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Acronym for GUID Partition Table

GPT was introduced for IA64 systems, to get around a fixed 32bit issue in the msdos partition type. If you want to have a partition greater than 2TB, you need to use a GPT disklabel.

Most partitioning tools under linux will fail to do anything sensible with a > 2 TB partition. As of this writing, parted is the only one that understands it. parted will also let you set the GPT label on the disk.

There is a lot of information stating that you cannot boot off a GPT enabled device. Most of the claims imply that the fault is with lilo or grub not understanding GPT devices. We've not tested this, but GPT and traditional MBRs will coexist.

The GPT differs from the msdos partition table in a number of ways:

  • Allows for > 2 TB partitions
  • Up to 128 primary partitions (as opposed to 4)
  • No need for extended partitions

References: