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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. The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ...
Typical hard drives of the mid-1990s. ...
An operating system (OS) is an essential software program that manages the hardware and software resources of a computer. ...
Logical formatting is the process of placing a file system upon a hard disk drive partition of a hard disk so that an operating system can use available hard disk platter space to store and retrieve files. ...
Disk partitioning is a simple technique which can be viewed as a precursor of logical volume management. In computer storage, logical volume management or LVM is a method of allocating space on mass storage devices that is more flexible than conventional partitioning schemes. ...
Purpose
Partitioning allows one to have multiple file systems on a single hard disk. There are many reasons to do this including: In computing, a file system is a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. ...
- Technical limitations (e.g. old versions of the Microsoft FAT filesystem that can't address more than a certain amount of hard drive space; old PC BIOSes that prevent booting operating systems located past a hard drive's 1024th cylinder)
- If one partition becomes corrupt, only that partition suffers and not the whole hard drive.
- On some OSes (i.e. Linux) the swap file is normally a partition of its own. When it is, systems with a dual boot configuration can make several OSes use the same swap partition and therefore save disk space.
- To prevent overgrown log or other files from making the whole computer unusable, they are put on their own partition. Then only one partition will run out of space.
- Often, two operating systems cannot coexist on the same partition, or use different "native" disk formats. The drive is partitioned into different logical disks for different OSes.
- Most filesystems write files to disk in groups of fixed-size clusters whose size is directly proportional to the size of the partition the filesystem is on. If a file's size is not a multiple of the cluster size, the last cluster in the file's group of clusters will have unused space that can't be used by other files. So, filesystems that use clusters will cause files to take up more space on disk than they do in memory, and larger partitions means larger cluster sizes and therefore more wasted space. Therefore, using several small partitions instead of one large partition can save space.
- Each partition may be customized to different requirements. For example, a partition which is seldom written to can be mounted read-only. Many small files on a partition require a filesystem with many inodes.
- On multi-user systems running Unix, keeping /home, /tmp and /var/tmp separated from system files in /etc, /var, etc. prevents hardlink attacks.
File Allocation Table (FAT) is a patented file system developed by Microsoft for MS-DOS and is the primary file system for consumer versions of Microsoft Windows up to and including Windows Me. ...
Phoenix AwardBIOS on a standard PC BIOS, in computing, stands for Basic Input/Output System or Basic Integrated Operating System. ...
It has been suggested that System partition and boot partition be merged into this article or section. ...
Look up Os on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Cest de la grosse merdasse en boite qui pue du cul!!!!! tas de cons fredhoulmette tu pue caca Os or OS may refer to: The os is each end of the cervix, internal (to the uterus) and external (to the vagina...
Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a computer operating system. ...
Virtual memory is intended to help the programmer by taking care of some memory housekeeping duties. ...
Dual booting or dual-booting is the act of installing multiple operating systems on a computer, and choosing which one when it boots. ...
Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ...
Partitioning schemes
Microsoft Windows With Microsoft Windows, the standard partitioning scheme is to create a single partition, the C: drive, where the operating system, user data, applications, and page file all reside. Some users, however, prefer to create multiple partitions so that the operating system can be stored separately from other kinds of data. While this scheme generally results in slightly lower performance due to additional work needing to be done by both the hard drive and the operating system, proponents of multiple partitions generally point to the benefit of being able to erase a single partition (typically the operating system itself) while retaining the other data. When used in conjunction with partition copying programs such as diskdump, PartitionMagic or Norton Ghost, the use of multiple partitions allows computer users to quickly recover from viruses, rootkits, and remote trojans. Microsoft Windows is the worlds largest operating system for use on personal computers. ...
PartitionMagic is a computer program for hard disk drive partitioning originally made by the PowerQuest corporation but now owned by Symantec. ...
Ghost is a disk cloning program, originally produced by Binary Research, but purchased by Symantec in 1998. ...
A common alternate meaning of virus is computer virus. ...
A rootkit is a set of software tools frequently used by a third-party (usually an intruder) after gaining access to a computer system. ...
On NT-based operating systems (including Windows 2000,Windows XP, and Windows Server products), the My Documents folder, a special folder that typically contains the user's documents and media files, can be mounted to a separate partition. This has the effect of being able to use a separate partition (or physical hard drive) while retaining the convenience of using My Documents as a storage location. Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. ...
Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2K or W2K) is a preemptible and interruptible, graphical, business-oriented operating system that was designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor (SMP) 32-bit Intel x86 computers. ...
Windows XP is the name of a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on general-purpose computer systems, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ...
Microsoft® Windows Server 2003 logo The successor to Windows 2000 Server, Microsofts Windows Server 2003 (codename Whistler Server, also known as Windows NT 5. ...
On Microsoft Windows operating systems, My Documents is the name of a special folder on the the computers hard drive that is commonly used to store a users documents, music, pictures, downloads, and other files. ...
On Microsoft Windows operating systems, Special Folders are folders which are presented to the user through an interface as an abstract concept, instead of an absolute folder path. ...
UNIX systems For UNIX-based and UNIX-like operating systems such as Linux, fancy partitioning creates separate partitions for /, /boot, /home, /tmp, /usr, /var, /opt and swap. (The same is true for Sun-based operating systems, except that partitions are called slices.) This ensures that if one file system gets corrupted, the rest of the data (the other file systems) stay intact, minimizing data loss. This has the disadvantage of subdividing the drive into small, fixed-size partitions, so, for instance, a user can fill up their /home partition and run out of useable hard drive space, even though other partitions still have plenty of free space. A good implementation requires the user to predict how much space each partition will need; sometimes a difficult task. Typical desktop systems use the other convention; a "/" (root) partition containing the entire filesystem and a separate swap partition. A /home partition is useful for desktop uses as it allows a clean reinstall (or a fresh install of another Linux distribution) while leaving data intact. Unix or UNIX is a computer operating system originally developed in the 1960s and 1970s by a group of AT&T Bell Labs employees including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, and Douglas McIlroy. ...
Linux (also known as GNU/Linux) is a computer operating system. ...
Virtual memory is intended to help the programmer by taking care of some memory housekeeping duties. ...
In computing, a file system is a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. ...
Primary and secondary roots in a cotton plant In vascular plants, the root is that organ of a plant body that typically lies below the surface of the soil (compare with stem). ...
Virtual memory is intended to help the programmer by taking care of some memory housekeeping duties. ...
A Linux distribution is a Unix-like operating system comprising the Linux kernel and other assorted free software/open-source software, and possibly proprietary software. ...
List of partition utilities Disk Utility is the name of a utility created by Apple Computer for performing disk-related tasks in Mac OS X. These tasks include: the creation of disk images; mounting, unmounting, and ejecting disks (including both hard disks, removable media and disk images); enabling or disabling journaling; verifying a disk...
GNU Parted is a program for creating, destroying, resizing, checking and copying partitions, and the file systems on them. ...
Many partition table manipulators are known as fdisk. ...
cfdisk is a curses-based disk partition table manipulator for Linux. ...
PartitionMagic is a computer program for hard disk drive partitioning originally made by the PowerQuest corporation but now owned by Symantec. ...
DiskDrake is a computer program for hard disk drive partitioning released under GPL license made as a part of Mandrake Linux, a popular Linux distribution. ...
Acronis Disk Director Suite is a collection of computer programs for hard disk drive partitioning, boot management, and partition recovery made by the company Acronis. ...
Many partition table manipulators are known as fdisk. ...
FIPS is a DOS program for non-destructive splitting of hard disk partitions. ...
Western Digital Data Lifeguard Tools is a computer program for managing hard disks, working under Microsoft Windows and DOS operating systems. ...
See also In computing, a file system is a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. ...
Introduction and Definition In the context of computer operating systems, volume is the term used to describe a single accessible storage area with a single filesystem, typically (though not necessarily) resident on a single partition of a hard disk. ...
In computer storage, logical volume management or LVM is a method of allocating space on mass storage devices that is more flexible than conventional partitioning schemes. ...
Physical formatting, or low-level formatting, is the division of hard disk platters into tracks, sectors, and cylinders. ...
In the IBM PC architecture the Master Boot Record (MBR), or partition sector, is the 512-byte boot sector, i. ...
Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ...
An ISO image (.iso) is an informal term for a disk image of an ISO 9660 file system. ...
A ROM image, or simply ROM, is a computer file which contains a copy of the data from a read-only memory chip, often from a video games cartridge or from an arcade machines main board. ...
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