[ros-dev] Re : HDD Geometry switch

[Eric Kohl]

Sylvain Petreolle wrote:
> Why should we have to erase existing partitions in the first place ?
> ReactOS has to be able to read valid partitions without destroying them.
>
> Kind regards,
> Sylvain Petreolle

The partition table must be recreated beause the geometry of the disk 
changes. In most cases users will not be able to access a partition 
created by ReactOS using Windows or Linux because of the different 
geometries. I tested the old geometry using gparted and it always 
reported a damaged partition table until I switched to the new geometry.

Unfortunately there is no reliable method to derive the disk geometry 
from the partition table. That's why ReactOS cannot detect the old 
geometry in a reliabe way. And since Windows and Linux do not care about 
the reported geometry of the harddisk and always use the 63/255 geometry 
instead, I don't see any reason not to use the new geometry.

BTW, Windows and Linx switched to the 'new' geometry more than 10 years 
ago. It's time for us to get rid of this ancient feature (or burden) too.

PS: GPT partitions are geometry agnostic. For them a partition is just a 
sequence of sectors.


Regards
Eric