On 2007/09/10 12:39 (GMT+0200) Carlos E. R. apparently typed:
The Monday 2007-09-10 at 01:28 -0400, Felix Miata wrote:
An "extended partition" is a logical construct made up from the sum of existing logical partitions plus any freespace existing between them. Any partitioning tool that claims otherwise is broken. No immediately adjacent freespace can ever be "lost". "Lost" freespace can only exist which lies between primary partitions while the MBR table has all 4 of its entries used.
The extended partition is also a primary, real, partition, and can have
Your definition of "real" is apparently different from mine. It may be real in the sense that it consumes a partition table entry. e.g. fdisk -l Disk /dev/hda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System /dev/hda1 1 13 104391 17 Hidden HPFS/NTFS /dev/hda2 * 14 14 8032+ a OS/2 Boot Manager /dev/hda3 15 46 257040 6 FAT16 /dev/hda4 48 30401 243818505 5 Extended ... But, the reason I don't consider it real is I can't put a filesystem on it, e.g.: # mkfs.ext3 /dev/hda4 mke2fs: 1.40.2 (12-Jul-2007) mkfs.ext3: inode_size (128) * inodes_count (0) too big for a filesystem with 0 blocks...
any size. It can be, as you say, the size between the first logical and the last logical, or it can be all the space not in the other primaries, or it can be anything you choose.
I can't choose to make it the space on both sides of a primary that is located in the middle of the disk.
For instance, I have a disk with 1 primary, 1 extended, several logicals, and two primaries at the end. In that order.
Some partitioners, true, automatically increase the size of the extended when you create a new logical partition. But some don't, and to those the space outside the extended partition is effectively lost.
When freespace exists immediately adjacent to a logical partition, and that freespace is not the first cylinder, it's only effectively lost to a broken partitioning tool. -- "It yet remains a problem to be solved in human affairs, whether any free government can be permanent, where the public worship of God, and the support of religion, constitute no part of the policy or duty of the state in any assignable shape." Chief Justice Joseph Story Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 Felix Miata *** http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org