partition table: A table, stored on a disk, that describes how the disk is divided into sections called partitions. The partition table stores the starting location (cylinder, head, sector) and length or ending location (or both) plus other information.

In Linux you can view the partition table (for a disk) by using fdisk

(Note that fstab and mstab are slightly different than the partition table for a disk.??)

The partition table of a hard disk contains stored information about the partitions created on the hard disk (start/end/types). This table is used by all operating systems, as well as all BIOS versions. It contains space for four (primary) partitions. Bootmanagers that can manage more than four primary partitions per hard disk thus work with more than two partition tables: an internal one, which lists all managed partitions, and another one, which is utilized by the operating systems. During booting, up to four entries are then copied from the internally managed partition table and the booting process continues as usual.

See partition.

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Contributors

• RandyKramer - 14 Jan 2002
• GrantFraser - 18 Jan 2002 - Forwarded by Wendy F
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