Re: Partition unreadable
Bernard composed on 2020-04-04 11:00 (UTC+0200):
> http://bdebreil.free.fr/IMG_0906.jpg
> As for partition sda2 : I don't remember having created this partition
> when installing Stretch on this then newly bought desktop (2 years ago).
> Isn'it funny that it shows the exact same size as that of the swap
> partition sda5 ?
Rather than a filesystem (or LVM) container, which is what your sda1 and sda5 are,
sda2 is a logical partition container, labeled extended. Creating it as a separate
partitioning step is an anachronism which in practical terms serves no purpose but
to confuse those uninitiated with legacy/MBR partitioning.
> I doubt that I would have willingly created such a small partition...
> maybe the install program created it...
The smarter partitioning programs don't "create it", because it is nothing but an
envelope within which partitions that can contain filesystems may be created.
These smarter ones do create it, but they do so automatically without making any
mention of it, automatically making them the size required to contain the
partitions within that they contain. It occupies a partition table entry that is
nothing but a definition of the size of the container, plus a pointer to the first
partition that it contains. Thus if only one partition is contained, it may
virtually match the size of that which it contains, the difference being the size
allocated to the definition itself.
The gap in numbers is because the MBR partition table only has space for 4
entries. That makes 5 the first available number for a logical partition contained
by the extended "partition" definition. Logical is the name given defined by the
extended's table entry, plus each in the chain of additional entries at the start
of each that is defined beyond that which is labeled #5.
--
Evolution as taught in public schools is religion, not science.
Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!
Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/
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