Awesome
GPT - GUID Partition Table
Install via npm
$ npm install --save gpt
Used by
- Etcher to flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives
- resin-io-modules / partitioninfo to get information about partitions in a disk image
Related Modules
- mbr – Parse / construct Master Boot Records
- apple-partition-map – Parse / construct Apple Partition Maps
- blockdevice – Read from / write to block devices
- disk – Disk / image toolbox
What can I do with this?
- Format disks / images
- Fix a partition table, recover a deleted partition
- Recover the GUID Partition Table from its backup
- Locate partitions which are inaccessible / ignored by the OS
- Verify the integrity of the primary GPT against its backup
Usage
var GPT = require( 'gpt' )
NOTE: For brevity in the examples, error handling may be omitted, and synchronous methods used.
Examples
The following usage examples are consolidated into example/verify.js and runnable, where device
would be a block device (i.e. /dev/rdisk2
on Mac OS, \\.\PhysicalDrive2
on Windows, or /dev/sdb
on Linux);
sudo node example/verify.js <device>
<details>
<summary>Example output</summary>
Master Boot Record: MODERN {
physicalDrive: 0,
timestamp: { seconds: 0, minutes: 0, hours: 0 },
signature: 0,
copyProtected: false,
partitions:
[ Partition {
status: 0,
type: 238,
sectors: 60751871,
firstLBA: 1,
firstCHS: CHS { cylinder: 1023, head: 255, sector: 62 },
lastCHS: CHS { cylinder: 1023, head: 255, sector: 62 } },
Partition {
status: 0,
type: 0,
sectors: 0,
firstLBA: 0,
firstCHS: CHS { cylinder: 0, head: 0, sector: 0 },
lastCHS: CHS { cylinder: 0, head: 0, sector: 0 } },
Partition {
status: 0,
type: 0,
sectors: 0,
firstLBA: 0,
firstCHS: CHS { cylinder: 0, head: 0, sector: 0 },
lastCHS: CHS { cylinder: 0, head: 0, sector: 0 } },
Partition {
status: 0,
type: 0,
sectors: 0,
firstLBA: 0,
firstCHS: CHS { cylinder: 0, head: 0, sector: 0 },
lastCHS: CHS { cylinder: 0, head: 0, sector: 0 } } ],
code:
[ Code {
offset: 0,
data:
<Buffer 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ... > },
Code {
offset: 224,
data:
<Buffer 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ... > } ] }
EFI Parition: Partition {
status: 0,
type: 238,
sectors: 60751871,
firstLBA: 1,
firstCHS: CHS { cylinder: 1023, head: 255, sector: 62 },
lastCHS: CHS { cylinder: 1023, head: 255, sector: 62 } }
Primary: GPT {
blockSize: 512,
guid: 'D871C3D8-25BA-4792-BE54-171138CFA926',
revision: 65536,
headerSize: 92,
headerChecksum: 1129732062,
currentLBA: 1,
backupLBA: 60751871,
firstLBA: 34,
lastLBA: 60751838,
tableOffset: 2,
entries: 128,
entrySize: 128,
tableChecksum: 4191805727,
partitions:
[ PartitionEntry {
type: 'C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B',
guid: 'BC7E4D81-59CC-40A6-84BF-43253C95AE0D',
name: 'EFI System Partition',
firstLBA: 40,
lastLBA: 409639,
attr: 0 },
PartitionEntry {
type: 'EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7',
guid: '1885EDDC-5F6E-45CD-8C5C-E0485563F3CC',
name: '',
firstLBA: 411648,
lastLBA: 60749823,
attr: 0 } ] }
Backup: GPT {
blockSize: 512,
guid: 'D871C3D8-25BA-4792-BE54-171138CFA926',
revision: 65536,
headerSize: 92,
headerChecksum: 4122036460,
currentLBA: 60751871,
backupLBA: 1,
firstLBA: 34,
lastLBA: 60751838,
tableOffset: 60751839,
entries: 128,
entrySize: 128,
tableChecksum: 4191805727,
partitions:
[ PartitionEntry {
type: 'C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B',
guid: 'BC7E4D81-59CC-40A6-84BF-43253C95AE0D',
name: 'EFI System Partition',
firstLBA: 40,
lastLBA: 409639,
attr: 0 },
PartitionEntry {
type: 'EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7',
guid: '1885EDDC-5F6E-45CD-8C5C-E0485563F3CC',
name: '',
firstLBA: 411648,
lastLBA: 60749823,
attr: 0 } ] }
[OK]
</details>
Finding the EFI Partition
The indicator for a GPT formatted device is a protective or hybrid Master Boot Record, containing a partition marked with a type of either 0xEE
or 0xEF
respectively. Thus we need to read & parse the MBR to determine whether a GPT is present or not:
var MBR = require( 'mbr' )
function readMBR() {
var buffer = Buffer.alloc( 512 )
fs.readSync( fd, buffer, 0, buffer.length, 0 )
return MBR.parse( buffer )
}
var mbr = readMBR()
var efiPart = mbr.getEFIPart()
if( efiPart == null ) {
console.log( 'No EFI partition found' )
}
Reading the Primary GPT
function readPrimaryGPT( efiPart ) {
// NOTE: You'll need to know / determine the logical block size of the storage device;
// For the sake of brevity, we'll just go with the still most common 512 bytes
var gpt = new GPT({ blockSize: 512 })
// NOTE: For protective GPTs (0xEF), the MBR's partitions
// attempt to span as much of the device as they can to protect
// against systems attempting to action on the device,
// so the GPT is then located at LBA 1, not the EFI partition's first LBA
var offset = efiPart.type == 0xEE ?
