beginner for finding boot sector info

NTDEV
1

hi all,
i want to know how i can get boot sector information for doing fat
analysis of any storage device like hard disk cd etc.any sample linkor
tutorial that can help me will be ok.

if there is any sample in the ddk that could be helpful for my work plz let
me know because you people have better idea about this.

Thanks
Nayan

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2

nayan kumar wrote:

hi all,
i want to know how i can get boot sector information for doing
fat analysis of any storage device like hard disk cd etc.any sample
linkor tutorial that can help me will be ok.

if there is any sample in the ddk that could be helpful for my work
plz let me know because you people have better idea about this.

What kind of information are you after? The boot sector info isn’t
usually very interesting.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

3

Hi Tim,
Thanks for your response.i have been assigned a work to read the
boot sector information for fetching the MBR and partition table info and
the result that i will get after doing some calculation on the data of some
field that i will get after reading the MBR and partition table structure i
will have to calculate the offset or find the address of the input file for
reading the contents of that file of particular storage device like sd
card,hard disk etc.

i would be thankful for any help in this regard.

Thanks
Nayan

From: Tim Roberts
>Reply-To: “Windows System Software Devs Interest List”
>
>To: “Windows System Software Devs Interest List”
>Subject: Re: [ntdev] beginner for finding boot sector info
>Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 10:25:29 -0800
>
>nayan kumar wrote:
> > hi all,
> > i want to know how i can get boot sector information for doing
> > fat analysis of any storage device like hard disk cd etc.any sample
> > linkor tutorial that can help me will be ok.
> >
> > if there is any sample in the ddk that could be helpful for my work
> > plz let me know because you people have better idea about this.
>
>What kind of information are you after? The boot sector info isn’t
>usually very interesting.
>
>–
>Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
>Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
>
>
>—
>Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
>http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256
>
>To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
>http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

_________________________________________________________________
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4

Read the MSDN Library entry for CreateFile() at least five times. Pay
attention to ALL options and the comments. Hint: PhysicalDrive0, and C:.
Learn the difference between logical and physical drives. Also learn the
requirements for your program so you can know which should be your target.

“nayan kumar” wrote in message news:xxxxx@ntdev…
>
> Hi Tim,
> Thanks for your response.i have been assigned a work to read the
> boot sector information for fetching the MBR and partition table info and
> the result that i will get after doing some calculation on the data of
> some field that i will get after reading the MBR and partition table
> structure i will have to calculate the offset or find the address of the
> input file for reading the contents of that file of particular storage
> device like sd card,hard disk etc.
>
> i would be thankful for any help in this regard.
>
>
>
> Thanks
> Nayan
>
>>From: Tim Roberts
>>Reply-To: “Windows System Software Devs Interest List”
>>
>>To: “Windows System Software Devs Interest List”
>>Subject: Re: [ntdev] beginner for finding boot sector info
>>Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 10:25:29 -0800
>>
>>nayan kumar wrote:
>> > hi all,
>> > i want to know how i can get boot sector information for doing
>> > fat analysis of any storage device like hard disk cd etc.any sample
>> > linkor tutorial that can help me will be ok.
>> >
>> > if there is any sample in the ddk that could be helpful for my work
>> > plz let me know because you people have better idea about this.
>>
>>What kind of information are you after? The boot sector info isn’t
>>usually very interesting.
>>
>>–
>>Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
>>Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
>>
>>
>>—
>>Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
>>http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256
>>
>>To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
>>http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Discover. Explore. Connect-Windows Live Spaces. Check out!
> http://www.msnspecials.in/windowslive/livespaces.asp
>
>

5

nayan kumar wrote:

Hi Tim,
Thanks for your response.i have been assigned a work to read
the boot sector information for fetching the MBR and partition table
info and the result that i will get after doing some calculation on
the data of some field that i will get after reading the MBR and
partition table structure i will have to calculate the offset or find
the address of the input file for reading the contents of that file of
particular storage device like sd card,hard disk etc.

