GUID Partition Table (GPT) whitepaper

Introduction
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 Provides greater reliability due to replication and cyclical redundancy check (CRC)
protection of the partition table.
 Can be used as a storage volume on all x64-based platforms.
 Critical GPT data structures are stored twice on the disk: once at the start and again at
the end. This behavior improves the odds of successful recovery in case of damage from
an accident or a bad sector.
 Whereas MBR provides a 1-byte partition type code, GPT uses a 16-byte GUID
(Globally Unique Identifier) value to identify partition types.
1.4 Which OS support GPT?
OS Support Version Boot from GPT on EFI
Windows 2003 Since SP1
64bit only
No
Windows XP 64bit only Only 64bit
Windows Vista Both 32 bit and 64bit Yes
Windows 2008 Both 32 bit and 64bit Yes
Windows 7 Both 32 bit and 64bit Yes
Solaris Since Solaris 10
Both 32 bit and 64 bit
No
FreeBSD Since 7.0
Both 32 bit and 64 bit
Yes
Mac OS X Since 10.4.0 (some features Since 10.4.6)
Both 32 bit and 64 bit
Yes
Linux Most of the Linux OS
Both 32 bit and 64 bit
Yes