Basic disks are the storage types most often used with Windows. The term basic disk refers to a disk that contains partitions, such as primary partitions and logical drives, and these in turn are usually formatted with a file system to become a volume for file storage.
The GPT format for a basic disk is illustrated in the following figure.
Figure 1. GPT Format for Basic Disks
The protective MBR area exists on a GPT partition table for backward compatibility with disk management utilities that operate on MBR. The GPT header defines the range of logical block addresses that are usable by partition entries. The GPT header also defines its location on the disk, its GUID, and a 32-bit cyclic redundancy check (CRC32) checksum that is used to verify the integrity of the GPT header. Each entry in the GUID partition table begins with a partition type GUID. The 16-byte partition type GUID, which is similar to a System ID in the partition table of an MBR disk, identifies the type of data that the partition contains and identifies how the partition is used, for example, whether it is a basic disk or a dynamic disk. Note that each GUID partition entry has a backup copy.
For more information about basic disks, refer to the MSDN topic "Basic and Dynamic Disks."
