Re: free space before the first and after the last partition if GPT partition scheme is used

[Sven Hartge <sven@svenhartge.de>]

Martin T <m4rtntns@gmail.com> wrote:

> I see. Thanks! Are those "bios_grub" or "EFI system" partitions
> located inside the GPT scheme, i.e. inside the first ~16KiB of the
> disk and it is not seen with gdisk? In addition, if this small area
> after the last partition is also for alignment purposes, then where is
> the backup GPT stored?

It is located somewhere inside the GPT. Those partitions do not need to
be in the first 16KiB of a disk, they can be everywhere. (Though some
UEFI implementations have problems if the boot partition is beyond the
2TiB mark.)

And of course they are seen by gdisk, as they are normal partitions like
every other partition. There are no "magic" disk spaces inside a GPT.

# gdisk -l /dev/sda
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 0.8.8

Partition table scan:
  MBR: protective
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT.
Disk /dev/sda: 3907029168 sectors, 1.8 TiB
Logical sector size: 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): A2890495-0F45-4BA9-BA69-598347F489B9
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 3907029134
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 0 sectors (0 bytes)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              34            2047   1007.0 KiB  EF02  primary
   2            2048       195311615   93.1 GiB    FD00  primary
   3       195311616      3907029134   1.7 TiB     FD00  primary

Grüße,
Sven.

-- 
Sigmentation fault. Core dumped.