The only online references I've found to "GPT protective partition" have been in relation to trying to read GPT-formatted partitions on Windows XP, which doesn't support GPT.

Windows cannot be installed to this disk MBR and GPT are two formats of the hard disk. MBR is the abbreviation of master bootable record, whereas GPT is an abbreviation of GUID partition table.

The format used to define the hard disk partitions in computers with UEFI startup firmware. The GUID Partition Table (GPT) replaces the previous master boot record (MBR). GPT partitions can hold ...