W2K 48-bit LBA addressing and NTFS

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FUBARinSFO

Hi:

1. Is there a complete description anywhere of how 48-bit LBA
addressing has been implemented in Windows 2000? There are pieces of
it on Microsoft's web site, but I didn't find anything that gives a
reasonably complete explanation how it worked exactly.

2. Is there any 48-bit LBA info on the HDD itself, say in the MBR? Or
is it simply now the code that can handle a full 32-bit (4 byte)
length of partition in sectors at offset 0x1CA/1DA/1EA/1FA in the MBR
partition table?

Thanks in advance.

-- Roy Zider
 
FUBARinSFO said:
Hi:

1. Is there a complete description anywhere of how 48-bit LBA
addressing has been implemented in Windows 2000? There are pieces of
it on Microsoft's web site, but I didn't find anything that gives a
reasonably complete explanation how it worked exactly.
Click to expand...

What is it you want to know that isn't defined in ATAPI-6? I'd like to
help, but your question isn't particularly precise, so I'm not sure what you
want to know.
2. Is there any 48-bit LBA info on the HDD itself, say in the MBR? Or
is it simply now the code that can handle a full 32-bit (4 byte)
length of partition in sectors at offset 0x1CA/1DA/1EA/1FA in the MBR
partition table?
Click to expand...

Since the SCSI CDBs that the Windows Disk class driver uses refer to 32 bit
LBA's, it's a reasonable conclusion that the answer to this is no. However,
Windows uses 64 bit offsets into files, so one could also possibly conclude
that there might be larger LBAs stored on the disk.

You could google for FAT32 and that might help you narrow it down.

Phil
--
Philip D. Barila Windows DDK MVP
Seagate Technology, LLC
(720) 684-1842
As if I need to say it: Not speaking for Seagate.
E-mail address is pointed at a domain squatter. Use reply-to instead.
 
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