Abstract: The new features of the master boot record and partition table in Windows environments are described.Firstly,the control structure of the master boot record and the startup process of the system are analyzed;then the chained-list structure of partition table is introduced in detail;and the relevant contents of the FAT32 and the extended INT 13H are presented;lastly,an algorithm of repairing damaged partition table is given.

Key words: master boot record, partition table, active partition, boot flag, partition type