# External USB drive formatting



## bnorton916 (Oct 7, 2015)

So if I have a USB drive to be used on FreeBSD only and for storage only.
No booting and the need for only 1 partition.

Is there any advantage to putting MBR or GPT on this drive?

Thanks,
Bill


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## vadimk (Oct 7, 2015)

There is no difference then.


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## cpm@ (Oct 7, 2015)

Please, read the following article: 
What’s the Difference Between GPT and MBR When Partitioning a Drive?


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## phoenix (Oct 7, 2015)

Unless you have an ancient system that will not boot off a GPT-formatted disk, and you are planning to boot using the drive you are formatting, then use GPT.  Everytime.  No excuses, no exceptions.  It's just so much nicer to work with compared to MBR/bsdlabel!  And use GPT labels, too, to make your life that much easier (especially when dealing with more than 2 disks in a system).


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## vadimk (Oct 8, 2015)

phoenix said:


> Unless you have an ancient system that will not boot off a GPT-formatted disk, and you are planning to boot using the drive you are formatting, then use GPT.  Everytime.  No excuses, no exceptions.  It's just so much nicer to work with compared to MBR/bsdlabel!  And use GPT labels, too, to make your life that much easier (especially when dealing with more than 2 disks in a system).



You can do glabel(8) with MBR partition too.  When you deal with GPT you can just add label to parameters and it will label automatically. With MBR you can do it manually. Unless you are not going to boot the drive there is no difference what type of partition do you use.  And, of course, as cpm has mentioned - "size does matter".  If your requirement is single partition of 2Gb+ in size - you don't have options.


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## tingo (Oct 8, 2015)

I like the flexibility of GPT. No more "only 4 partitions" limit.


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## bnorton916 (Oct 8, 2015)

I think I should have made my question clearer. 

Why do I have to put mbr/gpt on this usbdrive at all?

I don't plan on booting this usbdrive or putting on more than one partition. 

It is only used to back-up some data. 

Bill


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## tobik@ (Oct 8, 2015)

bnorton916 said:


> Why do I have to put mbr/gpt on this usbdrive at all?


If you don't need the advantages outlined above, you don't have to at all.


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## wblock@ (Oct 9, 2015)

Partition tables take very little space.  If you need to boot that drive later, it is much easier to use a partition table that is already present.  It also has the advantage that the disk is set up in a standard way, avoiding an unexpected surprise.


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