This takes way more than reading the boot sector! The boot sector can
tell you where a partition begins. After that, you have to find out
what type of file system it is. After THAT, you have to understand the
table formats for the file systems you might encounter, first to find
the root directory, then to parse the root directory to find the folder
you need, then to find the table of sectors to know where your file
actually lives. This is a very complicated project.

Google is much faster than this mailing list, especially for reference
information like this. I Googled for “format mbr partition table” and
got 362,000 hits, including a very good Wikipedia article.

Why can’t you just mount your disk normally and use the standard
operating system services to access your file? That’s what they are
there for.

(This post gave me quite a feeling of deja vu; we had essentially the
exact same question come up on the libusb mailing list a few weeks ago.)

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

6

Hi Tim,

yes you got my point i exactly have to perform similiar action
through my driver.Time is not constraint for us.although i google about this
topic i got several tutorial and useful stuff regarding this but still a kid
infront of you great people.as far as working on driver is concern i am
absolutly beginner so far i finished one filter driver for pci device and
absolutly blank paper for this file system driver .even though at this stage
after reading some stuff about this i got some idea about this but still
clueless about from where to start and how to proceed.if its possible for
you to guide me for this work i will be very thankfull to you .

Regards
Nayan

From: Tim Roberts
>Reply-To: “Windows System Software Devs Interest List”
>
>To: “Windows System Software Devs Interest List”
>Subject: Re: [ntdev] beginner for finding boot sector info
>Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 10:05:14 -0800
>
>nayan kumar wrote:
> >
> > Hi Tim,
> > Thanks for your response.i have been assigned a work to read
> > the boot sector information for fetching the MBR and partition table
> > info and the result that i will get after doing some calculation on
> > the data of some field that i will get after reading the MBR and
> > partition table structure i will have to calculate the offset or find
> > the address of the input file for reading the contents of that file of
> > particular storage device like sd card,hard disk etc.
>
>This takes way more than reading the boot sector! The boot sector can
>tell you where a partition begins. After that, you have to find out
>what type of file system it is. After THAT, you have to understand the
>table formats for the file systems you might encounter, first to find
>the root directory, then to parse the root directory to find the folder
>you need, then to find the table of sectors to know where your file
>actually lives. This is a very complicated project.
>
>Google is much faster than this mailing list, especially for reference
>information like this. I Googled for “format mbr partition table” and
>got 362,000 hits, including a very good Wikipedia article.
>
>Why can’t you just mount your disk normally and use the standard
>operating system services to access your file? That’s what they are
>there for.
>
>(This post gave me quite a feeling of deja vu; we had essentially the
>exact same question come up on the libusb mailing list a few weeks ago.)
>
>–
>Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
>Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
>
>
>—
>Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
>http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256
>
>To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
>http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

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7

Hi,

if you’re still clueless I think that David gave you good advice:
…
Learn the difference between logical and physical drives.
Also learn the requirements for your program so you can
know which should be your target.

Will you need to access the MBR which is physical, or the BS ?

Else

“nayan kumar”

om> cc:
Sent by: Subject: Re: [ntdev] beginner for finding boot sector info (Unsigned Mail)
bounce-270048-16691@li
sts.osr.com

11/15/2006 05:13 PM
Please respond to
“Windows System
Software Devs Interest
List”

Hi Tim,

yes you got my point i exactly have to perform similiar action
through my driver.Time is not constraint for us.although i google about
this
topic i got several tutorial and useful stuff regarding this but still a
kid
infront of you great people.as far as working on driver is concern i am
absolutly beginner so far i finished one filter driver for pci device and
absolutly blank paper for this file system driver .even though at this
stage
after reading some stuff about this i got some idea about this but still
clueless about from where to start and how to proceed.if its possible for
you to guide me for this work i will be very thankfull to you .

