Provided by: gdisk_1.0.3-1_amd64 bug

NAME

       fixparts - MBR partition table repair utility

SYNOPSIS

       fixparts device

DESCRIPTION

       FixParts  (aka fixparts) is a text-mode menu-driven program for repairing certain types of
       problems with Master Boot Record (MBR) partition tables.  The  program  has  three  design
       goals, although a few additional features are supported, as well:

       *      It  can remove stray GUID Partition Table (GPT) data, which can be left behind on a
              disk that was once used as a GPT disk but then incompletely converted to  the  more
              common (as of 2011) MBR form.

       *      It can repair mis-sized extended partitions -- either partitions that extend beyond
              the physical end of the disk  or  that  overlap  with  nearby  primary  partitions.
              FixParts  is  designed in such a way that this type of repair occurs automatically,
              so if it's the only problem with your disk, you can launch  the  program  and  then
              immediately  save  the  partition  table, making no manual changes, and the program
              will fix the problem.

       *      You can change primary partitions into logical  partitions  or  vice-versa,  within
              constraints imposed by the MBR data structures.

       Additional  features  include  the  ability  to change partition type codes or boot/active
       flags, to delete partitions, and to recompute CHS values. With the possible  exception  of
       recomputing  CHS values, these secondary features are better performed with fdisk, because
       fixparts' design means that it's likely  to  alter  partition  numbering  even  when  such
       changes are not requested.

       The  fixparts  program  employs  a  user  interface  similar to that of Linux's fdisk, but
       fixparts is much more specialized. Most importantly, you can't create new partitions  with
       fixparts, although you can change primary/logical assignment.

       In the MBR scheme, partitions come in three varieties:

       primary
              These  partitions  are defined in the first sector of the hard disk and are limited
              in number to four. Some OSes, such as Windows and FreeBSD, must boot from a primary
              partition.

       extended
              Extended partitions are specialized primary partitions. They serve as holding areas
              for logical partitions.

       logical
              A disk can contain an arbitrary number of logical  partitions  (fixparts,  however,
              imposes  a  limit  of  124  logical  partitions). All the logical partitions reside
              inside a single extended partition,  and  are  defined  using  a  linked-list  data
              structure.  This  fact  means  that  every logical partition must be preceded by at
              least one sector of unallocated space to  hold  its  defining  data  structure  (an
              Extended Boot Record, or EBR).

       These  distinctions  mean  that  primary  and  logical  partitions  cannot  be arbitrarily
       interspersed. A disk can contain one to three primary partitions, a block of one  or  more
       logical partitions, and one to three more primary partitions (for a total of three primary
       partitions, not counting the extended partition). Primary partitions may not be sandwiched
       between  logical  partitions,  since this would mean placing a primary partition within an
       extended partition (which is just a specific type of primary partition).

       Unlike  most  disk  utilities,  fixparts'  user  interface  ignores  extended  partitions.
       Internally,  the  program discards the information on the original extended partition and,
       when you tell it to save its changes, it generates a new extended partition to contain the
       then-defined   logical   partitions.  This  is  done  because  most  of  the  repairs  and
       manipulations the tool performs require generating a fresh extended partition, so  keeping
       the original in the user interface would only be a complication.

       Another  unusual  feature  of  fixparts'  user  interface is that partition numbers do not
       necessarily correlate with primary/logical  status.  In  most  utilities,  partitions  1-4
       correspond  to  primary partitions, whereas partitions 5 and up are logical partitions. In
       fixparts, any partition number may be assigned primary or logical status, so long  as  the
       rules  for  layout  described  earlier  are  obeyed.  When  the  partition table is saved,
       partitions will be assigned appropriately and then tools such  as  the  Linux  kernel  and
       fdisk will give them conventional numbers.

       When  it  first  starts,  fixparts  performs a scan for GPT data. If the disk looks like a
       conventional GPT disk, fixparts refuses to run. If the disk appears to be  a  conventional
       MBR  disk  but  GPT  signatures  are present in the GPT primary or secondary header areas,
       fixparts offers to delete this extraneous data. If you tell  it  to  do  so,  the  program
       immediately  wipes the GPT header or headers. (If only one header was found, only that one
       header will be erased, to minimize the risk of damaging a boot loader or other  data  that
       might have overwritten just one of the GPT headers.)

       With  the exception of optionally erasing leftover GPT data when it first starts, fixparts
       keeps all changes in memory until the user writes changes with the w  command.  Thus,  you
       can  adjust  your  partitions in the user interface and abort those changes by typing q to
       quit without saving changes.

OPTIONS

       The fixparts utility supports no command-line options, except  for  specification  of  the
       target device.

