Partitioning a hard drive divides it into independent sections, useful for installing alternative operating systems, organizing data, and maintaining large drives. It can be done with fdisk or graphical tools, and allows for multiple partitions. Back up data before partitioning.
A hard drive is not always used as a single drive, but is often broken up into several parts. This is done before formatting, in a process called partitioning. As the name indicates, a hard drive partition is a part or section of the drive, treated by the operating system as an independent drive or storage area. Therefore, a 120 gigabyte (GB) drive can be split into multiple drives, rather than being used as one large drive.
This is useful for a number of reasons. For example, you can use a separate hard drive partition to install an alternative operating system (OS). If the two systems require different formatting schemes, this configuration can accommodate them. Programs and data can exist on a third partition for use by either operating system, whichever is active. A boot loader on drive C: allows the user to choose which operating system will boot.
Many people like to create a separate partition for the operating system, even when there is only one. For example, by loading the operating system on drive C: and programs on drive D:, you can reformat drive C: and reinstall the operating system, if necessary, without losing your programs or their settings and data. Creating multiple partitions also helps you organize, maintain and use large hard drives better. A split that doesn’t include the entire disk can be defragmented or scanned much faster than a larger one. When programs, data and media are stored in their own partitions, they can also be easily archived to backup drives if needed.
Partitioning is commonly done with the fdisk command. Alternative methods include graphical tools. Although the partitioning scheme only allows for four primary partitions, you can create more as extended partitions. So any number is possible.
An example of a 120GB drive made up of multiple partitions is as follows:
C:
(10GB)
Operating system
Hard drive partition no. 1
D:
(20GB)
Programs
Hard drive partition no. 2
E:
(10GB)
Data files
Hard drive partition no. 3
F:
(80GB)
Ripping/burning media storage
Hard drive partition no. 4
Partitioning a hard drive will cause the loss of all data. Before you create one on a disk that’s already in use, be sure to back up all your data. Thoughts, advice, and instructions on various partitioning strategies are available from many tech sites.
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