diff --git a/common/Kconfig b/common/Kconfig
index 8e96920e4..1318e7d74 100644
--- a/common/Kconfig
+++ b/common/Kconfig
@@ -406,6 +406,24 @@ config PARTITION
 	bool
 	prompt "Enable Partitions"
 
+if PARTITION
+
+config PARTITION_DISK
+	bool "DISK partition support"
+	help
+	  Add support for handling common partition tables on all kind of disk
+	  like devices (harddisks, CF cards, SD cards and so on)
+
+if PARTITION_DISK
+
+config PARTITION_DISK_DOS
+	bool "DOS partition support"
+	help
+	  Add support to handle partitions in DOS style.
+
+endif
+endif
+
 config DEFAULT_ENVIRONMENT
 	bool
 	default y
diff --git a/common/Makefile b/common/Makefile
index 7bb8ea432..3edf38f3b 100644
--- a/common/Makefile
+++ b/common/Makefile
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ obj-$(CONFIG_ENV_HANDLING)	+= environment.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_AUTO_COMPLETE)	+= complete.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_POLLER)		+= poller.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_BLOCK)		+= block.o
+obj-$(CONFIG_PARTITION_DISK)	+= partitions.o
+
 obj-$(CONFIG_CMD_LOADS)		+= s_record.o
 obj-$(CONFIG_OFTREE)		+= oftree.o
 
diff --git a/common/partitions.c b/common/partitions.c
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e4f3ad69e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/common/partitions.c
@@ -0,0 +1,200 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (C) 2009...2011 Juergen Beisert, Pengutronix
+ *
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+ * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
+ * published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
+ * the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
+ * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston,
+ * MA 02111-1307 USA
+ *
+ */
+
+/**
+ * @file
+ * @brief Generic support for partition tables on disk like media
+ *
+ * @todo Support for disks larger than 4 GiB
+ * @todo Reliable size detection for BIOS based disks (on x86 only)
+ */
+#include <common.h>
+#include <malloc.h>
+#include <errno.h>
+#include <block.h>
+#include <asm/unaligned.h>
+#include <disks.h>
+
+struct partition {
+	uint64_t first_sec;
+	uint64_t size;
+};
+
+struct partition_desc {
+	int used_entries;
+	struct partition parts[8];
+};
+
+/**
+ * Reject values which cannot be used in Barebox
+ * @param val Value to be check
+ * @return 0 if value can be used in Barebox, -EINVAL if not
+ *
+ * @note this routine can be removed when Barebox uses file offsets larger
+ * than 32 bit
+ */
+static int check_offset_value(uint64_t val)
+{
+#if 1	/* until Barebox can handle 64 bit offsets */
+	if (val > (__INT_MAX__ / SECTOR_SIZE))
+		return -EINVAL;
+#endif
+	return 0;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Guess the size of the disk, based on the partition table entries
+ * @param dev device to create partitions for
+ * @param table partition table
+ * @return sector count
+ */
+static int disk_guess_size(struct device_d *dev, struct partition_entry *table)
+{
+	uint64_t size = 0;
+	int i;
+
+	for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
+		if (table[i].partition_start != 0) {
+			size += get_unaligned(&table[i].partition_start) - size;
+			size += get_unaligned(&table[i].partition_size);
+		}
+	}
+	/* limit disk sector counts we can't handle due to 32 bit limits */
+	if (check_offset_value(size) != 0) {
+		dev_warn(dev, "Warning: Sector count limited due to 31 bit"
+				"contraints\n");
+		size = __INT_MAX__ / SECTOR_SIZE;
+	}
+
+	return (int)size;
+}
+
+/**
+ * Check if a DOS like partition describes this block device
+ * @param blk Block device to register to
+ * @param pd Where to store the partition information
+ *
+ * It seems at least on ARM this routine canot use temp. stack space for the
+ * sector. So, keep the malloc/free.
+ */
+static void __maybe_unused try_dos_partition(struct block_device *blk,
+						struct partition_desc *pd)
+{
+	uint8_t *buffer;
+	struct partition_entry *table;
+	struct partition pentry;
+	int i, rc;
+
+	buffer = xmalloc(SECTOR_SIZE);
+
+	/* read in the MBR to get the partition table */
+	rc = blk->ops->read(blk, buffer, 0, 1);
+	if (rc != 0) {
+		dev_err(blk->dev, "Cannot read MBR/partition table\n");
+		goto on_error;
+	}
+
+	if ((buffer[510] != 0x55) || (buffer[511] != 0xAA)) {
+		dev_info(blk->dev, "No partition table found\n");
+		goto on_error;
+	}
+
+	table = (struct partition_entry *)&buffer[446];
+
+	/* valid for x86 BIOS based disks only */
+	if (blk->num_blocks == 0)
+		blk->num_blocks = disk_guess_size(blk->dev, table);
+
+	for (i = 0; i < 4; i++) {
+		pentry.first_sec = get_unaligned(&table[i].partition_start);
+		pentry.size = get_unaligned(&table[i].partition_size);
+
+		/* do we have to ignore this partition due to limitations? */
+		if (check_offset_value(pentry.first_sec) != 0)
+			continue;
+		if (check_offset_value(pentry.size) != 0)
+			continue;
+
+		if (pentry.first_sec != 0) {
+			pd->parts[pd->used_entries].first_sec = pentry.first_sec;
+			pd->parts[pd->used_entries].size = pentry.size;
+			pd->used_entries++;
+		} else {
+			dev_dbg(blk->dev, "Skipping empty partition %d\n", i);
+		}
+	}
+
+on_error:
+	free(buffer);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Register one partition on the given block device
+ * @param blk Block device to register to
+ * @param part Partition description
+ * @param no Partition number
+ * @return 0 on success
+ */
+static int register_one_partition(struct block_device *blk,
+					struct partition *part, int no)
+{
+	char partition_name[19];
+
+	sprintf(partition_name, "%s.%d", blk->cdev.name, no);
+	dev_dbg(blk->dev, "Registering partition %s on drive %s\n",
+				partition_name, blk->cdev.name);
+	return devfs_add_partition(blk->cdev.name,
+				part->first_sec * SECTOR_SIZE,
+				part->size * SECTOR_SIZE,
+				DEVFS_PARTITION_FIXED, partition_name);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Try to collect partition information on the given block device
+ * @param blk Block device to examine
+ * @return 0 most of the time, negative value else
+ *
+ * It is not a failure if no partition information is found
+ */
+int parse_partition_table(struct block_device *blk)
+{
+	struct partition_desc pdesc = { .used_entries = 0, };
+	int i;
+	int rc = 0;
+
+#ifdef CONFIG_PARTITION_DISK_DOS
+	try_dos_partition(blk, &pdesc);
+#endif
+	if (!pdesc.used_entries)
+		return 0;
+
+	/* at least one partition description found */
+	for (i = 0; i < pdesc.used_entries; i++) {
+		rc = register_one_partition(blk, &pdesc.parts[i], i);
+		if (rc != 0)
+			dev_err(blk->dev,
+				"Failed to register partition %d on %s (%d)\n",
+				i, blk->cdev.name, rc);
+		if (rc != -ENODEV)
+			rc = 0;
+	}
+
+	return rc;
+}
diff --git a/include/disks.h b/include/disks.h
index ec136d4ee..9932750a2 100644
--- a/include/disks.h
+++ b/include/disks.h
@@ -36,4 +36,6 @@ struct partition_entry {
 	uint32_t partition_size; /*! Start of the partition in LBA notation */
 } __attribute__ ((packed));
 
+extern int parse_partition_table(struct block_device*);
+
 #endif /* DISKS_H */