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Create a primary partition with a single logical disk
•
Create an extended partition and divide it into logical partitions (disks)
•
Set the active partition (a partition to boot an operating system from)
•
Typical hard disk partition structure can look like:
MBR
Primary partition 1-1.
System logical disk C:.
Extended partition 1-2.
Logical partition 1-5
Logical disk D:.
Logical disk E:.
Logical disk F:.
..............................
Usually, initial partitioning is made by means of an operating system. Different operating
systems offer special programs for this.
After the installation of Windows XP, you can invoke the Control Panel, whose disk
management tools will let you delete and create partitions (primary, extended, logical)
using free (unallocated) disk space, or format a partition.
You cannot, however, change partition structure by means of the Windows operating
system. To do this, you will need software such as Acronis Disk Director Suite. It lets you
resize, move, hide partitions, set them as active, copy and perform other operations
without losing any data or causing any OS and application workability problems.
A.4
Primary Partitions
A primary hard disk partition can contain the operating system, applications and user data
(files). Only one primary partition can be set as active in a given PC session.
Most operating systems can boot from a primary partition only.
If you want to use several operating systems, you might have to create several primary
partitions.
Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000–2007
Hard Disk And File Systems
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