Today, you’ll learn what is hard disk partition and why it’s important.
What is Hard Disk Partition?
Disk partitioning is the performance of Splitting / Dividing a hard disk drive into multiple logical storage units referred to as partitions, to treat one physical disk drive as if it were multiple disks, so that a different file system can be used on each partition.
Each Partitioned drive uses an assigned piece of physical real estate on the media, and is treated by the operating system as a separate drive with its own drive letter.
Why we would choose to partition a hard drive
Technically, every drive is already partitioned. A physical drive needs a partition to hold files. And if you bought your PC with Windows Operating system pre-installed, it probably already has two or three partitions. Only one of them, C: which fills almost the entire physical drive is for your day to day use. The others, all of which are quite small, are for maintenance and recovery purposes.
Why would you want to make additional partitions? It’s not just like making folders. Creating and resizing partitions is a hassle. Lets see more about Hard disk partition.
One reason is to have multiple operating systems. If you want to run two versions of Windows, or Windows and Linux, partitions help separate the environments. The primary key, ie., the reason why I’ve partitioned my drive, is to separate system files and data for backup purposes. You leave Windows and your various programs on the original partition, C:. But you move your libraries (Documents, Pictures, Music, and Video) to the new partition, D:. In most cases, D: will be the larger partition.
The only way to reliably back up your Windows environment is to create an image of your C: drive, along with those small partitions that came with the PC. But that image file will be very large and ungainly if it also includes your libraries. This way, the image which you only need to back up two or three times a year will be large but manageable. Then you can use a simple file backup program to take care of your libraries on D:. That’s a chore you need to do every day, so the simpler, the better.
Also Read: Importance of Windows Patching
I hope this article will help you know something about why we do a Disk Partition.