Master boot record: Difference between revisions

MBR partition entries and the MBR boot code used in commercial operating systems, however, are limited to 32 bits.<ref name="Microsoft_2013_2581408"/> Therefore, the maximum disk size supported on disks using 512-byte sectors (whether real or emulated) by the MBR partitioning scheme (without 3332-bit arithmetic) is limited to 2&nbsp;TiB.<ref name="Microsoft_2013_2581408"/> Consequently, a different partitioning scheme must be used for larger disks, as they have become widely available since 2010. The MBR partitioning scheme is therefore in the process of being superseded by the [[GUID Partition Table]] (GPT). The official approach does little more than ensuring data integrity by employing a ''protective MBR''. Specifically, it does not provide backward compatibility with operating systems that do not support the GPT scheme as well. Meanwhile, multiple forms of ''hybrid MBRs'' have been designed and implemented by third parties in order to maintain partitions located in the first physical 2&nbsp;TiB of a disk in both partitioning schemes "in parallel" and/or to allow older operating systems to boot off GPT partitions as well. The present non-standard nature of these solutions causes various compatibility problems in certain scenarios.