Primary versus Data partition

[Zer0]

Hi,

This might sound like the most stupid question, but why did the new SSD partition ended up as "Basic Data Partition"

So I have installed additional SSD 850 PRO for games and it ended up formatted as "Basic Data Partition", can't find the exact info on the internet. Have some HDDs which are formatted to "Primary" which I use for the same purpose, so I am not sure why this SSD ended up as "Basic Data Partition".

Should I format it again as "primary" or leave as "data" for game installations : )

 

[Undesirable]

If you look carefully, you'll notice that C: also contains a Basic Data Partiton, along with a telltale 'EFI System Partition', which suggests both Disk 3 (which contains your OS) and your new Disk 0 are formatted (or were initialized) as the more up-to-date GPT style partitions, whilst all the rest use the older MBR type partitions. Apparently, it's not as easy to see which disks are GPT vs MBR in the basic Disk Management window as it is presented to you; you have to examine the Volume properties of each Disk to check which of them they are.

What does this mean to you? It looks to me as though you can set your BIOS to boot UEFI only, as your boot / OS disk (Disk 3) appears to conform to UEFI, and you may also disable any kind of MBR compatibility mode in your BIOS to potentially increase boot speeds. The older MBR-style disks / partitions will still show up and perform at the same speed once you've reached Windows. If you absolutely need fiddle with anything, you can back up all the data on the MBR partitions, reformat / reinitialize to GPT and then copy it back across.

Summary:
GPT = Newer = Contains 'Basic Data Partition' labels = Won't boot on MBR-only BIOSes.
MBR = Older = Contains 'Primary Data Partition' label = Won't boot on UEFI-only BIOS mode.

 

[edscdk]

Leave it as is makes no difference

 

[Zer0]

Hi guys, thank you very much for your kind messages and time as well, especially to @Undesirable for such in depth explanation and for being so cool, it is much appreciated and very clear without smallest thing to question further. I guess we could say GPT is "better"?

I did disabled CSM on my MBU which contains legacy mode and that way disabled any kind of MBR compatibility for better booth speeds. I also noticed when I had to erase SSD via Samsung Magician bootable USB, it wasn't booting without enabling CSM or legacy mode.

Will think about possibility of formatting my old HDD's to GPT sometimes in future.

Thank you once again for everything.
0

 

[EsaT]

I did disabled CSM on my MBU which contains legacy mode and that way disabled any kind of MBR compatibility for better booth speeds

Disabling CSM in BIOS only prevents booting from MBR drive/OSes.
It doesn't prevent accessing and using MBR partitioned drives for data storage.

 

[Zer0]

Hey buddy, of course as we mentioned above, one of the users mentioned that there are some boot speed gains with CSM/MBR disabled.