Large drive without partitions

On Fri, 15 Aug 2008 21:19:22 -0400, CBFalconer <cbfalconer@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>ArarghMail808NOSPAM@NOT.AT.Arargh.com wrote:
>> CBFalconer <cbfalconer@yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> Boo wrote:
>>>
>... snip ...
>>>
>>>> I thought the MBR contains the partition table so all hard
>>>> disks need one ?
>>>
>>> The first segment on track 0 holds both the MBR and the partition
>>> table.  The table is necessary to use the disk.  The MBR is only
>>> needed to boot from that disk.
>\.
>> sector, not segment.
>> 
>> The table is only needed if you want to use the drive under the
>> control of most operating systems.  If you use the BIOS I/O
>> routines, the table is not needed.
Should have also mentioned direct device I/O such as what a driver
might use.

>
>True.  I thought the word segment looked peculiar. :-)  Anything
>that needs the disk partitioned into effective drives needs the
>table.  The bios reads that first sector, and transfers control to
>it (MBR code) if the read didn't fail.
-- 
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