GPT

Updated: 09/12/2023 by Computer Hope

GPT may refer to any of the following:

1. Short for GUID partition table, GPT is a part of the EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) standard that defines the layout of the partition table on a hard drive. GPT is designed to improve the MBR (master boot record) partitioning system, which has a 2.2 TB (terabyte) partition size limitation. GPT is part of the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) standard, but may also be used on older BIOS (basic input/output system) systems. Using GPT, a drive could support between 8 and 9.4 ZB (zettabyte), depending on the sector size.

If you're using a version of Windows that supports GPT, while setting up a drive in Disk Management, you will receive a prompt similar to the example below. Selecting GPT and clicking OK initializes the disk as a GPT partition style.

Initializing Disk using GPT

How do I know if my hard drive uses GPT or MBR?

Use the diskpart command to determine if your drive uses a GPT or MBR.

  1. Open a command prompt window.
  1. Type diskpart and press Enter. If a UAC (User Account Control) prompt is displayed, click OK.
  2. At the DISKPART> prompt, type list disk and press Enter. You will see a listing of disk partitions, similar to the following example. If GPT is enabled, you have a mark under the GPT column for each drive with GPT enabled.
  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online          953 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 1    Online         7452 GB      0 B        *
  Disk 2    Online           16 TB      0 B        *

2. GPT is short for Generative Pre-trained Transformer, a language model developed by OpenAI to help give systems intelligence and is used in such projects as ChatGPT.

Computer acronyms, GUID, Hard drive terms, Partition