getparts.txt

Due to an increase in demand for and questions about direct disk access for Micrososft platforms, a

                       GETPARTS ALPHA version
                       Recover Partition Data
                            TEST OUTPUT
                            26-Dec-1998

INTRODUCTION

GETPARTS will calculate a partition table for the MASTER BOOT RECORD
and does so by reading all of the BOOT SECTORS of a drive. The MBR
table is NOT READ; this means that the data displayed here can be used
to recreate a damaged or missing MBR partition table!

             ******************************************
             * GETPARTS is a "Proof of Concept" only. *
             * It really does not do anything useful. *
             ******************************************

This program displays the data only. A future version might have the
option to write to the MBR or to write an MBR to a binary file.

GETPARTS does not yet display partition types (byte 5 in a partition
table entry) but that should not be too difficult to at least guess at.

Partitions within partitions ARE NOT yet SUPPORTED.

There are MS-DOS and Windows NT binary versions of GETPARTS available.
For the full source code, which uses the DISKLIB library, see EOF.


NOTES

GETPARTS works well on FAT16 drives, but needs work for other file
systems. The following information in this document shows what
GETPARTS figures out on various drives on three computers I have. I
used DISKBUG to compare the data against (and used FIPS to verify
DISKBUG).

I will be updating GETPARTS and will welcome comments. If you want to
change things: please do!

If you make changes please send them to me so I can update GETPARTS for
everyone else (this could end up being a really useful program). If you
are worried or are wondering about licensing send email to
[e-mail] .


TEST OUTPUTS

MACHINE 1, MS-DOS, Drive 0 (FAT16)

Command: diskbug drive 0;part;quit

  cylinders:    779
  heads:        127
  sectors:      63
                       start            end          start        number of
  entry   type       C   H   S       C   H   S       sector         sectors

  Cyl: 0, Head: 0, Sec: 1

  0       06 *       0   1   1     519 127  63           63         4193217
  1       05       520   0   1     779 127  63      4193280         2096640
  2       00         0   0   0       0   0   0            0               0
  3       00         0   0   0       0   0   0            0               0

Command: getparts 0

  HDD 1: 780,63,128, sectors: 6289920

  0, start: 0,1,1, end: 519,127,1, sec: 63, # 4193217

  1, start: 520,0,1, end: 779,127,63, sec: 4193280, # 2096640


MACHINE 1, MS-DOS, Drive 1 (EXT2)

Command: diskbug drive 1;part;quit

  cylinders:    618
  heads:        63
  sectors:      63
                       start            end          start        number of
  entry   type       C   H   S       C   H   S       sector         sectors

  Cyl: 0, Head: 0, Sec: 1

  0       83 *       0   1   1     568  63  63           63         2294145
  1       82       569   0   1     619  63  63      2294208          205632
  2       00         0   0   0       0   0   0            0               0
  3       00         0   0   0       0   0   0            0               0

Command: getparts 1

  HDD 2: 619,63,64, sectors: 2495808

  0, start: 0,1,1,  could not find boot sector!

Notes: I do not know how to parse Linux partitions.


MACHINE 1, MS-DOS, Drive 2 (NTFS)

Command: diskbug drive 2;part;quit

  cylinders:    1008
  heads:        11
  sectors:      55
                       start            end          start        number of
  entry   type       C   H   S       C   H   S       sector         sectors

  Cyl: 0, Head: 0, Sec: 1

  0       07         0   1   1     1008  11  55          55          665885
  1       00         0   0   0       0   0   0            0               0
  2       00         0   0   0       0   0   0            0               0
  3       00         0   0   0       0   0   0            0               0

Command: getparts 2

  HDD 3: 1009,55,12, sectors: 665940

  0, start: 0,1,1, end: 1008,11,1, sec: 55, # 665885


MACHINE 2, Windows 98, Drive 0 (FAT32)

Command: diskbug drive 0;part;quit

  cylinders:    789
  heads:        254
  sectors:      63
                       start            end          start        number of
  entry   type       C   H   S       C   H   S       sector         sectors

  Cyl: 0, Head: 0, Sec: 1

  0       0c *       0   1   1     788 254  63           63        12675222
  1       00         0   0   0       0   0   0            0               0
  2       00         0   0   0       0   0   0            0               0
  3       00         0   0   0       0   0   0            0               0

Command: getparts 0

  HDD 1: 790,63,255, sectors: 12691350

  0, start: 0,1,1, end: 788,254,2, sec: 63, # 12675223

  1, start: 789,0,1,  could not find boot sector!

Notes: Getparts calculates the wrong end: CHS.


MACHINE 3, Windows 95, Drive 0 (FAT16)

Command: diskbug drive 0;part;quit

  cylinders:    786
  heads:        127
  sectors:      63
                       start            end          start        number of
  entry   type       C   H   S       C   H   S       sector         sectors

  Cyl: 0, Head: 0, Sec: 1

  0       06 *       0   1   1     507 127  63           63         4096449
  1       05       508   0   1     786 127  63      4096512         2249856
  2       00         0   0   0       0   0   0            0               0
  3       00         0   0   0       0   0   0            0               0

Command: getparts 0

  HDD 1: 787,63,128, sectors: 6346368

  0, start: 0,1,1, end: 507,127,1, sec: 63, # 4096449

  1, start: 508,0,1, end: 786,127,63, sec: 4096512, # 2249856


--
Gregg Jennings
26-Dec-1998
This is part of the DISK LIBrary for MS-DOS and Windows.
Full source code is available at http://www.diskwarez.com/disklib.htm .