Each file system has its cons and pros, which are not discussed in this document. For example, you can create a 10GB partition but you cannot attach to it the FAT16 file system, since FAT16 can only manage up to 2GB of disk space. That is why disk-partitioning has rules and limits (discussed later). You may have heard of FAT and NTFS file systems (supported by Microsoft Operating systems).įile systems are a way to allow you to store your data in an organized manner (manageable by the host operating system). Those structures are named " File systems". Practically, disk partitioning is more than just dividing the disk's space into smaller partitions, but also attaching a given structure to each partition. For example, a 10GB can be divided (theoretically) into as many partitions as one desires, say 3GB, 4GB and 3GB partitions. When we partition a disk, we are simply dividing the disk's space into partitions (logical boundaries). The data you read/write has no standard structure but the structure you devise. You can achieve that with special tools that can read an unformatted/unpartitioned disk. When you purchase a new hard-disk with a given capacity, all you can do with it is read/write raw data from first address up to last address. In this section, I will introduce some concepts that are needed to understand the article. Please note that this article does NOT cover the GPT (GUID Partition table). The goal of this article is to provide just the needed knowledge to understand disk partitioning, hence many details are left out for the readers to investigate by themselves. You are not required to have prior knowledge about disk partitioning. The information in this article applies for x86 systems, I don't know about disk partitioning on other systems. This article will explain the format of the partition table and will provide a small tool (Partition Viewer) to demonstrate what we explained. I've always been curious about how disks are partitioned, and how the partition table looks like.
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