Term
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Definition
- A collection of addressable sectors that an Operating System (OS) or application can use for data storage. The sectors in a volume need NOT be consecutive on a physical storage device
- A hard disk is an example that is located in consecutive sectors
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Term
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Definition
- A collection of consecutive sectors in a volume.
- By definition, this is also a volume.
- Is dependent on the operating system and not the type of interface on the hard disk
- Windows: FAT, NTFS
- Mac: HFS+
- Linux: Ext2
- The purpose is to organize the layout of a volume
- The starting and ending locations (sectors) for each partition are essential and specified in the PDS
- The starting and ending sectors do not have boundary information
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Term
| DOS style partition using MBR |
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Definition
- Master Boot Record (MBR) is in the first 512-byte sector of a disk
- DOS partitions used with DOS, Windows, Linux, and IA32-based FreeBSD and Open BSD systems
- MBR includes partition table which has four entries. (meaning up to 4 partitions)
- Each entry has following fields:
- Starting CHS address (for Windows 98,ME, etc.)
- Ending CHS address
- Starting LBA address (for Windows 2000 and beyond)
- Number of sectors in partition
- Type of partition (FAT, NTFS, etc., Linux does not care the type)
- Flags (bootable or not)
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Term
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Definition
- A primary file system partition is a partition whose entry is in the MBR and the partition contains a file system or other structured data.
- A primary extended partition is a partition whose entry is in the MBR, and the partition contains additional partitions.
- A secondary file system partition, also called a logical partition in Windows, is located inside the primary extended partition bounds and contains a file system or other structured data.
- A secondary extended partition is a partition that contains a partition table and a secondary file system partition.
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Term
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Definition
- Exists in the first 446 bytes of the first sector (512-bytes)
- Standard Microsoft boot code processes the partition table in the MBR and identifies which partition has the bootable flag set.
- When it finds such a partition, it looks in the first sector of the partition and executes the code found there. The code in the start of the partition will be operating system-specific.
- Boot sector viruses or Bootkits insert themselves into the first 446 bytes of the MBR so that they are executed every time the computer is booted.
- Multiple OS boot option code can be either in Boot Code or i the bootable partition
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Term
| GUID Partition Table (GPT) |
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Definition
- BIOS uses MBR (mostly) -> getting obsolete
- Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) and Unified EFI (UEFI) replaces BIOS
- EFI and UEFI use GPT instead of MBR
- EFI/UEFI is used mainly in systems with 64 bit Intel processors
- GUID stands for Globally Unique ID
- can support up to 128 partitions and uses 64-bit LBA addresses
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Term
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Definition
- Protective MBR
- contains a DOS partition table with one entry. The single entry is for a partition with a type of 0xEE that spans the entire disk
- This partition exists so that legacy computers can recognize the disk as being used and do not try to format it
- EFI does not actually use partitions, though
- GPT header
- starts in sector 1 (typically fits in 1 sector)
- defines the size and location of the partition table, which are fixed when the GPT disk is created
- Windows limits the number of entries in the partition table to 128
- also contains a checksum of the header and the partition table so that errors or modification can be detected
- Partition table
- Each entry contains a starting and ending address, a type value, a name, attribute flags, and a GUID value.
- The 128-bit GUID is supposed to be unique for that system and is set when the partition table is created
- Partition Area
- The largest area and contains the sectors that will be allocated to partitions
- The starting and ending sectors for this area (not the each partition area) are defined in the GPT header
- Backup area
- Contains a backup copy of the partition table and the GPT header (in this order, meaning a backup copy of the GPT header is the last sector of the GPT). It is located in the sector following the Partition area
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Term
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Definition
- Contains a DOS partition table with one entry. The single entry is for a partition with a type of 0xEE that spans the entire disk
- This partition exists so that legacy computers can recognize the disk as being used and do not try to format it
- EFI does not actually use partitions, though
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Term
| Protective MBR: GPT header |
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Definition
- starts in sector 1 (typically fits in 1 sector)
- defines the size and location of the partition table, which are fixed when the GPT disk is created
- Windows limits the number of entries in the partition table to 128
- also contains a checksum of the header and the partition table so that errors or modification can be detected
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Term
| Protective MBR: Partition table |
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Definition
- Each entry contains a starting and ending address, a type value, a name, attribute flags, and a GUID value.
- The 128-bit GUID is supposed to be unique for that system and is set when the partition table is created
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Term
| Protective MBR: Partition Area |
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Definition
- The largest area and contains the sectors that will be allocated to partitions
- The starting and ending sectors for this area (not the each partition area) are defined in the GPT header
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Term
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Definition
- Contains a backup copy of the partition table and the GPT header (in this order, meaning a backup copy of the GPT header is the last sector of the GPT). It is located in the sector following the Partition area
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