Disk Partitions: What They Are and How They Work
A partition can be thought of as a part or "part" of a real hard disk drive.
A partition is actually only logically separate from the whole drive, but it looks like the partition creates multiple physical drives.
You can include partner, active, extended and logical partitions. More on this below.
Partitions are also often referred to as disk partitions and when a person uses the word drive, it usually means that the assigned drive is a character partition.
How do you partition a hard drive?
In Windows, the default hard drive partitioning is done by the Disk Management Tool.
See How to Partition a Hard Drive in Windows for detailed steps on creating partitions in each version of Windows.
Advanced partition management, extensions and compressed partitions, joining partitions, etc., cannot be done in Windows but can be done with special partition management software. I keep up-to-date reviews of these tools in my free disk partition software list.
Keep reading to understand why you can create partitions and the different types of partitions that can be created.
What is the purpose of the partition?
Partitioning a hard drive is useful for many reasons but requires at least one: to make the drive available to the operating system.
For example, when you install an operating system such as Windows, part of the process defines the partition on the hard drive. This partition serves to define the area of the hard drive that Windows can use to install all of its files. In Windows operating systems, this primary partition is usually assigned the drive letter "C".
In addition to the C drive, Windows often automatically creates other partitions during installation, even if they rarely receive a drive letter. For example, in Windows 10, a recovery partition, with tools called Advanced Startup Options, is installed so that you can fix issues that may arise on the main C drive.
Another common reason for partitioning is that you can install multiple operating systems on the same hard drive, allowing you to choose what you want, a condition called dual booting. You can also run Windows and Linux, Windows 10 and Windows 7, or 3 or 4 different operating systems.
Multiple partitions There is a definite requirement for running more than one operating system because operating systems view partitions as separate drives, avoiding most problems with each other. Multiple partitions mean you can avoid installing multiple hard drives to get booting options across different operating systems.
Hard drive partitions can also be created to help manage files. Even if different partitions still exist on the same physical drive, it is often useful to have partitions created for photos, videos, or software downloads, rather than storing them in separate folders within the same partition.
Less common these days, thanks to better user management features in Windows, multiple partitions can also be used to help users who share a computer and prefer to keep files separate and easily share them with each other.
Another, relatively common reason you can create partitions is to separate operating system files from personal data. With your valuable, personal files on a separate drive, you can restore Windows after a major crash and never get too close to the information you want to keep
This personal data partition example makes it really easy to create a working mirror image of your system partition with backup software. This means you can create two separate backups, one for your operating system operating system, and the other for your personal data, each of which can be independently restored to the other.
Primary, extended, and logical partitions
Any partition that has its own operating system is called a primary partition. The partition table portion of the master boot record allows up to 4 primary partitions on a single hard drive.
4 primary partitions can exist, this means that four different operating systems can be quad - based on the same hard drive, only one partition is allowed to be "active" at any one time, which means that the default OS This partition is known as the active partition.
One of the four primary sections (and only one) can be designated as an extended partition. This means that a computer can have four primary partitions or three primary partitions and one extended partition. Extended partition cannot hold in its and its data. Instead, the extended partition empty name is used to describe a container that contains other partitions that hold data, called logical partitions.
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There is no limit to the number of logical partitions on disk, but it is limited to user data, with operating systems such as primary partitions. The logical partition is that you are ready to store things like movies, software, program files, etc.
For example, a hard drive usually consists of a primary, active partition with Windows installed next to it, and then one or more logical partitions with other files such as documents, videos, and personal data. Obviously this will be different from computer to computer.
More information about partitions
Partitions on physical hard drives must be formatted and have a file system setup (which is a formatting process) before any data can be saved to them.
Because partitions appear to be unique drives, each one can be assigned its own drive letter, such as C for a partition that Windows is typically installed on. See How can I change the drive letter in Windows? For more on this.
Normally, when a file is moved from one folder to another under the same partition, it refers only to the location of the file which changes, which means that the file transfer takes place almost instantly. However, partitions differ from each other, as files like many hard drives need to move real data from one partition to another and will take longer to transfer data.
Partitions can be hidden, encrypted and password protected with free disk encryption software.
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