Regards
Nayan

>From: Tim Roberts
>Reply-To: “Windows System Software Devs Interest List”
>
>To: “Windows System Software Devs Interest List”
>Subject: Re: [ntdev] beginner for finding boot sector info
>Date: Tue, 14 Nov 2006 10:05:14 -0800
>
>nayan kumar wrote:
> >
> > Hi Tim,
> > Thanks for your response.i have been assigned a work to read
> > the boot sector information for fetching the MBR and partition table
> > info and the result that i will get after doing some calculation on
> > the data of some field that i will get after reading the MBR and
> > partition table structure i will have to calculate the offset or find
> > the address of the input file for reading the contents of that file of
> > particular storage device like sd card,hard disk etc.
>
>This takes way more than reading the boot sector! The boot sector can
>tell you where a partition begins. After that, you have to find out
>what type of file system it is. After THAT, you have to understand the
>table formats for the file systems you might encounter, first to find
>the root directory, then to parse the root directory to find the folder
>you need, then to find the table of sectors to know where your file
>actually lives. This is a very complicated project.
>
>Google is much faster than this mailing list, especially for reference
>information like this. I Googled for “format mbr partition table” and
>got 362,000 hits, including a very good Wikipedia article.
>
>Why can’t you just mount your disk normally and use the standard
>operating system services to access your file? That’s what they are
>there for.
>
>(This post gave me quite a feeling of deja vu; we had essentially the
>exact same question come up on the libusb mailing list a few weeks ago.)
>
>–
>Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
>Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
>
>
>—
>Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
>http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256
>
>To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
>http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

_________________________________________________________________
Spice up your IM conversations. New, colorful and animated emoticons. Get
chatting! http://server1.msn.co.in/SP05/emoticons/

—
Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256

To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

8

Nayan,

As we have said on this forum many, many times, “What is the real problem
you are trying to solve?”

What you are describing by insisting that you are going to start from the
MBR and eventually read a file is implementing a read-only version of
every known file system. Do you think that’s a reachable solution to your
real problem?

Again, what is the problem that you are really trying to solve? It may be
that someone here has a simple solution to *that* problem, but you need to
state that problem in order to find out if a simple solution is available.

Phil

Philip D. Barila
Seagate Technology LLC
(720) 684-1842

From: xxxxx@lists.osr.com
[mailto:xxxxx@lists.osr.com] On Behalf Of “nayan kumar”

Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2006 9:14 AM
To: “Windows System Software Devs Interest List”
Subject: Re: [ntdev] beginner for finding boot sector info

Hi Tim,

yes you got my point i exactly have to perform similiar action
through my driver.Time is not constraint for us.although i google about
this
topic i got several tutorial and useful stuff regarding this but still a
kid
infront of you great people.as far as working on driver is concern i am
absolutly beginner so far i finished one filter driver for pci device and
absolutly blank paper for this file system driver .even though at this
stage
after reading some stuff about this i got some idea about this but still
clueless about from where to start and how to proceed.if its possible for
you to guide me for this work i will be very thankfull to you .

Regards
Nayan

9

nayan kumar wrote:

yes you got my point i exactly have to perform similiar action
through my driver.Time is not constraint for us.although i google
about this topic i got several tutorial and useful stuff regarding
this but still a kid infront of you great people.as far as working on
driver is concern i am absolutly beginner so far i finished one filter
driver for pci device and absolutly blank paper for this file system
driver .

Wait a minute. Why do you think you need a file system driver? That’s
not the task you described.

I’ll echo the other two responses this morning: what are you REALLY
trying to do? “Reading the MBR” is not a task. It is one minor step on
the way to some larger goal. “Reading a file from disk” is also not a
task, you can do that today without writing any driver code at all.
What is the long-term goal?

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

10

Hi Tim Philip kluger
i apologize if i made you confuse.what ever method
i mention in my previous post that was my view to acomplish that assigned
task. as i told you i am unware about this, my view may be wrong.

the task that i have to acomplish is as follows.

After intializing the SD Memory card if i will send CMD 17 with Arg 0 then i
will get the data block of 512 byte .This 512 byte of data will contain the
information such as

Bytes Per Sector 11 2
Sectors Per Cluster 13 1
Reserved Sectors 14 2
FATs 16 1
Root Entries 17 2
Small Sectors 19 2
Media Descriptor 21 1
Sectors Per FAT 22 2
Sectors Per Track 24 2
Heads 26 2
Hidden Sectors 28 4
Large Sectors 32 4

some field of BPB. after this i will get either name of the file as a input
or address of any data as a result of communication with SD memory card
.Based on input either that address or file name i will have to jump at that
particular address and read the data from that address.

this is the task that i have to complete if you can guide me what i should
do to acomplish this and how i should proceed it would be great help.

