GUID stands for “Globally Unique Identifier.” It is a 128-bit identifier that is used in software development and various computer systems to uniquely identify objects, resources, or entities without the risk of collision (two different items having the same identifier). GUIDs are designed to be globally unique, meaning that the probability of generating two identical GUIDs is extremely low, even when generated on different systems around the world. GUIDs are represented as a sequence of hexadecimal digits separated by hyphens or other characters, such as curly braces. For example:
Standard format: 123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000
Curly braces format: {123e4567-e89b-12d3-a456-426614174000}
In the context of disks, a GUID Partition Table (GPT) uses GUIDs to uniquely identify partitions and manage data on a hard disk or solid-state drive. GPT is a part of the UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) standard and provides a more modern alternative to the older Master Boot Record (MBR) partitioning method.