In DOS and Windows, a partition is referred to by a drive letter, such as C: or D:. As a rule, the operating system assigns the drive letter C: to the primary partition on the first hard disk drive, and then goes on to search for other primary partitions that may exist on the other hard disk drives. If the operating system finds more primary partitions on other disks, it first assigns the next drive letters in the series, to them. Then, the operating system goes on to assign letters to logical drives (in extended partitions) on each hard disk drive, continuing the series further. Drive letters A: and B: are reserved for floppy disk drives.
Types of Partitions:
The following are the different types of partitions:Active Partition: An active partition is one that is read at startup and is expected to have the necessary system files on it to boot the computer. If a partition is not set as Active, the computer will not boot from the hard disk drive. There can be only one active partition in one physical hard disk drive. Only the primary partition can be marked as an active partition.
System Partition: A system partition contains hardware-specific files used in loading and initializing the operating system. Only a primary partition can be used as a system partition. In Windows NT, system partition contains boot files namely NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and BOOT.INI. It may also contain the BOOTSECT.DOS and NTBOOTDD.SYS files.
Boot Partition: A boot partition contains operating system files and other support files needed by the operating system. It is also used to start the operating system. A primary partition or a logical drive in an extended partition can be used as a boot partition. Boot partition and system partition can be the same partition. In Windows NT, boot partition contains the operating system and NTOSKRNL.EXE.
Note: The system partition and the boot partition can be two different partitions, and can also be located on two different physical disks.
A partition is normally accomplished by running the FDISK program that comes with the operating systems. It is used to create, change, delete, or display current partitions on the hard disk. Each of the defined disk spaces (primary partition, extended partition or logical drive) is assigned a drive letter. After the hard disk is partitioned, it is formatted with a file system and the operating system is installed on it. These three procedures make a computer ready for use.
Caution! Using FDISK for removing or creating a partition on a hard disk drive destroys any data contained on that partition or on that part of the hard disk drive.
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