older USB hard drive docking stations has a 2TB limitation. Would a 3TB using GPT where all partitions are below 2TB likely be recognized?

[BG405]

For your first question, I am using GPT on ALL newly prepared hard disks & now also create an EFI partition for future use (I only have one machine currently which has UEFI). It doesn't seem to matter whether you are installing in legacy or (U)EFI mode as either can access both partitioning schemes.

As for the size limit on the docking station, I've read of such limitations but am afraid I don't know the reasons for this. It is possible it'll work once partitions have been set up (it's how I used to get round the BIOS 33GB limitation on older machines some years back). So it's worth a try I suppose.

[srq2625]

There is no compatibility issue; having some disks MBR and others GPT --> no issue.

Here are a couple of links that will detail the pros/cons of the MBR/GPT better than I could:

• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whats-di ... ive-tiwari
• https://www.howtogeek.com/193669/whats- ... g-a-drive/
• https://www.techrrival.com/mbr-vs-gpt/

As for your last question .... Yes, all partitions would be recognized on either GPT or MBR.

BTW: two of the articles indicate that your 3T drive won't be fully recognized if MBR is used. MRB will still work on the drive, but (if I read it correctly) not all of that space will be addressable. So, assuming this is true, then the best course would be to use GPT.

[chiefjim]

For your first question, I am using GPT on ALL newly prepared hard disks & now also create an EFI partition for future use (I only have one machine currently which has UEFI). It doesn't seem to matter whether you are installing in legacy or (U)EFI mode as either can access both partitioning schemes.

How would that be done? I found this link from another thread: https://www.linuxliteos.com/forums/tuto ... artitions/

Would adding the EFI partition just be another partition labeled EFI?

[jglen490]

Should GPT be used? The answer in every case I can think of is "yes". When I installed "cousin" Kubuntu 18.04 on my desktop machine, I also installed two new SATA drives - neither of which is over 2TB. During the install, I selected the do something else option and set up each drive using GPT (two separate operations, two physical drives). On the primary drive, I then set up a 500MB partition with a mount point of "/boot/EFI". I then set up the remainder of the first drive with "/" (formatted to ext4), "/home" (formatted to ext4), and SWAP. My understanding is that GPT can be set up with a nearly unlimited number of partitions without worrying about primary, extended, and logical configurations. On the second drive I simply setup one ext4 partition with the remainder of my favorite directory scheme "/home/multimedia". The installer automagically formatted /boot/EFI as fat32, and then during the installation set up the ESP files required for booting Kubuntu into the /boot/EFI partition. That is the way that the UEFI firmware works with GPT and the ESP partition and boot info in /boot/EFI.

I was concerned about how UEFI would work, because I had read all the horror stories about UEFI, most of which didn't come true. Kubuntu just hums along smoothly on my desktop. My laptop, that Linux Mint 19 is not a UEFI machine so I didn't bother with GPT or the ESP partition. The laptop just uses MSDOS partitioning scheme with three primary partitions for "/", "/home", and SWAP.

[chiefjim]

As for the size limit on the docking station, I've read of such limitations but am afraid I don't know the reasons for this. It is possible it'll work once partitions have been set up (it's how I used to get round the BIOS 33GB limitation on older machines some years back). So it's worth a try I suppose.

Was worth the test but confirmed that old docking station limitation of 2TB is legit.

[BG405]

Sorry for late reply but in response to your previous post:

Would adding the EFI partition just be another partition labeled EFI?

Basically, yes. I create a 128MB fat16 partition at the start of the drive. I haven't put anything in this partition except on the UEFI machine but can populate if needed, with the necessary files for UEFI booting. Like I said, it's just for future-proofing in my case.

I wonder if the docking station will recognize a >2TB disk which has been partitioned in another machine, with <=2TB partitions, or is this what you tried?

[chiefjim]

Sorry for late reply but in response to your previous post:

Would adding the EFI partition just be another partition labeled EFI?

I wonder if the docking station will recognize a >2TB disk which has been partitioned in another machine, with <=2TB partitions, or is this what you tried?

Yes, that is what I tried. Evidently the controller on that old docking station has set limits. Being 9 years old I'm actually quite happy it even works. Fortunately newer ones in service with my main system.