[ros-dev] Re : HDD Geometry switch

[Cameron Gutman]

> 
> 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.
> 

Why can't we use the Int 13h drive parameters returned by the BIOS that FreeLoader saves in the CM_DISK_GEOMETRY_DEVICE_DATA struct in the registry for each disk? That's got all the information we need to easily distinguish between 32/64 and 63/255 disks. Class2 would need a bit of modification to parse the hardware resources for the disk in order to find the struct, but I could make a patch if you think it's an idea worth pursuing.


Regards,
Cameron
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