On linux, you can check this via the `gdisk` tool which should be available for any distro. gdisk -l /dev/sda Here, `/dev/sda` is the device node *of the physical drive*, not a partition (`/dev/sda1`, `/dev/sda2`, etc. are partitions). If you see something that includes: *************************************************************** Found invalid GPT and valid MBR; converting MBR to GPT format in memory. *************************************************************** You have a MBR style disk. Don't worry, this did not do any harm. If you don't see this warning, you have a GPT disk, or a *[hybrid GPT/MBR][1]* disk. The later are used mostly on Apple machines intended to dual-boot versions of MS Windows which do not support GPT. `gdisk` will indicate this with: Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT They may also be used in other situations where support for both styles is required. [1]: http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/hybrid.html