OS X and iOS Kernel Programming

Partition Schemes

A disk may be split into several smaller logical units, each of which appear as a separate disk to the user. Even if a hard disk only has a single partition it will contain a partition map, which lists the one or more partitions that have been created from the disk. Mac OS X provides support for many common partition schemes, including the GUID partition scheme that is the default on Mac OS X, the Master Boot Record that is still common on Windows, and the Apple Partition Map, which was the default partition scheme for Mac OS before the transition to Intel-based Macs.

Support for new partition schemes can be added to Mac OS X by writing an I/O Kit driver that is derived from the IOPartitionScheme class. A partition scheme driver ...