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+GPT fdisk (aka gdisk)

+

+by Roderick W. Smith, rodsmith@rodsbooks.com

+

+******************************** IMPORTANT ********************************

+Most versions of Windows cannot boot from a GPT disk, and most varieties

+prior to Vista cannot read GPT disks. GPT fdisk is a partition editor for

+GPT disks, and it will *AUTOMATICALLY CONVERT* MBR disks to GPT form.

+Therefore, you should **NOT** use GPT fdisk on a Windows system unless you

+fully understand what you're doing! If you accidentally use GPT fdisk on

+your boot disk, or perhaps even on a data disk, you may find recovery to be

+very difficult!

+***************************************************************************

+

+Read the main README file for general information on the program, and read

+the gdisk.html document (the Linux man page converted to HTML format) for

+detailed use information. My GPT fdisk Web page,

+http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/, provides a more tutorial introduction to

+the software.

+

+Windows Use Notes

+-----------------

+

+The Windows version of GPT fdisk was added with version 0.6.2 of the

+package. The Windows binary package includes the gdisk.exe interactive

+text-mode program file but no equivalent to the sgdisk program that's

+available with Linux, FreeBSD, and OS X builds. In theory, an sgdisk.exe

+for Windows could be built if the popt library were installed. I've not

+attempted to do this myself, though. If you care to try, check

+http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/popt.htm for information on popt

+for Windows.

+

+To install the program, copy the gdisk.exe program file to any directory on

+your path, such as C:\Windows. Alternatively, you can change to the

+program's directory or type its complete path whenever you use it.

+

+To use the program, first launch a Command Prompt as the Administrator. To

+do this, locate the Command Prompt program icon, right-click it, and select

+"Run as Administrator." If you use a non-Administrator Command Prompt, you

+won't be able to edit hard disk partition tables, although you will be able

+to edit raw disk image files.

+

+The program requires a hard disk identifier as an option. You can specify

+this in either of two forms. The first way is as a number followed by a

+colon, as in:

+

+gdisk 0:

+

+Disks are numbered starting from 0, so the preceding command launches gdisk

+on the first disk. The second way to specify a disk device is via a

+harder-to-remember name:

+

+gdisk \\.\physicaldrive0

+

+This command is equivalent to the earlier one -- it edits the partition

+table on the first physical disk. Change the number at the end of the

+device name to change the disk edited.

+

+If you pass the "-l" option in addition to the disk identifier, the program

+displays the current partition table information and then exits. This use

+entails no risk to MBR disks, since the program never writes data back to

+the disk when used in this way.

+

+As noted above, editing the first disk with GPT fdisk is usually a Bad

+Idea. An exception would be if your system uses an Extensible Firmware

+Interface (EFI) and already boots from a GPT disk. It's safer to edit

+non-boot disks, which usually have numbers of 1 and above, but only if you

+run a version of Windows with GPT support. For more information on Windows'

+support of GPT, see Microsoft's Web page on the topic:

+

+http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/storage/GPT_FAQ.mspx

+

+Source Code and Compilation Issues

+----------------------------------

+

+As of version 0.6.2, I haven't been able to get the code to detect the disk

+sector size to work under Windows, so the Windows binary always assumes a

+512-byte sector size. If you use a disk with another sector size, you'll

+have to change this assumption in the source code (in diskio-windows.cc),

+use a version for another platform, or use a different partitioning tool

+altogether.

+

+I compiled gdisk.exe using MinGW (http://www.mingw.org), and in particular

+its Linux-hosted cross-compiler. I have not tested the compilability of the

+source code under more mainstream Windows compilers, or even on the

+Windows-hosted MinGW variant. MinGW was designed for porting Unix

+applications to Windows, so it's entirely possible that it will work where

+other compilers won't.

+

+Under Ubuntu Linux, the Makefile.mingw file enables compilation of the

+software. (Type "make -f Makefile.mingw" to compile the software.) If you

+try to compile using another compiler or even using MinGW under Windows or

+another Linux variety, you may need to adjust the Makefile.mingw options.

+

+If you modify GPT fdisk to get it to compile under another compiler, I

+welcome submission of patches.