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Is MBR/partition table = disk label ?

I read about about the description of disk label as

The first sector of a disk that contains disk geometry and partition information.

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19253-01/817-5093/6mkisoq4v/index.html

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And what I read talks about EFI and VTOC (Volume Table of Contents), e.g. http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E19455-01/805-7228/6j6q7uet6/index.html

About Disk Labels

A special area of every disk is set aside for storing information about the disk's controller, geometry, and slices. That information is called the disk's label. Another term used to described the disk label is the VTOC (Volume Table of Contents).

But isn't MBR considered to be a disk label too since it is on the 1st sector of a disk as well ?

What is the difference between MBR and VTOC?

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  • 1
    Include your source. I'll include it since I googled it. But you should have included it
    – barlop
    Oct 15, 2015 at 6:02
  • 2
    MBR is PC terminology. The doc you mention is generic computer terminology (e.g. mainframe or data processing). The MBR is not a disk label, since typically there is nothing unique and specific to identify the HDD/SSD. MSDOS and Windows treats each partition (defined by the MBR's Partition Table) as a volume. The last time I heard of VTOC was a long time ago for magnetic tape.
    – sawdust
    Oct 15, 2015 at 6:33
  • @sawdust You may be right, but every answer has stated that disklabel and MBR do the same thing. You're saying that's not true or not entirely true, because disdklabel identifies the drive as well. Do you have a source?
    – barlop
    Oct 17, 2015 at 12:00
  • @barlop -- "Disk label" has no definition in the PC world (i.e. MS Windows doesn't officially use that term), so you can use it any way you want. That quoted Oracle doc has a generalized/universal definition to ensure it includes the concept of MBR. But ask any "PC expert" "What's a disk label?", and you'll probably not get consistent answers (e.g. MBR, partition table, volume label, etc.).
    – sawdust
    Oct 18, 2015 at 0:05
  • @sawdust Windoes doesn't use the term "disklabel", but clearly other Oss do, and since there is such a thing as what you call "generic computer terminology" Any generic computer terminology can be applied to a computer, including a windows machine. Can you give an example of a system that uses a def of disklabel that would exclude MS-DOS's MBR, vs a system that uses a definition of disklabel that would include MS-DOS's MBR? Before, you made a statement that disklabel would exclude MS-DOS's MBR,n your reason was that it has to uniquely identify the disk. Every1 else says it'd include it
    – barlop
    Oct 18, 2015 at 2:34

2 Answers 2

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A "disklabel" defines the boundaries of sections of the hard drive. The MBR does this same thing. The GPT format does the same thing. They are different ways to do the same thing.

Here's an analogy: it is like having a text file that says:

Prefix=Mr. FirstName=George LastName=Washington
and another file that says:
[FamilyName:Washington] [FirstName:George] [Gender:Male]
Both descriptions provide essentially the same details about the person, but the technical ways that it is done are a bit different.

If you use a BSD operating system, it will likely rely mostly on the BSD disklabel. (In fact, some software will call the BSD disklabel a "bsdlabel".) If you use Microsoft Windows, you're more likely to rely more on the information in the MBR. (I'm not commenting much on what supports GPT, since it is newer and, as I write this, specific details about support have been changing over the years. Basically, though, the GPT is another way to record the same sort of information.)

The BSD disklabel can co-exist alongside with the MBR. Both the BSD disklabel and the MBR describe boundaries; these are separate descriptions, so they don't affect each other. (It only makes sense to have both of these descriptions provide identical values for the details. If the different descriptions are providing different values, that would be confusing because there would be some question about which record is more trustworthy)

Which one do you want to use? Well, if you're using a hard drive over 2TB, the answer is not MBR. (It may be GPT.) Beyond that, the answer is probably going to depend on what operating system you're using. If you use multiple operating systems, you might use both.

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  • Great answer. This terminology confused me when many (15) years ago I downloaded a FreeBSD ISO and printed the Handbook in an Internet café to install on a laptop at home. After that experiment, I went back to GNU/Linux distributions but life would have been much easier had I had access to sites such as this one. Oct 15, 2015 at 9:00
  • @TOOGAM why does it make sense to have both description providing identical details ? - can you elaborate further ?
    – Noob
    Oct 17, 2015 at 4:13
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    Didn't mean to imply that this makes a lot of sense. This is, simply, the reality. It is how things are. sensible or not. But, there is some reasoning. BSD is based on some older Unix code which wasn't designed for home PC use; MBR was made by IBM and Microsoft. So then fast forward to today, you have things like FreeBSD that support BSD labels (to do things in a way that works in a way that is consistent with BSD on all kinds of hardware) and MBR (to do things in a way that works in a way consistent with other operating systems on the PC architecture). Standards
    – TOOGAM
    Oct 17, 2015 at 5:33
  • @TOOGAM - thanks for your feedback - i have posted another related thread superuser.com/questions/988230/… - hope to hear from you
    – Noob
    Oct 18, 2015 at 6:20
  • You write "The BSD disklabel can co-exist alongside with the MBR" <--- what do you mean? Do you mean a hard disk can have 2 partition tables? can you give an example 'cos i've never heard of that before, though i'm no expert.
    – barlop
    Jan 14, 2016 at 4:00
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"Disklabel" is a generic term for the block of information which describes the disk's structure (partitions and sometimes boot information).

PCs usually use either the MBR (aka "MS-DOS") format disklabel, or the newer GPT one. (Older BSD systems also have their own disklabel format, which either replaces MBR or is nested inside it.) Earlier Mac computers used to use "Apple Partition Map" (APM).

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  • How does a BSD system have its disklabel "nested" inside MBR ? do you mean nested in 1 of its partition instead ?
    – Noob
    Oct 17, 2015 at 4:12
  • Noob: The MBR defines partitions. Then, the disklabel also gets stored somewhere... I'm not offhand 100% certain if it is in one of the partitions, but I suppose that is one possibility. I do know that it is not stored in the MBR. There isn't room! The MBR is small. So the disklabel must be getting stored somewhere else.
    – TOOGAM
    Oct 17, 2015 at 5:36
  • @TOOGAM doesn't what you said differ with the answer given by grawity? you're suggesting they're stored in different places. But grawity described MBR as a format of disklabel. Also, unix.stackexchange.com/questions/120221/… describes disklabel as the general term, and specific types of disklabel examples being MBR, GPT, e.t.c..
    – barlop
    Jan 14, 2016 at 3:58
  • @barlop Yes, my usage of the term "disklabel" is different than how grawity (and here) used it. I referred to the term "disklabel" as a "BSD disklabel" (also called a "bsdlabel") like what gets created by BSD's "disklabel" command. So my answers were referring to a specific way of describing the partition layout. The other quotes you point out used the term "disklabel" in a more generic way, as a more general term. For such general usage, I prefer to say "partition layout", to be less likely to cause confusion by people who may use BSD disks.
    – TOOGAM
    Jan 14, 2016 at 7:09
  • @TOOGAM so if bsd disklabel and MBR are different partition layouts, then why do you seem to be saying that disklabel might be stored in one of the partitions and that it is too big to fit in the MBR. Why would there even be a question of a disklabel (whether in the generic sense or the specific bsd disklabel sense), fitting into the MBR?
    – barlop
    Jan 14, 2016 at 16:18

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