What is a Partitioned Hard Drive?
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What is a partitioned hard drive? A partition is a separation of the computer's hard drive into two or more parts, when partitioned the hard disk will act like separate disks. A two partitioned disk would normally contain C and D drives. This is useful when the user is running more than one operating system or to clearly separate data files from your installed software. In addition the partition may also improve the hard disk's overall efficiency. What is partitioning? Partitioning is a way to divide up a large hard drive into smaller drives. What is the purpose of partitioning? Why would I want to partition my hard drive? There are several reasons why people partition their hard drive. Some people create partitions to help keep their work more organized. For example, one partition could be used just for installed software, while another partition could be used just to store data they've created, or to store the files they've downloaded from the Internet. Another reason is to reduce cluster size. However, with hard drives getting larger and larger, reducing cluster size, in my opinion, is not as relevant as it used to be. You said partitioning divides up a hard drive. Does this mean I have to disassemble my hard drive and rebuild it? No. When you partition a hard drive, you are setting up your computer so that it merely thinks you have several hard drives. This can be done with software. Should I partition my hard drive? This is basically up to you. There are many things to consider, when deciding if you should partition or not. Let me answer a few more questions, and by then, you should have more information with which you can make a better-informed decision. What is a physical drive? A physical drive is your actual hard drive. It refers to the actual piece of machinery inside your computer. What are Primary, Extended, and Logical Drives? This is a rather complicated question to answer. Here's an in-a-nutshell explanation: "Once the Primary partition has been created for the operating system, then Logical partitions can be created for programs and data. Remember, however, that before the Logical partition can be created, an Extended partition must be created."--from the PowerQuest White Paper Primary, Extended, Logical, Free Space! What Do I Need? October 3, 1996 Copyright © 1996 PowerQuest Corporation. For a more technical explanation, read the PC Guide's description. Farther down this page, there's a link to a tutorial for FDISK. This tutorial also explains primary, extended, and logical drives quite succinctly. How do you create partitions? There are a few ways to partition your hard drive, but these are the two most common: 1. Use FDISK (which can still be used with Windows XP off a boot floppy). 2. Use a partitioning program, such as Partition Magic. |
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