SD Cards ... MBR or GPT ?

Hi,

It struck me the other day that formatting an SD card on a modern os might mean it's a gpt type partition ?
I'm going to check this, but I'm going to presume that the MPC will be expecting an MBR type partition.
Time to experiment methinks

All you need to do to verify if it's formatted as either gpt or mbr is to insert the card, go into management and view the partition layout.

Neurone wrote:Hi,

It struck me the other day that formatting an SD card on a modern os might mean it's a gpt type partition ?
I'm going to check this, but I'm going to presume that the MPC will be expecting an MBR type partition.
Time to experiment methinks

I've never worried about the partition type for my MPC Live, I just always choose exFAT for the file structure just so it's the widest compatible.

Lampdog wrote:Pg 325

Has nothing to do with the partition types, as there is no mention on Pg 325.

Lampdog wrote:@op, why the particular interest in partitions, for region management or just curiosity?
Is the normal formatting not working out for you and you need region/partition management?

I've seen a few posts here and on other forums where people are having problems getting a card recognised by the MPC. There are faulty cards, and cards with dirt on the pins etc, but it's possible some issues may be explained by the partition type on the card.
I always presumed that SD cards would be all MBR, but it seems not.

I dont know bout you guys....But I just Plop the Card in...and it works.

Now...when i use a New Internal Hard Drive....I just format it thru Windows NTFS by default. NEVER had a Issue.

MAC users.....I have no idea

Since GPT drives can only be formatted as NTFS, and NTFS is an option when formatting SD cards for the MPC's, is it likely it defaults to GPT then?

The partition table type has no bearing on the format! You can format both an MBR or a GPT partitioned disk or partition with exFAT or NTFS! ExFAT is indeed the preferable option for MPC disks since you'll have greater compatibility, especially with Macs.

MBR is the older technology and has a 2TB as a size limit for the disk. Larger disks should only ever be partitioned using GPT. Also, the GPT partition table is saved in two places (beginning/end) of the disk, which makes it easier to recover in case of damage to the data structure.

You could only run into problems if you wanted to use those disks on a PC with Windows XP or older, which I advise against anyway, or on older MPCs, which I think had their very own disk format.

The MPC can handle both just fine, so my recommendation for all MPC disks would be GPT with exFAT. Always!

^ What that guy said.. Dont use SD cards but pretty sure my internal drive was formatted GPT as that's the default on MacOS and that's where it was first formatted before letting the MPC do it again after installation. Unless the MPC changed it, its still GPT. Nowadays I wouldn't think anyone would even be using MBR anymore aside from old Windows installations, or using a hard drive in an old sampler or something.