OFFTOPIC: New MBR and partitioning standard?

Simon Richter geier at psi5.com
Sat Mar 6 22:22:08 CET 1999


On Sat, 6 Mar 1999, Dave Cinege wrote:

> Isn't it about time the x86 platform supported more then 4 'real' partitions?

Well, I'm not sure I need to install more than four legagy OSs at the same
time, so I think it's not that big an issue. :-)

> I'm getting really sick of this limitation and was thinking of sitting down
> with some peers, drafting a new extended MBR standard, then submitting it OS
> vendors.

Well, in fact you're free to partition the drives as you wish, as long as
your MBR supports it. If you're not using anything but Linux, you can
achieve the desired result by enabling RDB code on i386 platforms and
partition your HD with an RDB. If you still have Windows, then you will
have to keep a compatibility table, so you haven't really won anything, as
you will still have to express your table in the old-fashioned way.

   Simon





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