COMPTIA A+ Practice Exam

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Ace your COMPTIA A+ certification with our practice exam. Engage with a variety of questions including multiple choice and performance-based, complete with hints and detailed explanations. Prepare effectively and boost your confidence for the big day!

Each practice test/flash card set has 50 randomly selected questions from a bank of over 500. You'll get a new set of questions each time!

Practice this question and more.

How many partitions does MBR support?

2 partitions
4 partitions
8 partitions
16 partitions

The correct answer is: 4 partitions

The correct answer is that MBR (Master Boot Record) supports a maximum of four primary partitions. This limitation arises from the design of the MBR partitioning scheme, which utilizes a specific structure in its 512-byte boot sector to store the partition table information. In MBR, the partition table can hold entries for four primary partitions directly. If more than four partitions are needed, one of those primary partitions can be designated as an extended partition. The extended partition acts as a container for multiple logical partitions, enabling the user to create more than four partitions on a disk by utilizing this additional layer. This structure allows for effective use of disk space while adhering to the original design limitations of the MBR method. Understanding this helps in managing disk partitions effectively, especially in systems using older BIOS firmware.