23

I want to create a MBR partition table with GParted. In the confirmation window I can choose between various types of partition table. Default is msdos. Is it the same as MBR partition table?

I'm running GParted off Ubuntu LiveCD.

gronostaj
  • 55,965
  • 20
  • 120
  • 179
user3013222
  • 241
  • 1
  • 2
  • 5

2 Answers2

29

Yes msdos is the same as MBR so use it.

cybernard
  • 13,380
  • 3
  • 29
  • 33
1

The MBR partitioning scheme is the same regardless of OS (and should work provided your drive is < 2.2TB). FDISK as well as the other equivalents will do this for you.

If you want the partition to be "MSDOS" compatible you will need to select a FAT partition type - The highest version will depend on the version of MSDos.

For MS-DOS 2.x type 1 (FAT 12) For MS-DOS 3.0 or greater type 6 (FAT 16)

Note that versions of MS-Dos prior to 3.3 you can only have a single partition, and before MS-DOS 4.0 the largest partition was 32 Megs. If you are wanting a "Windows Compatible" type, select FAT 32 (type b). This is probably what gparted uses.

davidgo
  • 68,623
  • 13
  • 106
  • 163
  • 8
    I think you misunderstood the question. When creating a new partition table with GParted, it will ask you for the table type. Default is *MS-DOS*. OP wants to know if it's an alias to MBR partition table. (it is) – gronostaj Jan 13 '14 at 00:33
  • See part of my answer that I Bolded. – davidgo Jan 13 '14 at 02:55
  • 5
    @davidgo: You misunderstood the question. It is not about format of individual partitions (file system) but about format of the partition table. It is usually the old "**[MBR](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record#Disk_partitioning)**" format from the time of PC DOS / MS-DOS versus the new one **[GPT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table)** (GUID Partition Table) which is part of UEFI. – pabouk - Ukraine stay strong Jan 13 '14 at 07:46
  • 1
    @davidgo exactly like pabouk says. Here's the [screenshot](http://i.stack.imgur.com/emVne.png). – gronostaj Jan 13 '14 at 07:57
  • @gronostaj Besides, you can have a fully Windows-compatible disk with NTFS partitions, no need of FAT. As for gparted, it does not use any kind of filesystem by default: after having created the MBR, it waits for the user to choose size and filesystem type for each partition. – MariusMatutiae Jan 14 '14 at 06:01