Operating systems use the following partitions enumeration:
In Linux:
In Linux, every partition has a special symbolic name that encodes a hard disk containing a partition, and a partition itself. Partitions are addressed and accessed by using their symbolic names. Symbolic names are automatically generated by Linux in accordance with the order of hard disks in BIOS and the order of partition records in the Partition Table. The modification of primary partitions enumeration can lead to the changing of paths to some important resources.
In DOS:
The last versions of MS-DOS use a rather sophisticated algorithm for drive letters assignment. A drive letter, which is assigned to a partition, depends on the order of records in the Partition Table. The modification of primary partitions enumeration affects the drive letters assignment. In early versions of
MS-DOS, it can even lead to the unavailability of a partition. In any case, the user may want to change the enumeration of primary partitions.
The program provides the ability to change the enumeration of primary partitions. This feature allows the user to fix problems concerning the inappropriate order of partitions.
In order to modify the enumeration of partitions the user should take the following steps:
1. Select a hard disk on the
Disk Map.
2. Call the Change Primary Slot dialog to define appropriate settings. There are several ways to do it:
- Select in the Main menu: Hard Disk > Change Primary Slot.
-
Call the popup menu for the selected hard disk (right click of the mouse button) on the Disk Map, then select the menu item: Change Primary Slot.
3. The dialog displays the actual enumeration of Primary Partitions in the Partition Table (
it exhibits the order of appropriate records, which refer to primary partitions in the primary part of the Partition Table referencing records). The top part of the dialog displays the enumeration order of partitions with the parameters that can help to distinguish partitions:
- Slot
- Volume
- Partition type
- File system
- Partition size
- Volume label or Partition Label is a small textual field (
up to 11 characters) that is located in the partition's boot sector. This value is used for notification purposes only. It is detectable by any
partitioning tool including the DOS FDISK utility. Modern operating systems save it within a file system, e.g. as a special hidden file. Thus it is able to contain a relatively large amount of text in multiple languages.
There are two buttons on the right of the list of primary partitions, which allow the user to move the selected partition up and down within the primary part of the Partition Table.
4. The operation will be performed immediately after confirmation.