MBR (Master Boot Record) partition table is a traditional way of MS-DOS to partition larger hard disc drives into distinct partitions.
This table is stored in the end of the boot sector (first sector) of the drive, after the bootstrap code. Original DOS 2.0 specification allowed only 4 partitions per disc, but DOS 3.2 introduced concept of "extended partitions", which work as nested extra "boot records" which are pointed to by original ("primary") partitions in MBR.
This page hosts a formal specification of MBR (Master Boot Record) partition table using Kaitai Struct. This specification can be automatically translated into a variety of programming languages to get a parsing library.
digraph {
rankdir=LR;
node [shape=plaintext];
subgraph cluster__mbr_partition_table {
label="MbrPartitionTable";
graph[style=dotted];
mbr_partition_table__seq [label=<<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLBORDER="1" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">pos</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">size</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">type</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">id</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="bootstrap_code_pos">0</TD><TD PORT="bootstrap_code_size">446</TD><TD></TD><TD PORT="bootstrap_code_type">bootstrap_code</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="partitions_pos">446</TD><TD PORT="partitions_size">16</TD><TD>PartitionEntry</TD><TD PORT="partitions_type">partitions</TD></TR>
<TR><TD COLSPAN="4" PORT="partitions__repeat">repeat 4 times</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="boot_signature_pos">510</TD><TD PORT="boot_signature_size">2</TD><TD></TD><TD PORT="boot_signature_type">boot_signature</TD></TR>
</TABLE>>];
subgraph cluster__partition_entry {
label="MbrPartitionTable::PartitionEntry";
graph[style=dotted];
partition_entry__seq [label=<<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLBORDER="1" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">pos</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">size</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">type</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">id</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="status_pos">0</TD><TD PORT="status_size">1</TD><TD>u1</TD><TD PORT="status_type">status</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="chs_start_pos">1</TD><TD PORT="chs_start_size">3</TD><TD>Chs</TD><TD PORT="chs_start_type">chs_start</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="partition_type_pos">4</TD><TD PORT="partition_type_size">1</TD><TD>u1</TD><TD PORT="partition_type_type">partition_type</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="chs_end_pos">5</TD><TD PORT="chs_end_size">3</TD><TD>Chs</TD><TD PORT="chs_end_type">chs_end</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="lba_start_pos">8</TD><TD PORT="lba_start_size">4</TD><TD>u4le</TD><TD PORT="lba_start_type">lba_start</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="num_sectors_pos">12</TD><TD PORT="num_sectors_size">4</TD><TD>u4le</TD><TD PORT="num_sectors_type">num_sectors</TD></TR>
</TABLE>>];
}
subgraph cluster__chs {
label="MbrPartitionTable::Chs";
graph[style=dotted];
chs__seq [label=<<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLBORDER="1" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">pos</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">size</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">type</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">id</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="head_pos">0</TD><TD PORT="head_size">1</TD><TD>u1</TD><TD PORT="head_type">head</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="b2_pos">1</TD><TD PORT="b2_size">1</TD><TD>u1</TD><TD PORT="b2_type">b2</TD></TR>
<TR><TD PORT="b3_pos">2</TD><TD PORT="b3_size">1</TD><TD>u1</TD><TD PORT="b3_type">b3</TD></TR>
</TABLE>>];
chs__inst__sector [label=<<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLBORDER="1" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">id</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">value</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>sector</TD><TD>(b2 & 63)</TD></TR>
</TABLE>>];
chs__inst__cylinder [label=<<TABLE BORDER="0" CELLBORDER="1" CELLSPACING="0">
<TR><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">id</TD><TD BGCOLOR="#E0FFE0">value</TD></TR>
<TR><TD>cylinder</TD><TD>(b3 + ((b2 & 192) << 2))</TD></TR>
</TABLE>>];
}
}
mbr_partition_table__seq:partitions_type -> partition_entry__seq [style=bold];
partition_entry__seq:chs_start_type -> chs__seq [style=bold];
partition_entry__seq:chs_end_type -> chs__seq [style=bold];
chs__seq:b2_type -> chs__inst__sector [color="#404040"];
chs__seq:b3_type -> chs__inst__cylinder [color="#404040"];
chs__seq:b2_type -> chs__inst__cylinder [color="#404040"];
}