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A partition table is a code in a computer’s hard disk drive that designates different partitions. It’s part of the Master Boot Record and is used during startup to indicate which part of the drive should be used to boot. The table is written in hexadecimal notation and can hold multiple partitions, allowing for different operating systems to be used on the same computer.
A partition table is a piece of code used to designate different partitions or sections of a computer’s hard disk drive (HDD). This is typically part of a Master Boot Record (MBR) on a HDD, frequently accessed when starting a computer to indicate which part of the drive should be used to boot it. Several partitions can be indicated on a single table, allowing you to divide the HDD into sections that are recognized and written individually. A partition table is typically written in hexadecimal notation, which uses numbers and letters to express a wide range of numeric values.
The basic structure of a partition table is quite complex at first glance, although the information provided in it is actually quite simple. It’s just a part of the MBR on a computer’s HDD, which is used when the computer first starts up, a process called bootstrap or “startup.” When the computer is turned on, a microchip on the motherboard that contains the basic input/output system (BIOS) for that computer initiates startup. During boot, however, the BIOS hands over system control and the rest of the boot to the HDD in the computer.
When this happens, the MBR is used by the computer to determine how bootstrap should continue. Part of the MBR is a partition table, which provides information about the various partitions on the HDD, even though there may only be one in many basic systems. In this partition table, one section of the HDD is established as the boot partition, used for booting, and other sections could be used simply for storage. Multiple partitions on a computer can be used to hold a different operating system (OS) in each one, allowing the machine to boot into one operating system, but giving the user several different systems that can be used on the same computer.
The information in a partition table is written in hexadecimal notation, which uses the numbers “0” to “9” and the letters “A” to “F”, which denote “10” to “15”. This is a base 16 system, which means that the given number is then multiplied by 16 raised to some power. For example, the hexadecimal number “A3” would be 10×16^1 added to 3×16^0 or 163. A longer hexadecimal entry such as “34B” would be 3×16^2 added to 4×16^1 and 11× 16^0, or 843. Various information can be conveyed in hexadecimal notation in a partition table, including the identity of the boot partition and the sizes of different sectors within one or more partitions on the HDD.
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