What is a "DS: xxx" partition type?

Having split up a new HDD with the XP installer and DD9 (both German), I now find the type of some of the partitions (already in use and working, apparently...) marked as

DS: NTFS Partition: 0x6 (FAT16)
DS: Ext3 Partition:0x6 (FAT 16)

etc. Others have 'normal' ("NTFS"...) types.

What does this mean?

Claus-Volker.

 

Claus:

It probably means that the partitions are marked differently in the partition table compared to the marking in the partition boot record.

Normally both of these values should agree. When they are different, Disk Director reports the type as [Partition Boot Record Type]:[Partition Table Type]

In your case I assume that the first partition really is NTFS and the second really is Ext3. Is this true?

If so, then the partition table simply has the wrong type listed. Its two-byte entry is apparently 0x6, which identifies the partition as FAT16, whereas it should be 0x7 for NTFS and 0x83 for Ext3. You could confirm this by looking at the partition table with Disk Director's Disk Editor.

Start Disk Director in manual mode and then click on a disk to select, as shown in the second figure. Then right-click on the disk label and choose "Advanced" and then "Edit" to open the disk editor. From the disk editor's view menu choose View As Partition Table. You should see something like the first figure below. Look for the 2-digit hex partition type number to the left of the "Partition Type" drop-down lists to confirm.

Most software will ignore the type listed in the partition table and instead go by the type listed in the partition boot record itself. For example, if you viewed your disk with the NTFS partition with Windows Disk Management console it would tell you that the disk format is NTFS because it does not look in the partition table to determine this.

You could probably leave things as-is without any issues. If you want to fix it you can do this with Disk Director. While viewing the partition table in the Disk Editor, drop down the "Partition Type" list and select the correct type (for example, NTFS for your first partition. Choose "Save Sector" and exit the disk editor. That should fix it.

Standard precautionary note -- always create a full backup image before messing around with partitioning software in case something goes wrong and you need to recover.

 

Mark,

Thank you for your explanations (and sorry for my late reaction: my internet access was broken for some days).

You are right: the boot record entries show the real (or at least: intended) situation. But, I did not mention, the entries with differing partion boot record and partition table values all concern logical partitions. Here is the DD output:



(BTW: I did install a >127GB disk into a laptop, the BIOS now recognizing 137GB, while the whole capacity is addressed by the OS drivers - XP/Sp2 + [not yet set up] Linux. Perhaps these LBA-48 'hacks' are the reason for the partition table errors?)

So far, the "double type" partitions seem to work - but will they do so under any circumstances? (Murphy's law...) If possible, I would like to fix the problem. But, to be honest, I can't cope with the disk editor. Unfortunately the (German) version of the DE, I am using, has a broken help file - all images are missing -, so I am a bit poking around to find what the terse text is speaking about... Anyway: DE shows the 'overall' partition layout - the active primary one and the extended LBA partition:



These two are o.k. in the partition table, too. So I could change them, but I dont't need and I don't want to. How, then, to access the logical partitions? I expect, that I have to jump to the start sector of the "Extended LBA" partition to see any drop down options to change their type. But how to do so?

claus-volker

 

Click the "Enter" button for the Extended LBA entry and it will display the next Logical partition along with another Extended entry. You can click the "Enter" button to "dig down" through them.

 

MudCrab,

The DS partition type reminds me of this thread.

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=185731&page=4&highlight=acer

 

MudCrab,

Thank you - that works; I misunderstood the effect of this click as a change of values for the currently displayed partitions. I got an error message during the first attempt to save the correct value, but after repeating it, finally the table is 'clean' now.

Brian K,

In fact, it is a Dell laptop; but, replacing the hard disk, I did not re-install the 'service' partition - at least not intentionaly: perhaps the All-in-one "System software" had different plans...

Thank you all for your help
claus-volker

 

cv55,

The DS: NTFS Partition: 0x6 (FAT16) etc types concern me. They are an error and I'd consider using pqedit32 to change the partition types as outlined in the other thread. The first four logical volumes are affected.

It doesn't matter if this partition is omitted.

 

Brian:

I think he got it fixed.

 

Missed that. What do you think happened?

 

Brian:

A good question. The OP said that he used DD9 and the XP installer to partition his disk. Perhaps one of the programs quit before completing all of its tasks? It sounds like the partitions were created properly but the table wasn't. ??

 

I get you straight, that this is, what you notice in my screen shot? - it's not a known issue of DD?!

I think so, too. In the meantime I made some more changes to the partition layout - without any problems.

That is, what I would now suppose, too. I remember a fast shut down of the system after having finished (or not...) the partition works - I'm a bit nervous about the battery since Dell stopped offering replacement parts for the 3 year old laptop... Anyway, DD should, I think, be able to notice incomplete tasks; and usually it is.

What astonished me, was the speed of DD in completing formatting jobs: when making the XP set up format 250GB, there is time for a good lunch; DD did finish the logical volumes within 10 minutes...

claus-volker

 

claus-volker,

A Microsoft format includes chkdsk /r which is very time consuming with a large partition.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302686