       Most  interactions  with  fixparts  occur  with  its  interactive text-mode menu. Specific
       functions are:

       a      Toggle the active/boot flag. This flag is required by some boot loaders and OSes.

       c      Recompute the cylinder/head/sector (CHS) values for all partitions. CHS  addressing
              mode  is  largely obsolete, but some OSes and utilities complain if they don't like
              the CHS values. Note that fixparts' CHS values are likely to be incorrect on  disks
              smaller than about 8 GiB except on Linux.

       l      Change  a  partition's status to logical. This option will only work if the current
              partition layout supports such a change. Note that if changing a partition's status
              in  this  way  is  not  currently  possible,  making  some other change may make it
              possible. For instance, omitting a partition that precedes the target partition may
              enable  converting  a  partition  to logical form if there had been no free sectors
              between the two partitions.

       o      Omit a partition. Once omitted, the partition will still  appear  in  the  fixparts
              partition  list, but it will be flagged as omitted. You can subsequently convert it
              to primary or logical form with the r or l commands, respectively.  When  you  save
              your changes with w, though, the partition will be lost.

       p      Display  basic  partition  summary  data.  This  includes  partition's  number, the
              boot/active    flag's    status,    starting    and    ending    sector    numbers,
              primary/logical/omitted  status,  whether  or not the partition may be converted to
              logical form, and the partition's MBR types code.

       q      Quit from the program without saving your changes.  Use this  option  if  you  just
              wanted  to  view  information  or if you make a mistake and want to back out of all
              your changes.

       r      Change a partition's status to primary. This option will only work if  the  current
              partition   layout   supports   such  a  change.  Note  that  every  partition  can
              theoretically become a primary partition, although in some  configurations,  making
              this  change  will  require omitting some partitions.  If fixparts refuses to allow
              changing a partition to primary, you  may  need  to  convert  other  partitions  to
              logical form or omit them entirely.

       s      Sort partition entries. This option orders partitions in the display to match their
              on-disk positions, which can make understanding the  disk  layout  easier  in  some
              cases.  This  option  has no effect on the ultimate ordering of logical partitions,
              which are sorted before being saved. The order of primary partitions in  the  final
              saved  partition  table  may  be affected by this option. In both cases, as already
              noted, the partition numbers displayed by fixparts may not be  the  same  as  those
              used by the kernel or displayed by other partitioning tools.

       t      Change  a  partition's  type  code.  You  enter  the  type  code  using  a one-byte
              hexadecimal number.

       w      Write data. Use this command to save your changes and exit from the program.

       ?      Print the menu. Type this command (or any other  unrecognized  command)  to  see  a
              summary of available options.

BUGS

       Known bugs and limitations include:

       *      The  program  compiles  correctly  only  on  Linux, FreeBSD, Mac OS X, and Windows.
              Linux versions for x86-64 (64-bit), x86 (32-bit), and PowerPC  (32-bit)  have  been
              tested, with the x86-64 version having seen the most testing. Under FreeBSD, 32-bit
              (x86) and 64-bit (x86-64) versions have been tested. Only 32-bit versions  for  Mac
              OS X and Windows have been tested.

       *      The  FreeBSD version of the program can't write changes to the partition table to a
              disk when existing partitions on that disk are mounted. (The  same  problem  exists
              with many other FreeBSD utilities, such as gpt, fdisk, and dd.) This limitation can
              be overcome by typing sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=16 at a shell prompt.

       *      The program can load only up to  128  partitions  (4  primary  partitions  and  124
              logical partitions). This limit can be raised by changing the #define MAX_MBR_PARTS
              line in the basicmbr.h source code file and recompiling.

       *      The program can read  partitions  only  if  the  disk  has  correct  LBA  partition
              descriptors.  These descriptors should be present on any disk over 8 GiB in size or
              on smaller disks partitioned with any but very ancient software.

       *      The  program  makes  no  effort  to  preserve  partition  numbers.  This  can  have
              consequences  for  boot loaders and for mounting filesystems via /etc/fstab. It may
              be necessary to edit configuration files or even to re-install your boot loader.

       *

              The program may change the order of partitions in the partition table.

AUTHORS

       Primary author: Roderick W. Smith (rodsmith@rodsbooks.com)

       Contributors:

       * Yves Blusseau (1otnwmz02@sneakemail.com)

       * David Hubbard (david.c.hubbard@gmail.com)

       * Justin Maggard (justin.maggard@netgear.com)

       * Dwight Schauer (dschauer@gmail.com)

       * Florian Zumbiehl (florz@florz.de)

SEE ALSO

       cfdisk (8), cgdisk (8), fdisk (8), mkfs (8), parted (8), sfdisk (8) gdisk (8) sgdisk (8)

       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record

       http://www.rodsbooks.com/fixparts/

AVAILABILITY

       The fixparts command is part of the GPT fdisk package and is available from Rod Smith.