Operation Manual

Hard Disk And Operating System

108

Partition information is stored in a special disk area – the 1st sector of 0 cylinder,

0 head, called the partition table. This sector is called the master boot record, or

MBR.

The number of primary partitions on a disk is limited, because the partition table

contains four records itself.

Extended partitioning supports additional division into logical partitions. The

amount of logical partitions is unlimited.

Special programs perform partitioning; usually they can:

• Create a primary partition with a single logical disk

• Create an extended partition and divide it into logical partitions (disks)

• Set the active partition (a partition to boot an operating system from)

Typical hard disk partition structure can look like:

MBR

Primary partition 1-1.

System logical disk C:.

Extended partition 1-2.

Logical partition 1-5

Logical disk D:.

Logical disk E:.

Logical disk F:.

…………………………

Usually, initial partitioning is made by means of an operating system. Different

operating systems offer special programs for this.

After the installation of Windows XP, you can invoke the Control Panel, whose

disk management tools will let you delete and create partitions (primary,

extended, logical) using free (unallocated) disk space, or format a partition.

You cannot, however, change partition structure by means of the Windows

operating system. To do this, you will need software such as Acronis Disk

Director Suite. It lets you resize, move, hide partitions, set them as active, copy

and perform other operations without losing any data or causing any OS and

application workability problems.