Acronis disk director suite 9.0 Manual Do Utilizador
Hard Disk And Operating System
Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000–2005
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There can be up to several tens of thousands of cylinders per disk. The greater
the amount of data that can be stored on one side of a disk,, the more cylinders
can be created on it and the larger the capacity of the disk.
the amount of data that can be stored on one side of a disk,, the more cylinders
can be created on it and the larger the capacity of the disk.
This design has a lot of technical implementation peculiarities, but those issues
are not germane to this explanation.
are not germane to this explanation.
A.2
Hard Disk Partition
After low-level formatting creates disk sectors, partitions must be created on the
disk.
disk.
A partition is an area on a hard disk that can be used to install an operating
system and/or used as data storage. Creating separate sections on a disk is
called partitioning. (Think of slicing a pie into different pieces.) Disk partitions are
analogous to separate, physical disk drives and do not depend on each other. In
fact, each partition can contain its own operating system.
system and/or used as data storage. Creating separate sections on a disk is
called partitioning. (Think of slicing a pie into different pieces.) Disk partitions are
analogous to separate, physical disk drives and do not depend on each other. In
fact, each partition can contain its own operating system.
Different operating systems use different data storage means — file systems. The
process of creating a partition file system is called formatting. Each partition can
have its own file system.
process of creating a partition file system is called formatting. Each partition can
have its own file system.
Preparing a disk for use includes two stages: partitioning and formatting.
Partitioning is useful and often necessary because:
• Different partitions can have different operating systems — for example,
Windows 2000, XP and Linux
• Partitioning provides more effective disk space usage.
• Partitioning enables you to separate system files from user data, making
• Partitioning enables you to separate system files from user data, making
personal information storage safer.
• Partitioning provides more effective hard disk maintenance. In particular,
more effective data integrity control, file defragmentation and data
backup.
backup.
A.3 Partition
Types
There are three main partition types:
• Primary
• Extended
• Logical
• Extended
• Logical
Primary and logical partitions are the main partition types. Physical hard disks can
contain up to four primary partitions or up to three primary and infinite logical
partitions.
contain up to four primary partitions or up to three primary and infinite logical
partitions.