What is a hard disk partition? Why is it necessary? - Let's see in Details

Many may be wondering, what is a hard disk partition? Why is it necessary? হোকHave your computer hard drive and any USB drive; If you want to write a file in it, you must have at least one partition. You can't burn any file to drive without partition, but why? Let's try to find the answer in this article.

What is a partition?

Single partitions are already in place when buying a new drive or pen drive today. But most drive spaces are displayed as unused space in the new state, meaning there is no partition in this space. And in order to write a file in this space, you need a partition and this partition must have a file system. Hard disk partition is the logical division of a drive, which any operating system can see as a separate unit and file system. Your computer's operating system and file system can manage each partition very well and easily, just as they think each of your separate partitions is a separate physical drive. Partitioning all hard drives into smaller partitions makes it more efficient to manage them.

Partitioning is a must, because without partitioning you can't start writing files in free space. Suppose you have a table equal space, now you want to put 1 liter of water there, how to put water on the table? Of course a pot will be needed, and this pot can be called a partition. Just as different types of containers are needed to store liquids and gases, so different files are needed for how different files will be written to the hard drive.

The operating system has a disk partition manager, which helps the system admin to create many partitions, resize the partition size, and delete partitions. After creating a new partition, it is not possible to store the file immediately, of course the partition must be formatted by the file system. NTFS file system is used for Windows Drive. Fat / Fat32 generally supports any operating system and any device. HFS + file system for Mac and EXT4 file system for Linux.

The drive contains a bootable partition, which usually contains the operating system, and the operating system is the first to read this partition. After the computer boots, a process is run that helps the OS to understand and access the partition table, as well as to understand the partition table, the number of partitions on the drive, and the file system format. Moreover, it helps to understand the size, address, etc. of each partition.

Why more than one partition?

You must not choose to have multiple partitions on your pen drive or memory card, because the more partitions you do, the more drives your computer will show. However, there are many more reasons to use multiple partitions, which add value to multi-partitioning. Windows is usually installed on the C drive, if your hard disk no longer has a partition, then your other files will be easily removed when reinstalling Windows. And that's why most Windows users like to create separate partitions and store their personal files there. So that you do not have to wash your hands of all the data while re-installing Windows.

Suppose you want to use Linux and Windows together by dual booting the same hard drive, then installing two OSes on the same partition will cause conflict between Linux and Windows. Additionally, Linux requires a separate partition to install later, and Linux uses a different file system format. One partition is enough to install the Windows operating system, but multiple partitions are required to install Linux. For example, a Linux system requires a swap partition, and when your system is full of RAM, Linux stores the necessary files in the swap memory. Swap partitions need to be formatted on a separate file system.

Primary, Extended, Logical Partition

Before you format a hard disk partition and file system, let us know some important information about disk partition. You see, it is possible to create only 4 primary partitions on one drive. If you create four primary partitions, 3 primary partitions will be created and 1 extended partition will be created. An extended partition is a partition within which separate partitions can be created. And the partitions created within these extended partitions are called logical partitions.

Suppose you need 4 or fewer partitions, but you can easily create 4 primary partitions. Suppose again you need to create 6 partitions, in which case you need to create 3 primary partitions and create an extended partition and create three more logical partitions within this extended partition. The primary partition usually contains your operating system, and you can boot the computer from the primary partition. An extended partition is not a partition in itself, but rather it contains logical partition drives. Logical drives are specifically designed to hold any type of file except the operating system, such as your computer's audio, video, games, etc. If you want to create 6 partitions, you can create 1 primary partition and 1 extended partition where you can create 5 logical drives.

Partition Performance

This question must have arisen in your mind, if different partition drives are displayed as separate drives in your operating system, then in terms of performance, will there be different performance from each drive? ু Unfortunately, even if the separate partitions show different drive formats, there is no improvement in performance. Since all partitions are from the same physical drive, bandwidth speeds behave like a single partition, not getting dedicated speeds from different partitions. However, if you have a separate physical drive installed on your computer, you will see performance improvement.

Last word

Many people don't think much about hard drive partitions, they buy partitions from the store when they buy a computer, and we just keep doing file store or separate work. But you as a computer guru and Wirebd reader must know what a partition is and how it works. So have you ever partitioned yourself manually? Whichever partition manager tool you prefer to use, please let us know in the comments below.