| When referring to a computer hard disk drive, a partition is a segment of the hard drive that is separated from other portions of the hard disk drive. Partitions help enable users to easily divide a computer hard disk drive into different drives and/or into different portions for multiple operating systems to run on the same drive. With older file allocation tables, such as FAT16, creating smaller partitions allows a computer hard disk drive to run more efficiently and save more disk space. However, with new file allocation tables, such as FAT32, this is no longer the case. Partition FAQ:
- Information about creating, deleting (unpartition), or otherwise using fdisk to manipulate partitions can be found on our fdisk page.
- Information about creating partitions and setting up a drive in Windows 2000,
XP and above can be found on document CH000588.
- If you wish to extend a partition, shrink a partition, combine partitions, or otherwise manipulate a partition that can be done through a standard partition program, we would recommend you look into Partition Magic.
In addition to the utilities to create hard disk drive partitions, there are hundreds of different types of partitions; below is a listing of some of these types of partitions as well as a brief description about these partitions. While all of these partitions are available, it is very likely that not all of these partitions will be listed in your partition utility.
| Type of Partition | Description |
| AIX Partition (Boot) | Partition used with the AIX operating system. |
| Boot Partition | As defined by Microsoft a boot partition is a partition that contains the files required for a system startup. Also see: System Partition |
| BSD/OS Partition (OpenBSD) | Partition used with the BSD operating system. |
| DOS (12-bit, 16-bit) Partition | Partition used with older versions of MS-DOS. |
| DOS Extended Partition | Partition that is extended from one or more of the original MS-DOS partitions. |
| DRDOS (Hidden, Secured) | Partition used with the DR. DOS operating system. |
| Extended Partition | Partition that is extended from one or more of the primary partitions. |
| Hibernation Partition | Partition used with older hibernation programs. |
| HPFS Partition (OS/2 IFS) | Partition used with IBM OS/2 and Microsoft NT 3.x |
| Linux (Linux native, Linux swap, Linux extended, ext2fs) | Partition used with various variants of the Linux operating systems. |
| MINIX | Partition used with the MINIX operating system. |
| NON-DOS Partition | When using Microsoft fdisk a NON-DOS partition indicates a partition that is not native to the Microsoft operating system. For example, this could be a Linux partition. |
| NEC DOS | Partition used with the old NEC DOS variant. |
| NEXTSTEP | Partition used with the Nextstep operating system. |
| Novell Netware | Partition used with the Novell Netware operating system. |
| NTFS | Partition used with Microsoft Windows NT 4.x, Windows 2000 and Windows XP. |
| Partition Magic (PowerQuest) | Partition created using the Partition Magic utility by PowerQuest. |
| PC-ARMOUR | Partition created by the PC ARMOUR security utility. When created this partition is commonly protected by a password. |
| Primary | In a Microsoft operating system the Primary Partition commonly refers to the main partition used for the Microsoft operating system. |
| Solaris X86 | Partition used with the Sun Solaris X86 platform operating system. |
| System Partition | As defined by Microsoft a system partition is a partition that contains the system32 directory. Also see: Boot Partition |
| Tandy DOS | Partition used with the old Tandy DOS variant. |
| Unix System V (SCO, IRIX, ISC, Unix, UnixWare, etc...) | Partition used with various Unix operating systems. |
| VMWare (VMWare Swap) | Partition used by VMWare. |
| XENIX (XENIX /usr) | Partition used with the XENIX operating system. |
Also see: Delpart, FAT, Hard disk drive definitions, Virtual drive | |
| Resolved |
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