220-1102 Operating Systems Practice Question
A technician is installing Windows 10 on a new SSD. The motherboard supports UEFI and Secure Boot. Which partition style must be used on the disk to support these features?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse partition styles (MBR vs. GPT) with file systems (FAT32, NTFS), leading candidates to select a file system instead of the required partition table format.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
GPT
GPT (GUID Partition Table) is required for UEFI-based systems because UEFI firmware reads the partition table to locate the EFI System Partition (ESP), which stores boot loaders. MBR cannot be used with UEFI Secure Boot because it lacks the necessary partition structure and relies on legacy BIOS booting. GPT supports up to 128 primary partitions and uses a protective MBR for backward compatibility, making it the only choice for UEFI with Secure Boot.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
MBR
Why it's wrong here
Master Boot Record is the legacy partitioning scheme derived from BIOS systems. It relies on 32-bit LBA addresses, capping usable disk space at 2 TB and permitting only four primary partitions (or three plus an extended partition). UEFI firmware, in native mode, expects a GUID Partition Table to locate the boot loader; while a Compatibility Support Module (CSM) can boot MBR disks, it disables Secure Boot and is not pure UEFI. Thus, for a UEFI motherboard with a new SSD, MBR is the wrong partition style.
- ✓
GPT
Why this is correct
GUID Partition Table (GPT) is the required partition scheme for native UEFI booting. It uses 64-bit logical block addressing, supporting disks larger than 2 TB and up to 128 partitions without relying on extended partition chains. GPT also stores a protective MBR, redundant header copies, and CRC32 integrity checks, making it more robust. For Windows 10 on a UEFI motherboard, selecting GPT enables Secure Boot and full UEFI functionality, which is exactly the correct answer.
- ✗
FAT32
Why it's wrong here
FAT32 is a file system, not a partition style, so it cannot serve as the disk's partitioning scheme. It is true that the UEFI boot process requires an EFI System Partition (ESP) formatted with FAT32, which holds the boot manager and drivers. However, that FAT32 ESP resides on a GPT-partitioned disk as one of its partitions. Mistaking a file system requirement for a partition-table selection is a common confusion when setting up Windows 10.
- ✗
NTFS
Why it's wrong here
NTFS is Microsoft's default file system for Windows system and data volumes after installation. The choice of partition style (GPT vs MBR) dictates how the disk's partitions are laid out and addressed; NTFS is then applied to a partition within that scheme, independent of the partition table type. A GPT disk will contain NTFS volumes for the Windows system, but the boot process itself is launched from the FAT32 ESP, not NTFS. Therefore, specifying NTFS as the partition style is a category error and incorrect for UEFI installation.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
macOS System Preferences and Settings
Key term
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
UEFI is the modern replacement for BIOS that controls how a computer starts up and loads the operating system.
Key term
ESP
ESP (Encapsulating Security Payload) is a core protocol in IPsec that provides confidentiality, data integrity, and authentication for VPN traffic by encrypting and optionally authenticating the payload of IP packets.
About these practice questions
This 220-1102 question is part of Courseiva's 925-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This 220-1102 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the 220-1102 exam.