IT 513 Partition

Partitioning

Partitioning is the process of dividing the hard disk’s space into sections, so they
can be dedicated to different aims. You can partition your HD, and each partition
will behave like a separate disk drive. Having a partitioned hard disk is
indispensable, rather than just convenient.
There are various types of partitions; we are mostly interested in those logical,
since it’s often their alignment, size and contents that determine the efficiency of
your PC work.
To tell the truth, the most widespread partitioning scheme would look like this:
 C: - operating system (+ some docs or program files);

 D: - other, including data, applications and so on.

This appears a bit senseless in the way it is insecure in the first place. There are a
number of more reasonable partitioning schemes designed for particular needs of
the user. So before splitting up your HD into partitions, try to figure out the end
goal of partitioning for you. You might find these points important:
 organize your work and structure your files;
 secure protection against data loss;
 Boost your PC performance and expand its capabilities (for example running
multiple OSes).
For a home user, it would be suitable to partition their HD as follows:

 C: - operating system only;
 D: - program files;
 E: - docs, music, video;
 F: - backup.
Combining the two mentioned lists (the targets of partitioning and your HD’s
possible structure), we can make several useful conclusions.
To hit(success) the first target (organize your work and structure your files), you
can split(divided) your E: drive into logical sections, containing your work files,
pictures and multimedia respectively. It’ll facilitate and accelerate the search for
needed files and help you keep things in order.
The second target suggests you’ll have to enlarge your F: partition. Backup is of
vital importance for any user, but unfortunately, we often forget (or are a little bit
too lazy) to make an extra copy of our docs, music and pictures, which can easily
get lost after a system failure. It always occurs when you least expect it and wipes
out all your critical workfiles and dear memories. There are a lot of pieces
of backup and recovery software in the market now; and it’s desirable that you use
one to preserve your data.
The third target is connected with multi-boot in most cases, or other operations
valuable for experienced PC users mainly. Multi-booting is the act of installing
multiple operating systems on a computer, and the ability to choose which one to
boot when switching on the computer power.
The feature has many advantages:
 Several pieces of software require different operating systems and cannot be run on
a single system. A dual boot configuration will allow the user to apply all this
software on one computer.
 The user can test a new operating system without switching to it completely.
Multi-booting allows one to get to know the new system, configure all applications
needed and migrate data before making the final step and removing the old
operating system.
 Multi-booting can also aid software developers where multiple operating systems
are required for development or testing purposes. Having these systems on one
machine can greatly reduce hardware costs.
Nevertheless, you need to have great expertise to take advantage of multi-boot,

since compatibility issues may arise with different operating systems: one
operating system may not be able to recognize another operating system’s file
system and thus try to format it to its native file system, erasing the existing data.
Hard disk repartitioning is one of the common tasks that people are facing when
installing a second OS on their PC. Each OS uses its own file systems (e.g.
Windows XP primarily uses NTFS and can use FAT32). Linux should be installed
on its own file system Ext3 or Reisner. In this case you need at least two additional
partitions. If your NTFS system encompasses the whole hard drive, repartitioning
is the best option.
The second important use of repartitioning is to create a partition to backup a
bootable partition. You should always defragment the all existing partitions on the
disk before repartitioning. That’s the law. Otherwise your chances to lose data
increase dramatically.
Types of hard drive partitions

Partition Manager
Primary Partition is a partition that is needed to store and boot an operating
system, though applications and user data can reside there as well, and what’s
more, you can have a primary partition without any operating system on it. There
can be up to a maximum of four primary partitions on a single hard disk, with only
one of them set as active (see “Active partition”).
Active (boot) partition is a primary partition that has an operating system
installed on it. It is used for booting your machine. If you have a single primary
partition, it is regarded as active. If you have more than one primary partition, only
one of them is marked active (in a given PC session).
Extended partition can be sub-divided into logical drives and is viewed as a
container for logical drives, where data proper is located. An extended partition is
not formatted or assigned a drive letter. The extended partition is used only for
creating a desired number of logical partitions.
Logical drive is created within an extended partition. A logical partition is a way
to extend the initial limitation of four partitions. An extended partition can contain
up to 24 logical partitions (you’re limited by the number of drive letters and the
amount of hard drive space available for creating drives; of course, it’s senseless to
use 24 partitions on a system in most cases, because it will be a data organization
nightmare). Logical partitions are used for storing data mainly, they can be
formatted and assigned drive letters; their details are listed in the extended
partition’s table - EMBR (Extended Master Boot Record).
Hard disk partition example
Partition manager
Let’s presume you are setting up a new system and starting with an empty 300 GB
hard disk. Of course, you may create a single 300 GB partition - a primary
Windows one. However, in many cases dividing up such a disk will make it easier
to manage the space. So we imagine you want to split up this drive as follows:
You will first set up a primary Windows partition - 40 GB. Then you will create an
extended partition that is 260 GB in size. This is the second partition on the hard
disk. Within the extended partition you will create three logical volumes: 60 GB,
80 GB and 120 GB. These are your second, third and fourth volumes respectively.
The first partition will be your C: drive from which you boot the machine, and
Windows will assign D:, E: and F: to the other logical partitions. The D: drive can
be used for storing docs, the E: one for games, and the F: one for large multimedia
files, backups and “future expansion”. Thus, your hard disk will have one primary
partition, and one extended partition containing three logical volumes.
So, to sum it up, if you want to use the space of your hard drive in the right way, it
must be partitioned. That process also known a partitioning.

IT 513 Partition

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Partitioning

 D: - other, including data, applications and so on.

 secure protection against data loss;

For a home user, it would be suitable to partition their HD as follows:

 E: - docs, music, video;

Nevertheless, you need to have great expertise to take advantage of multi-boot,

Types of hard drive partitions

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