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Drive Partitions

The document discusses how hard drives are partitioned and organized. A master boot record (MBR) contains information about primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives. Primary partitions can directly use the full disk space, while extended partitions contain logical drives and are needed if more than 4 partitions are required. Partitioning allows for multiple operating systems, separates data from the system, and provides different permissions and file systems on a single physical drive.

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Mic Prakash
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53 views15 pages

Drive Partitions

The document discusses how hard drives are partitioned and organized. A master boot record (MBR) contains information about primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical drives. Primary partitions can directly use the full disk space, while extended partitions contain logical drives and are needed if more than 4 partitions are required. Partitioning allows for multiple operating systems, separates data from the system, and provides different permissions and file systems on a single physical drive.

Uploaded by

Mic Prakash
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Partitioning Hard Drives

Disk Organization
Primary Partition Extended Partition

MBR Logical Drives


tells layout of the disk
Use of partitions
• All OSs do NOT have the same rules for
partitioning
• MBR contains a layout of the partitioning info
• Primary Partition is always there
– may consume all space
– i.e. no Extended Partition
• Extended Partition needs to be sub-allocated
– numerous logical drives possible
– may have different OSs … more later
Drive Naming (DOS)

Primary Partition Extended Partition

C: D: E: F:

MBR
tells layout of the disk Logical Drives

Assuming no other drives and only DOS


Primary, Extended, Logical

• DOS was only programmed to see one


normal partition.
• All other “partitions (logical drives)” had to
be enclosed in an Extended partition
• Other OSs such as linux do not require an
extended partition but can see and use them
2 Drives (DOS)

Primary Partition Extended Partition Master

C: E: F:

MBR
tells layout of the disk Logical Drives
Slave
Primary Partition Extended Partition

D: G: H:

MBR
tells layout of the disk Logical Drives
How Do You Partition?

• The OS has a program called “fdisk”


• Linux and DOS both have fdisk and have
varying degrees of compatibility.
• Linux sees DOS
– will let you create DOS partitions
• DOS sees Linux as Non-Dos.
– Will not create Non-Dos
Using DOS fdisk

• Create primary partition


• Create extended partition if necessary
• Create logical partitions within extended
• Exit fdisk and reboot
• Format each of the drives
• Be sure to make the primary partition
bootable (format c: /s)
Multi-booting machines
• Using more than one OS on the same
machine
• The MBR also tells the BIOS which partition
to boot from.
• Different OSs use different boot loaders so
they may periodically need to be reset
– (fdisk /mbr)
• Some boot loaders (DOS) only allow for
booting their OS. E.g. DOS.
Multi-booting machines (ctd)

• Linux lets you choose


– lilo
– grub
• Some boot loaders have funny restrictions
– boot partition must be on master drive
– boot partition must be in first 1024 cylinders
– most newer ones do not have those restrictions
• can boot from any partition
Multibooting (funny)

Non Primary DOS Extended Partition


Dos Partition

C: NonDos D: E:

MBR 1024 cyl


tells layout of the disk Logical Drives
Why partition?
• OS may not support a logical drive as big as
your disk; make the physical drive multiple
logical drives. BIOS has it’s limitations too!
• May not want all of the disk to expire at the
same time (system versus user space)
• Multiple OSs on the same disk (multi-boot)
• Different permissions/access
• Different File systems
Can you alter after loading files?

• Yes, but not a trivial process


• Typically these applications are available.
• Some freeware .. Some not
• Available in linux and DOS/windows
• Partition Magic is a good program that
supports linux and windows file systems
• Typically reboot from a floppy while
changing
How much space?

• Always depends on the question .. What are


you going to store on it?
• Multiboot
– Windows 98 needs >1G for bare installation
– linux needs >1G depending on installation
• linux only
– installation program will optimize allocation if
you let it to handle the problem of preserving
system space as needed.
Booting UP

• Bootloader determines which OS is used


– lets you manually override
– may boot with floppy to override
• BIOS has MORE control
– which drive first
• CDROM (installations)
• Hard Drive - Typically
• Floppy - To override hard drive

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