MBR to EMBR back to MBR

[Brian K]

mashedmitten,

Can you post a partinfo and a link to a screenshot? They should be interesting.

[mashedmitten]

I appreciate you're trying to help Brian.

I'm not going through the upload fiasco again, don't have the patience ATM. Here's what's listed in PartWork for the disk;

MBR0 Partition 476938 MiB Extended

Backup Volume 50000 Mib NTSF

There are 4 more Volumes listed, same as Backup, except for size. The MBR0 entry only showed up after I had converted MBR to EMBR and back, when I first set up the multi-boot system. Seems like MBR0 is a wrapper for the EMBR, but I don't know if the partition table will get pooched if I just delete it. I know I can fix it, if so, and I know I can just back everything up, wipe it and restore the partitions, but between a broken back and helping a cousin who's mother had a stroke and burned the house down, I don't have time or patience to do it just now. Was hoping for a simple yea/nay answer, seems like a common thing, switching to and back, hoped it was a common issue.

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

You wouldn't want to delete it since it's the extended partition container for the logical volumes (Backup volume, etc.). Deleting it would also delete the volumes. The extended partition has nothing to do with being a MBR or EMBR disk type -- it would exist in either case. It would have already existed on the MBR disk before the conversion to EMBR if you had any logical partitions, but the name (if set) would have reset when converted back to MBR.

[mashedmitten]

TeraByte Support(PP) wrote:
> You wouldn't want to delete it since it's the extended partition container
> for the logical volumes (Backup volume, etc.). Deleting it would also
> delete the volumes. The extended partition has nothing to do with being a
> MBR or EMBR disk type -- it would exist in either case. It would have
> already existed on the MBR disk before the conversion to EMBR if you had
> any logical partitions, but the name (if set) would have reset when
> converted back to MBR.

Thanks for that Paul, it's what I figured, which is why I asked. I have another system with two disks, never converted the 2nd to EMBR and don't have that entry. I never assigned a name, whatever happened was default.

The thing that's puzzling me is the MBR0 entry shows in the second pane in Boot Edit when I open properties for any OS partition. It's almost like Fill has been used, but I never used it. I switched to and from within a minute. Besides, the 2nd disk being MBR, fill isn't needed to show the contents, right? I'm guessing the Boot Edit entry is tied to the Extended Partition and shouldn't be deleted either?

[mashedmitten]

Here's what I see in Boot Edit.

https://ibb.co/cA677a

[TeraByte Support(PP)]

It would be in the MBR partition table by default since it's an MBR disk. You don't have the option to remove it because removing it would mean deleting it. It would need to be an EMBR disk to give you control over filling, etc. Otherwise, you just have basic functions -- like hiding.

Note that if the disk were EMBR that removing the extended partition from the partition table will also remove all volumes in the extended partition. You can't fill/clear individual volumes.