Partitioning system for Sun Sparc machines

Infos extracted from

=> File System Forensic Analysis, Brian Carrier

and in particular the

=> online copy here

), tables 6.9 and 6.10.

The format is called VTOC (volume table of contents). It is stored at offset 0 on-disk. All values are big endian.

Note that the x86 version of Solaris uses a different layout.

+--------------+----------------------------------+
| Byte offset  | Description                      |
|==============|==================================|
| 0-127        | ASCII disk label                 |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 128-261      | VTOC *                           |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 262-263      | Sectors to skip when writing     |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 264-265      | Setors to skip when reading      |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 266-419      | Reserved                         |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 420-421      | Disk speed                       |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 422-423      | Number of cylinders              |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 424-425      | Alternates per cylinder          |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 426-429      | Reserved                         |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 430-431      | Interleave                       |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 432-433      | Number of data cylinders         |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 434-435      | Number of alternate cylinders    |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 436-437      | Number of heads                  |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 438-439      | Number of sectors per track      |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 440-443      | Reserved                         |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 444-451      | Partition 1 disk map             |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| …            | More partition disk maps         |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 500-507      | Partition 8 disk map             |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 508-509      | Signature (0xDABE)               |
+--------------+----------------------------------+
| 510-511      | Checksum                         |
+--------------+----------------------------------+

The VTOC itself:

+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| 0-3       | Version                             |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| 4-11      | Volume name                         |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| 12-13     | Number of partitions                |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| 14-15     | Partition 1 type                    |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| 16-17     | Partition 1 flags                   |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| …         | More partition types and flags      |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| 42-45     | Partition 8 type and flags          |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| 46-57     | Boot info                           |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| 58-59     | Reserved                            |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| 60-63     | Signature 0x600DDEEE                |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| 64-101    | Reserved                            |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| 102-105   | Partition 1 timestamp               |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| …         | More partition timestamps           |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+
| 130-133   | Parittion 8 timestamp               |
+-----------+-------------------------------------+

Partition types (informative):

• unassigned

• /boot

• /

• swap

• /usr

• entire disk

• /stand

• /var

• /home

• alternate sector

• cachefs

Partition flags:

• 1 - Not mountable

• 128 - read only

Disk maps:

+-------+---------------------+
| 0-3   | Starting cylinder   |
+-------+---------------------+
| 4-7   | Size (in sectors)   |
+-------+---------------------+