efiPart.firstLBA * gpt.blockSize :
gpt.blockSize
// The default GPT is 33 blocks in length (1 block header, 32 block table)
var buffer = Buffer.alloc( 33 * gpt.blockSize )
fs.readSync( fd, buffer, 0, buffer.length, offset )
return GPT.parse( buffer )
}
var primaryGPT = readPrimaryGPT( efiPart )
NOTE: Reading & parsing a GPT like above will just work in most cases, but to cover all situations (i.e. padding between header & table, custom table entry sizes, etc.), see the "Accounting for everything" example below:
<details> <summary><b>Accounting for everything</b></summary>function readPrimaryGPT( efiPart ) {
// NOTE: You'll need to know / determine the logical block size of the storage device;
// For the sake of brevity, we'll just go with the still most common 512 bytes
var gpt = new GPT({ blockSize: 512 })
// NOTE: For protective GPTs (0xEF), the MBR's partitions
// attempt to span as much of the device as they can to protect
// against systems attempting to action on the device,
// so the GPT is then located at LBA 1, not the EFI partition's first LBA
var offset = efiPart.type == 0xEE ?
efiPart.firstLBA * gpt.blockSize :
gpt.blockSize
// First, we need to read & parse the GPT header, which will declare various
// sizes and offsets for us to calculate where & how long the table and backup are
var headerBuffer = Buffer.alloc( gpt.blockSize )
fs.readSync( fd, headerBuffer, 0, headerBuffer.length, offset )
gpt.parseHeader( headerBuffer )
// Now on to reading the actual partition table
var tableBuffer = Buffer.alloc( gpt.tableSize )
var tableOffset = gpt.tableOffset * gpt.blockSize
fs.readSync( fd, tableBuffer, 0, tableBuffer.length, tableOffset )
// We need to parse the first 4 partition entries & the rest separately
// as the first 4 table entries always occupy one block,
// with the rest following in subsequent blocks
gpt.parseTable( tableBuffer, 0, gpt.blockSize )
gpt.parseTable( tableBuffer, gpt.blockSize, gpt.tableSize )
return gpt
}
var primaryGPT = readPrimaryGPT( efiPart )
</details>
Reading the Backup GPT
function readBackupGPT(primaryGPT) {
var backupGPT = new GPT({ blockSize: primaryGPT.blockSize })
var buffer = Buffer.alloc( 33 * primaryGPT.blockSize )
var offset = ( ( primaryGPT.backupLBA - 32 ) * blockSize )
fs.readSync( fd, buffer, 0, buffer.length, offset )
backupGPT.parseBackup( buffer )
return backupGPT
}
var backupGPT = readBackupGPT(primaryGPT)
<details>
<summary><b>Accounting for everything</b></summary>
function readBackupGPT(primaryGPT) {
var backupGPT = new GPT({ blockSize: primaryGPT.blockSize })
return backupGPT
}
var backupGPT = readBackupGPT(primaryGPT)
</details>
Verifying the GPT
// Check header & table checksums for primary and backup GPT
var isPrimaryValid = primaryGPT.verify() // true
var isBackupValid = backupGPT.verify() // true
// Compare primary & backup GPT table checksums to
// verify both are in the same state
// NOTE: If there's a `gpt.headerChecksum` match, something's wrong,
// as the primary and backup should refer to each other in offsets
var checksumsMatch = primaryGPT.tableChecksum === backupGPT.tableChecksum &&
primaryGPT.headerChecksum !== backupGPT.headerChecksum
if( isPrimaryValid && isBackupValid && checksumsMatch ) {
console.log('Everything\'s alright')
}
Creating a GPT
var gpt = new GPT({
// The block size of the device
// the GPT will be written to
// (optional, defaults to 512)
blockSize: 512,
// The GUID of the GPT (needs to be generated when creating)
guid: '00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000'
// Header size in bytes
// (min. 92, defaults to 92)
headerSize: 92,
// LBA of current GPT copy
currentLBA: 1n,
// LBA of backup GPT
backupLBA: 123456n,
// LBA of first "user-space" block
firstLBA: 34n,
// LBA of last "user-space" block
lastLBA: 556789n,
// LBA of partition table
// (defaults to 2)
tableOffset: 2n,
// Number of partition entries
// (min. 128, defaults to 128)
entries: 128,
// Size of partition entry in bytes
// (defaults to 128)
entrySize: 128,
})
gpt.partitions.push( new GPT.PartitionEntry({
type: 'C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B',
guid: 'BC7E4D81-59CC-40A6-84BF-43253C95AE0D',
name: 'EFI System Partition',
firstLBA: 40n,
lastLBA: 409639n,
}))
Writing the GPT
You can either let the module create the buffers for you;
var primaryGPTBuffer = gpt.write()
var backupGPTBuffer = gpt.writeBackupFromPrimary()
Or pass in a buffer & optional offset (i.e. to write MBR & primary GPT in one go);
var buffer = Buffer.alloc( blockSize + ( 33 * blockSize ) )
var backupGPTBuffer = Buffer.alloc( 33 * blockSize )
mbr.write( buffer )
gpt.write( buffer, blockSize )
gpt.writeBackupFromPrimary( backupGPTBuffer )
// Write out MBR & primary GPT
fs.writeSync( fd, buffer, 0, buffer.length, 0 )
// Write out backup GPT to end of device
// NOTE: remeber to set `gpt.backupLBA` accordingly
fs.writeSync( fd, backupGPTBuffer, 0, backupGPTBuffer.length, gpt.backupLBA * blockSize )