OFFTOPIC: New MBR and partitioning standard?

[Taral]

On Sat, 06 Mar 1999, Dave Cinege wrote:
>Isn't it about time the x86 platform supported more then 4 'real' partit=
ions?
>
>I'm getting really sick of this limitation and was thinking of sitting d=
own
>with some peers, drafting a new extended MBR standard, then submitting i=
t OS
>vendors.
>
>For instance, the first partition is (generally) started on the 65th sec=
tor.
>That leaves 63 512byte sectors that are always free. Why not extend the =
normal
>partition entires say 16 sectors (=3D=3D about 512 16byte partition enti=
res),
>and reserve the remaining sectors for extended MBR code? (IE the code in
>sector 0, hops to sector 18)

Why wait for general acceptance? An extension of this sort can be impleme=
nted
OS-by-OS, with non-compatible OS's using the old extended partition syste=
m.
Just put some kind of checksum and magic number in the extended MBR area =
:)

Taral