I bought an external 1 TB hard drive for backups but I am not sure whether to use MBR or GPT. I am using Linux (x86_64) with MBR/BIOS but my laptop supports GPT/UEFI. I know about the differences between MBR and GPT, but is there any reason to choose GPT over MBR, like the cyclic redundancy check (CRC) values to see if data is intact and if the data is corrupted to move the data to undamaged areas? Will this have any difference for an external backup drive?
MBR or GPT for external backup drive
gptmbrpartitioning
Best Answer
GPT is much more resilient against data corruption because of the CRC and because it stores multiple copies of the partitioning and boot data, so recovery is still possible after a catastrophic data failure.
Also, GPT has a "protective MBR", so the GPT disk still looks like MBR to older software. As your disk is 1 TB, and as MBR can support up to 2 TB, even though formatted as GPT, the entire disk will be usable as both MBR and GPT.
Therefore you can use either format, except that GPT may better conserve your data.