Summary: The GPT protective partition is a significant innovation, offering enhanced security over the MBR partition. This article will help you learn about this technology in detail. You can find the significance and the challenges with this technology. In the end, we will discuss a data recovery solution if you have a data loss in the partition.
Content Table:
- What is GPT protective partition?
- What is the difference between GPT and MBR partition?
- How to access GPT protective partition?
- What are the issues with GPT protective partition?
- Remove GPT protective partition
- How to format GPT protective partition?
- Recover data from GPT protective partition
- Steps to use SFWare data recovery software
What is GPT Protective Partition?
The GPT protective partition is an important part of the GPT (GUID Partition Table) disk layout. GPT is a disk partition structure used on modern systems, replacing the popular MBR (Master Boot Record) partitioning. The GPT protective partition works as a safeguard on the disk that ensures compatibility with systems that recognize MBR only.
The primary need for the GPT protective partition is to avoid accidental modification or deletion of the GPT scheme by software that does not recognize the GPT format. It acts as a protective barrier, letting the tool know that the drive is GPT-protected hence should not be modified.
The GPT protective partition is normally present in a small portion of the disk space at the beginning and end of the disk. It contains essential GPT data structures.
What is the Difference Between GPT and MBR Partition?
GPT is the latest partitioning scheme fastly replacing MBR layouts. This is because GPT can support enormous sizes of disk space compared to MBR. Some of the differences are given below,
| Parameter | GPT | MBR |
| Disk Space | 9.4 ZB | 2 TB |
| Partition limit | 128 Partitions | 4 Partitions |
| Data redundancy | Multiple copies of partition information | A single copy of partition information |
| Boot process | Dedicated partition for boot code | First-sector store Boot code |
| Compatibility | Requires a UEFI-based system | Support both UEFI and BIOS-based systems |
How to Access GPT Protective Partition?
If you want to access GPT protective partition, the easy method is to utilize the disk management utility provided by Windows. This tool offers a convenient way to view and manage partitions, including GPT protective partitions. Here are the steps to use the disk management tool.
- In the Start menu type Disk Management and press Enter.
- In the Disk Management window, Find the partition marked GPT Protective Partition.
- Right-click on the partition and choose the options such as assigning a drive letter, resizing, formatting, or deleting the partition if necessary.
What are the Issues with GPT Protective Partition?
Even though GPT protective partition is a safeguard mechanism, this may be an issue in some situations. You may encounter some issues when working with GPT Protective Partition. You can find a couple of scenarios below.
- One of the scenarios is the incompatibility between GPT protective partition and the systems that recognize the MBR partition only. The systems running older operating systems, may not have support for GPT partition. Because of this attempting to access or modify a GPT Protective Partition on such systems can be problematic.
- Though new operating systems work with GPT partitions, some older applications may not fully support GPT protective partitions. This limitation can prevent users from performing certain operations or accessing specific features related to GPT partitions.
- GPT protective partition needs a UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) firmware instead of the usual BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) firmware found in older systems. Some older hardware with BIOS may not support GPT partitions, limiting the use of GPT Protective Partition on such systems.
Remove GPT Protective Partition
As we saw above, in some situations, GPT protective partition can cause issues. The first method to solve when any issues arise is to remove GPT protective partition. You can follow the below steps to use the Diskpart tool and do this.
- Type CMD in the system’s search bar and select Run as administrator.
- In the command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter.
- Now type list disk and press Enter.
Note: Write down the disk number corresponding to the GPT partition.
- Then type select disk X and hit Enter.
Note: Replace X with the disk number you noted down earlier.
- Finally type Clean and hit Enter.
When the process is completed, your GPT partition is removed, and you can initiate the partition again as your need.
How to Format GPT Protective Partition?
After removing the GPT protective partition, you need to format your drive to start to use again. Below, you can find steps to format your drive.
- Open the Disk Management utility from the Start
- Find your uninitiated drive and right-click on it.
- Now click on the Format
- Provide a Volume label, File system, and Allocate unit size.
- Check the Perform a Quick Format
- Now click on OK to start formatting.
Recover Data from GPT Protective Partition
Now that we have seen a couple of methods to solve the issue with GPT protective partition. Now we need to think about data recovery from GPT protective partition, either because the data was lost in the partition by turning RAW or formatting . You can use a professional data recovery tool like SFWare Data Recovery software, a purpose-built tool to recover data from various devices in many scenarios.
Steps to Use SFWare Data Recovery Software
- Download and Install SFWare Data Recovery software on your system.
- Launch the software and click on Recover Drives/Partition on the main screen.
- In the next screen, click on Drive/Partition Recovery which will show you storage devices.
- Select the device you want to recover and click Next.
Note: When scanning is complete it shows all the partitions available.
- Select the partition and click Next.
Note: When the scan is complete, it displays the data in a window with a Data view and File type view.
- You can double-click on the data to preview the data. If you are satisfied, you can complete the process by saving the data to your desired location.
Note: Don’t choose the exact location to save, which will corrupt the data.
Conclusion
GPT protective partition is needed to avoid accidental modification or deletion of the GPT scheme. But at times, this can cause issues in your system as well. In this article, we have discussed what GPT protective partition is and solved the issues with it. We provided a data recovery solution if there is any data loss scenario arises. Try out the solutions if you are facing the issues.