Thanks to all of you for your response

Nayan

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11

nayan kumar wrote:

Hi Tim Philip kluger
i apologize if i made you confuse.what ever
method i mention in my previous post that was my view to acomplish
that assigned task. as i told you i am unware about this, my view may
be wrong.

the task that i have to acomplish is as follows.

After intializing the SD Memory card if i will send CMD 17 with Arg 0
then i will get the data block of 512 byte .This 512 byte of data will
contain the information such as

Bytes Per Sector 11 2
Sectors Per Cluster 13 1
Reserved Sectors 14 2
FATs 16 1
Root Entries 17 2
Small Sectors 19 2
Media Descriptor 21 1
Sectors Per FAT 22 2
Sectors Per Track 24 2
Heads 26 2
Hidden Sectors 28 4
Large Sectors 32 4

Much of that information will only be present if the memory card is
formatted with a FAT file system. Not all of them are.

some field of BPB. after this i will get either name of the file as a
input or address of any data as a result of communication with SD
memory card .Based on input either that address or file name i will
have to jump at that particular address and read the data from that
address.

this is the task that i have to complete if you can guide me what i
should do to acomplish this and how i should proceed it would be great
help.

Sure. To accomplish this task, you should forget completely about
writing a driver, and instead let the standard operating system drivers
mount the card and assign a drive letter. Then, use the standard
operating system features to find your file. That’s what those drivers
are THERE for.

–
Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.

12

Hi Tim,
Thanks a lot for your help.

Regards
Nayan

From: Tim Roberts
>Reply-To: “Windows System Software Devs Interest List”
>
>To: “Windows System Software Devs Interest List”
>Subject: Re: [ntdev] beginner for finding boot sector info
>Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2006 12:09:16 -0800
>
>nayan kumar wrote:
> > Hi Tim Philip kluger
> > i apologize if i made you confuse.what ever
> > method i mention in my previous post that was my view to acomplish
> > that assigned task. as i told you i am unware about this, my view may
> > be wrong.
> >
> > the task that i have to acomplish is as follows.
> >
> > After intializing the SD Memory card if i will send CMD 17 with Arg 0
> > then i will get the data block of 512 byte .This 512 byte of data will
> > contain the information such as
> >
> > Bytes Per Sector 11 2
> > Sectors Per Cluster 13 1
> > Reserved Sectors 14 2
> > FATs 16 1
> > Root Entries 17 2
> > Small Sectors 19 2
> > Media Descriptor 21 1
> > Sectors Per FAT 22 2
> > Sectors Per Track 24 2
> > Heads 26 2
> > Hidden Sectors 28 4
> > Large Sectors 32 4
>
>Much of that information will only be present if the memory card is
>formatted with a FAT file system. Not all of them are.
>
>
> > some field of BPB. after this i will get either name of the file as a
> > input or address of any data as a result of communication with SD
> > memory card .Based on input either that address or file name i will
> > have to jump at that particular address and read the data from that
> > address.
> >
> > this is the task that i have to complete if you can guide me what i
> > should do to acomplish this and how i should proceed it would be great
> > help.
>
>Sure. To accomplish this task, you should forget completely about
>writing a driver, and instead let the standard operating system drivers
>mount the card and assign a drive letter. Then, use the standard
>operating system features to find your file. That’s what those drivers
>are THERE for.
>
>–
>Tim Roberts, xxxxx@probo.com
>Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.
>
>
>—
>Questions? First check the Kernel Driver FAQ at
>http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?id=256
>
>To unsubscribe, visit the List Server section of OSR Online at
>http://www.osronline.com/page.cfm?name=ListServer

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14

It’s considered bad form here to resurrect old threads, and this one is 17 years old.

If you had Googled “fat32 file system source code”, you would have seen at least 3 references to repositories, and it would have been much faster than asking this group.