The primary downside of GPT is that it is not supported on older operating systems. Also GPT support storage devices up to 9.4 Zettabytes. Using the default configuration, GPT supports up to 128 partitions. There are no primary and extended partitions with GPT. However, GPT has been used on some BIOS systems, primarily due to the disk size limitations of MBR partition tables. The UEFI is replacing the traditional BIOS. It is part of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface or UEFI standard.

The GUID, global unique identifier partition table or GPT for short, is replacing the older MBR partitioning system. This allows you to create an unlimited number of logical partitions. An extended partition is a special kind of primary partition that is used as a container for other partitions. If you want to create more than four partitions, then you'll need to use an extended partition. The MBR partitioning scheme allows for up to four primary partitions. Because the partition table and the MBR can only address storage space up to two terabytes, it is being replaced by the GUID partition table or GPT for short. The partition table that resides in the MBR contains information on how the logical partitions are organized on the disk. The MBR or master boot record is a boot sector at the beginning of a storage device.

If this system hosts a website, for example, the operating system will continue to run as well as the web server, and a service outage will have been avoided. Even though a user or group of users may fill up the storage allocated for home directories and prevent another user from using more space, the operating system and any applications that are running will still be able to function normally. Having a dedicated partition for user home directories, for example, prevents a user from filling up the entire disk and interfering with the normal operation of the operating system. Having separate partitions is one way that prevent one part of the system from adversely affecting another part of the system. Another example scheme would simply be to use two partitions and separate the user's home directories from the rest of the system. For example, you could use four partitions allocating one partition for the operating system data, another partition for the application data, yet another one for the user data, and finally, a partition dedicated a swap space. As a system administrator you can decide what partitioning scheme to use. Partitioning a disk allows you to allocate different sections of the disk for different purposes. Each one of these parts is called a partition. When a disk or storage device is partitioned, it is divided into parts. In this lesson, you'll learn about partitions, MBR, GPT, mount points, and the fdisk utility.

Partition find and mount..v2.31