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fdisk is the name used for several hard disk partition table editor programs for PC compatible computers. Before a hard disk can be used by an operating system on a PC, it must be divided into one or more logical disks called partitions. This division is described in the partition table found in the Master Boot Record in sector 0 of the disk. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ... In computer engineering, hard disk drive partitioning is the creation of logical divisions upon a hard disk that allows one to apply operating system-specific logical formatting. ... One of the first PCs from IBM - the IBM PC model 5150. ... This article is about the machine. ... Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ... An operating system (OS) is the software that manages the sharing of the resources of a computer and provides programmers with an interface used to access those resources. ... In general, a partition is a splitting into parts. ... A Master Boot Record (MBR), or partition sector, is the 512-byte boot sector that is the first sector (Sector 0) of a partitioned data storage device such as a hard disk. ... In the context of computer hardware, a sector is a sub-division of a track on a magnetic disk or optical disc. ...

DOS FDISK

MS-DOS FDISK Main Menu

All of the many DOS operating systems, including MS-DOS, PC-DOS and DR-DOS use a partition table manipulator known as FDISK.EXE. The name is a derivation of fixed disk. Most DOS FDISK programs, including the FDISK program that came with the original Windows 95, are only capable of creating FAT partitions of type FAT16. This article is about the family of closely related operating systems for the IBM PC compatible platform. ... Microsofts disk operating system, MS-DOS, was Microsofts implementation of DOS, which was the first popular operating system for the IBM PC, and until recently, was widely used on the PC compatible platform. ... IBM PC-DOS was one of the three major operating systems that dominated the personal computer market from about 1985 to 1995. ... This article is about the operating system. ... File Allocation Table (FAT) is a partially patented file system developed by Microsoft for MS-DOS and was the primary file system for consumer versions of Microsoft Windows up to and including Windows Me. ...

A derivative of the MS-DOS FDISK was provided with Windows 95, Windows 98, and later Windows Me. Only those FDISK versions shipping with Windows 95B or later are able to manipulate FAT32 partitions. Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. ... Windows 98 (codenamed Memphis) is a graphical operating system released on June 25, 1998 by Microsoft and the successor to Windows 95. ... Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (IPA pronunciation: [miː], [ɛm iː]), is a hybrid 16-bit/32-bit graphical operating system released on September 14, 2000 by Microsoft. ... File Allocation Table (FAT) is a partially patented file system developed by Microsoft for MS-DOS and was the primary file system for consumer versions of Microsoft Windows up to and including Windows Me. ...

FreeDOS has its own official Free FDISK which has many advanced features and is free software. FreeDOS (formerly Free-DOS and PD-DOS) is an operating system for IBM PC compatible computers. ... Free software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions only to ensure that further recipients can also do these things. ...

Version Differences

Unlike the fdisk programs for UNIX, Linux and their derivatives, the FDISK programs for DOS and Windows 9x/Me not only alter data in the Partition Table, but will also overwrite many sectors of data in the partition itself. Users must be sure the correct disk/partition has been chosen before using a DOS/Windows FDISK for partitioning.

UNIX, Linux & Unix-derived fdisk

Linux needs at least one partition, namely for its root file system. It can use swap files and/or swap partitions. Usually one will want a second Linux partition dedicated as a swap partition. On Intel compatible hardware, the BIOS that boots the system can often only access the first 1024 cylinders of the disk. For this reason people with large disks often create a third partition, just a few MB large, typically mounted on /boot, to store the kernel image and a few auxiliary files needed at boot time, so as to make sure that they are accessible to the BIOS. There may be reasons of security, ease of administration and backup, or testing, to use more than the minimum number of partitions. See also: cfdisk. This article is about operating systems that use the Linux kernel. ... In computer file systems, the root directory is the first or top-most directory in a hierarchy. ... For library and office filing systems, see Library classification. ... The program thinks it has a large range of contiguous addresses; but in reality the parts it is currently using are scattered around RAM, and the inactive parts are saved in a disk file. ... For other uses, see Bios. ... In computer science, the kernel is the fundamental part of an operating system. ... cfdisk is a Linux operating system utility used to view, add, delete, and alter hard-disk partitions. ...

OS/2 fdisk

OS/2 shipped with two partition table managers up until version 4.0. These were the text mode fdisk and the GUI-based fdiskpm. The two have identical functionality, and can manipulate both FAT partitions and the more advanced HPFS partitions. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... A text mode program communicates with the user by only displaying text and possibly a limited set of predefined semi-graphical characters, which allow the drawing of rudimentary boxes around portions of text, either to highlight the content or to simulate widget or control interface objects found in GUI programs. ... GUI can refer to the following: GUI is short for graphical user interface, a term used to describe a type of interface in computing. ... HPFS or High Performance File System is a file system created specifically for the OS/2 operating system to improve upon the limitations of the FAT file system. ...

OS/2 versions 4.5 and higher (including eComStation) can use the JFS filesystem as well as FAT and HPFS, and replace fdisk with the Logical Volume Manager (LVM). eComStation is a PC operating system based on OS/2, published by Serenity Systems International, USA. It includes several additions and accompanying software. ... JFS is a journaling filesystem created by IBM. It is available under an open source license. ... LVM is an implementation of a logical volume manager for the Linux kernel. ...

External links

All

• TestDisk - Recover accidentally deleted partitions

DOS

• Fdisk Does Not Recognize Full Size of Hard Disks Larger than 64 GB
• Aefdisk - partitioning utility for DOS
• Aefdisk32 - partitioning utility for Windows
• gdisk - DOS partitioning utility from Symantec, ships with Ghost disk cloning software, performs many more partitioning functions

UNIX

• UnixWare 7, fdisk(1M)
• Solaris ManPages, fdisk(1M)

Linux

• Linux Partition HOWTO. Partitioning with fdisk
• Linux Programmer's Manual, fdisk(8) Linux man page for fdisk.

FreeBSD

• FreeBSD System Manager's Manual, FDISK(8)

Not (yet) categorized

• Step by step and easy to follow fdisk instructions page Note* Follow this guide only if you want to create multiple partitions
• eXtended FDisk

See also

• format, cfdisk