Disk partitioning

Disk partitioning is the creation of divisions of a hard disk. Once a disk

is divided into several partitions, directories and files can be
grouped by categories such as data type and type usage. More
separate data categories provide more control but too many
become cumbersome. Space management, access permissions
and directory searching are based on the file system installed on
a partition. Careful consideration of the size of the partition is
necessary as the ability to change the size depends on the file
system installed on the partition.

Benefits of Partitioning
Separation of the operating system files from user files or having a
partition for swapping, separate from system utilities, keeps frequently
used programs and data near each other. Having browser cache files in
a separate partition keeps them away from other files. The frequency
of update and access is an important consideration for categorizing
files. Separating email from audio or photos is a good idea. Files that
can be retrieved from other sources can be grouped together.
Futher benefits include:
The use of multi-booting setups, which allow users to have more
than one operating system on a single computer. For example,
one could install Linux, Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows or others on
different partitions of the same hard disk and have a choice of
booting into any operating system (supported by the hardware)
at power-up.
Sharing swap partitions between multiple Linux distributions, so
such partitions use less hard drive space.
Protecting or isolating files, to make it easier to recover a
corrupted file system or operating system installation.
Raising overall computer performance because smaller
filesystems are more efficient. For instance, large hard drives
with only one NTFS filesystem typically have a very large Master
File Table (MFT) and it generally takes more time to read this MFT
than the smaller MFTs of smaller partitions.
Higher levels of data organization, raising the user efficiency of
the system, for example separate partitions dedicated to digital
movie processing, photos, email mailboxes or browser cache.
Partitions may be customized to different requirements, for example,
allowing for read-only partitions to protect data: if one partition is

damaged, none of the other file systems are affected, and the drive's
data may still be salvageable.

PC BIOS partition types

This section describes partitions as used in MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows
and Linux on PC compatible computer systems; for examples of
partitioning schemes used in other operating systems, see Slice (disk)
and BSD disklabel.
A PC hard disk can contain either as many as four primary partitions,
or 1-3 primaries and a single extended partition. Each of these
partitions are described by a 16-byte entry in the Partition Table
which is located in the Master Boot Record.
The "type" of a partition is identified by a 1-byte code found in its
partition table entry. Some of these codes (such as 0x05 and 0x0F) may
be used to indicate the presence of an extended partition, but most are
used by operating systems that examine partition tables to decide if a
partition contains a file system they can mount/access for reading or
writing data.
Once a specific partition's type has been identified, additional
information about its purpose and probable contents may be found
(see: List of partition identifiers for PCs as one such resource). For
example, some type codes are used to hide a partition's contents from
various operating systems. However, if an OS or some partitioning tool
has been programmed to also examine the boot sectors of any
partition, then its file system may no longer remain hidden. (Note:
There are no officially assigned partition types; thus, more than one
kind of file system may lay claim to the same code value.)

Primary (or Logical)

A primary (or logical) partition contains one file system. In MS-DOS and
earlier versions of Microsoft Windows systems, the first partition (C:)
must be a "primary partition". Other operating systems may not share
this limitation; however, this can depend on other factors, such as a
PC's BIOS.
The "partition type" code for a primary or logical partition can either
correspond to a file system contained within (e.g. 0x07 means either an
NTFS or an OS/2 HPFS file system) or indicate the partition has a
special use (e.g. code 0xBC may mean an Acronis Secure Zone and
code 0x82 usually indicates a Linux swap partition). The FAT16 and
FAT32 file systems have made use of quite a number of partition type
codes over time due to the limits of various DOS and Windows OS
versions. Though a Linux operating system may recognize a number of

different file systems (ext2, ext3, reiserfs, etc.), they have all
consistently used the same partition type code: 0x83 (Linux native).

Extended
An extended partition is secondary to the primary partition(s). A hard
disk may contain only one extended partition; which can then be subdivided into logical drives, each of which is (under DOS and Windows)
assigned additional drive letters.
For example, under either DOS or Windows, a hard disk with one
primary partition and one extended partition, the latter containing two
logical drives, would typically be assigned the three drive letters: C:, D:
and E: (in that order).
See Extended Boot Record for information on the structure of an
extended partition.

Partitioning schemes
Microsoft Windows
With Microsoft Windows, the standard partitioning scheme is to create
a single active primary 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. 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 third-party
partition management programs such as Acronis True Image, Norton
Partition Magic, Norton Ghost, or specialized recovery programs that
come with computers manufactured by most major manufacturers, the
use of multiple partitions allows computer users to quickly recover
from viruses, rootkits, and trojan horses or an otherwise damaged,
corrupt or compromised operating system. Windows Vista includes an
inbuilt 'Disk Management' program which allows for the creation,
deletion and movement of partitions.

Unix
For Unix-based and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux and Mac
OS X, the creation of separate partitions for /boot, /home, /tmp, /usr,
/var, /opt, swap and all remaining files under the "/" (root directory) is
possible. (The same is true for Sun operating systems, except their
partitions are called slices.) Such a scheme has a number of potential
advantages: if one file system gets corrupted, the rest of the data (the

other file systems) stay intact, minimizing data loss; partitions can be
accessed read-only and the execution of setuid files disabled thus
enhancing security; performance may be enhanced due to less disk
head travel. This method has the disadvantage of subdividing the drive
into fixed-size partitions, so a user could run out of hard drive space in
his or her /home partition, even though other partitions still have plenty
of usable space. A good implementation requires the user to predict
how much space each partition will need, which may be a difficult task;
especially for new users. Logical Volume Management, often used in
servers, increases flexibility by allowing data in volumes to expand into
separate physical disks (which can be added when needed); another
option is to resize existing partitions when necessary. Typical desktop
systems are often comprised of a single "/" (root directory) containing
the entire filesystem plus a much smaller swap partition. By default,
Mac OS X systems use a single "/" (root directory) containing the entire
filesystem (including the swap file) as a point of simplicity (but other
setup options do exist).

Partition recovery
When a partition is deleted, in general, only its partition table entry is
removed from a table; and although the data is no longer accessible, it
still remains on the disk until being overwritten. Specialized recovery
utilities, (such as TestDisk and gpart), can locate lost file systems and
recreate a partition table which includes entries for these recovered file
systems. However, some disk utilities may also overwrite a number of
beginning sectors of a partition they delete. For example, if Windows
Disk Management (Windows 2000/XP, etc.) is used to delete a
partition, it will overwrite the first sector (relative sector 0) of the
partition before removing it. It may be possible to restore a FAT32 or
NTFS partition if a backup boot sector is available.