User Guide

Chapter 6. Hard Disk And File

Systems

Primary and logical partitions are the main partition types. Physical hard disks can contain up

to four primary partitions or up to three primary and infinite logical partitions.

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.