What is disk partitioning and what are the advantages to carry out this ?

Answer 1

hard disk drive partitioning is the creation of logical divisions upon a hard disk that allows one to apply operating system-specific logical formatting. In layman's terms, partitioning a hard drive makes it appear to be more than one hard drive, especially in how each partition is formatted for different operating systems, and in how files are copied from one partition to another.
Purpose
Partitioning allows the creation of several file systems on a single hard disk. This has many benefits, including:
· Allowing for dual boot setups (for example, to boot Microsoft Windows and Linux), which means the user can have more than one operating system on a computer.
· Sharing swap partitions between multiple Linux distributions, which means less hard drive space is used by Linux swap partitions.
· Protection or isolation of files, which means if the operating system stops working, it can just be reinstalled without, hopefully, deleting the user's personal files and settings.
· Raising overall computer performance. Hard drives with one partition have very large Master File (MFT) Tables. Generally it takes more time for the operating system to read this MFT than the MFTs of hard drives with multiple partitions.
· Higher level of data organization increasing the user efficiency of the system, for example a partitioned drive dedicated to digital movie processing.
Partitions may be customized to different requirements, for example, allowing for read-only partitions to protect data - if one partition is damaged, none of the other file systems are affected, and the drive's data may still be salvageable.

Answer 2

Disk partitioning is like the other person said dividing your disk into different sections think of it as a wall in a room. On drive c is your windows that automatically takes up some space if you partition your disk say in half and you have 160GB then you have 75 on disk c (for example) and 80 on disk d or whatever letter it gives it. That means you have the whole 80GB to do whatever you want with it. In other words it gives you more space.

Answer 3

Disk partitioning is dividing your hard disk into several partitions. By disk partitioning, you can have more than one operating system in your computer. For example, on a 160GB hard disk, you can easily run Windows, Mac and one or more Linux distributions together!

Answer 4

Advantage is When you need to format your Hard Drive to install a new OS You just need to format the partition who has the OS files on it. So you don't need to backupp your old files on another Hard Disk Drive. If you have two hard drives on your Pc why bother partionioning it. :)

Answer 5

hi disk partitioning is nothing but separate your hard disk into many sections for the effective usage of the hard disk. consider if your hard disk is 40 GB. if u r not partition then entire hard disk will have all information u stored.

but group your hard disk as the following format:

1) operating system -> for the os files.
2) entertainment -> to store songs and films and jokes,
etc
3)games -> to store games.

now it is very much easy to handle the files that are stored in ur hard disk. thats why all are partitioning the hard disk.

for more information on disk partitioning please refer the following site

1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partition_(computing)

for disk partition How and Why please refer the following site

2)http://oakroadsystems.com/tech/hd-partn.htm

bye
__Vasantha kumar