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In computer engineering, hard disk drive partitioning is the creation of logical divisions upon a hard disk that allows one to apply operating system-specific logical formatting.

Purpose


Partitioning allows one to have multiple file systems on a single hard disk. There are many reasons to do this including:
  • Technical limitations (e.g. old versions of the Microsoft FAT filesystem that can't address more than a certain amount of hard drive space; old PC BIOSes that prevent booting operating systems located past a hard drive's 1024th cylinder)
  • If one partition becomes corrupt, only that partition suffers and not the whole hard drive.
  • On some OSes (for example, Linux), the swap file is normally a partition of its own. When it is, systems with a dual boot configuration can make several OSes use the same swap partition and therefore save disk space.
  • To prevent overgrown log or other files from making the whole computer unusable, they are put on their own partition. Then only one partition will run out of space.
  • Often, two operating systems cannot coexist on the same partition, or use different "native" disk formats. The drive is partitioned into different logical disks for different OSes.
  • Most filesystems write files to disk in groups of fixed-size clusters whose size is directly proportional to the size of the partition the filesystem is on. If a file's size is not a multiple of the cluster size, the last cluster in the file's group of clusters will have unused space that can't be used by other files. So, filesystems that use clusters will cause files to take up more space on disk than they do in memory, and larger partitions means larger cluster sizes and therefore more wasted space. Therefore, using several small partitions instead of one large partition can save space.
  • Each partition may be customized to different requirements. For example, a partition which is seldom written to can be mounted read-only. Many small files on a partition require a filesystem with many inodes.
  • On multi-user systems running Unix, keeping /home, /tmp and /var/tmp separated from system files in /etc, /var, etc. prevents hardlink attacks.

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Ceiliine (Céline ) Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:38:39 -0000
Est entrain de dechifrer la partition de white horse on piano
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wgpost (Niloy) Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:26:28 -0000
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Windows Vista Startup Repair Fails with an Invalid System Partition... http://www.philippinestoday.net/index.php?module=article&view=2242
phtoday (Philippines Today) Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:19:52 -0000
Windows Vista Startup Repair Fails with an Invalid System Partition... http://www.philippinestoday.net/index.php?module=article&view=2242
@voyagerfan5761 full time machine backup. I need to, as I'm going to reinstall to get around some partition resizing troubles.
posty (Derek) Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:04:28 -0000
@voyagerfan5761 full time machine backup. I need to, as I'm going to reinstall to get around some partition resizing troubles.

 
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7Tools Partition Manager - Professional partition management. Allows create, move, partitions with data (FAT16/32/32x, NTFS, Ext2/3 FS Reiser FS), delete, and convert partitions all without data destroy. Software description, screenshots, FAQs, and demo download.
Meta Description: [ 7tools System Utilities ]

Aefdisk - Command line driven disk partitioning program, DOS. [Shareware]

Aefdisk32 for Windows - Aefdisk32 is a command line driven disk partitioning utility for Windows, helping unattended installation and operating system deployment

FDISK Partitioning Guide - Detailed tutorial on how to use FDISK to partition hard disk drives.

404 FIPS - The First nondestructive Interactive Partition Splitting program. Splits a DOS partition without deleting its data. [GNU GPL]

Free FDISK - Free FDISK from GNU / Free Software Foundation

g4u - Harddisk Image Cloning for PCs - NetBSD-based bootfloppy/CD-ROM that allows easy cloning of PC harddisks to deploy a common setup on a number of PCs using FTP. [BSD license]

MasterBooter - Customizable boot manager and partitioner in one shareware package. Compatibility with Windows, DOSes, Linux, FreeBSD, SCO OpenServer, OS/2 (Warp, Merlin) Solaris, Oberon, Theos, BeOS and others systems.

MBRWizard - Command line tool to directly modify the MBR, with the capability to set partitions active, sort, delete or hide partitions, backup and restore copies of the MBR [Windows 9x/XP/2K/2003/PE, DOS and Linux]
Meta Description: [ MBRWizard - The MBR modification utility you've been looking for ]

MIDS (G4U) - A fast, menuing front-end for the G4U (Ghost for UNIX). Used for rapid image deployment.

Paragon (PTS) Partition Manager - Create, resize, convert, and copy FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, and Linux partitions. [Windows 9x/ME/NT/2000/XP]
Meta Description: [ Paragon Partition Manager 7.0 lets you create, format, resize, merge, undelete, move, copy, defragment and convert safely and quickly partitions for storing valuable information, data files, applications, and operating systems. ]

Paragon Hard Disk Manager - Includes functionality of Partition Manager, Drive Backup, Boot Manager, Disk Wiper and more.
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PartEd - GNU (Free Software Foundation) program to create, destroy, resize and copy PC disk partitions. It currently supports ext2 and FAT (FAT16 and FAT32) filesystems, Linux swap devices, and MS-DOS disk labels. GNU/Linux or on boot disk, open source.

Partition Image for Linux - Linux/UNIX utility which saves partitions in many formats to an image file, supported file systems: ReiserFS, ext2fs/ext3fs, FAT16/32: DOS and Windows, and NTFS. [Beta version]

Partition Resizer - Resize and move disk partitions and logical drives, without having to re-format your hard drive. Supports almost any type of DOS or Windows file system, including FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32 and it works with extended partitions. Freeware.

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PTDD Software - Partition Table Doctor(PTD) and Super Fdisk disk partitioning utilities. PTD checks and repairs partition table error. Super Fdisk creates, deletes and formats partitions without destroying data.[Windows 9x,Me, MS-DOS, Freedos]
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TeraByte Unlimited - Makers of the BootIt line of multi-boot and partitioning utilities. Intel platform shareware.
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Wreck Disk - Removes unwanted stubborn partitions from any hard drive on x86 systems.
Meta Description: [ Wreck Disk is a tool that allows you to remove any Hard Drive Disk Partition no matter what Operating System Created it. And it removes the partition in seconds. It does that by setting the partition table record to it's factory default settings. ]

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