For a storage drive, there is not really any reason to use MBR. MBR has a number of restrictions built into it like a 2TB size limit, 4 primary partition limit, etc, GPT removes those limits (and has some other minor potential benefits) so no real reason not to use it. The only scenario where you might have trouble with GPT would be if it was your boot disk and you had an older Windows system that was not using UEFI.

 

If it's not a boot drive, just go GPT.

 

Hi @Speedster159!

It will make no difference for you at all in terms of HDD performance.

Basically the advantages of GPT are that you can make partitions larger than 2 TB and you have an unlimited number of primary partitions. In your case you do not need first since you're going for a secondary storage unit and the second can be achieved by creating an extended partition and creating logical ones there.

Here's a KB article from Microsoft with more details about MBR and GPT if you want to take a look at:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/dn640535%28v=vs.85%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

Hope this helps and feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Cheers!

 

Technically there is no difference between MBR or GPT data access-wise. Both work in same manner. Issue may arise with MBR which is limited to 2.2TB/partition or GPT which supports large volumes but is not recognized by older systems - think 32b XP as most obvious candidate (64b supports GPT, but you can't move drive from 64b and hope that 32b will see it).

For drives of up to 2TB it doesn't matter one iota which one you pick. For drives over 2TB there is no choice as the only available option is GPT.

Also if you want to install Windows in Legacy mode on UEFI equipped system you have to choose MBR instead GPT, but that's another matter entirely.

 

Unless you're going to be partitioning the 1TB drives into many smaller partitions, it can't hurt to stay with MBR.
Any drive over 2TB must be initialized as GPT or you won't be able to partition out any more than a total of 2TB.
MBR's 2TB allocation limit isn't per partition, it's per device.