Now..... if I can just...... absorb what I learned!

BTW

I've learned so much here, thanks to you & other helpful doTechies, that I think my brain is bruising!!

Oh,........in a GOOD way!

your pal

Al

Already the posts from our friends & the 5 html links has simplified this subject admirably well.

Your hard disk can be unpartitioned (i.e. 0 partitions) or have 2, 3 or 4 partitions. Again each can be of different size. There are 3 types of files. Firstly there are Boot Files. These are the first to come into play & do so only when you start your computer by switching on the power switch (cold boot) or if you start your computer from e.g. hibernation (warm boot) . Secondly there are Operating system files. These come into play only after you have started aka "booted" your computer. Thirdly there are "all other files". "All other files" are of 2 kinds – app system files & app data files. The former is the app itself e.g. excel. If you don't have the app itself you cannot even create a data file with it. The app data file is e.g. an excel spreadsheet you created. Ok?

The point is – in the partition which holds your Operating System do not put anything else – no app system files & no app data files. The reason is very simple. If you had everything inside the partition which holds your Operating System & that gets screwed it totally screws up everything. Ok? You need not worry about Boot files. Those animals are not part of the OS & have another separate house they live in anyway.

Actually there is a joker in this pack – an animal called DOS Extended Partition. This enables upto 24 partitions. It is primarily used if you wish to use ancient hardware & software of older Windows operating systems. None of us dottechies is likely to use it because all recent Operating systems are no longer of DOS kernel buy use NT kernel. XP, Vista, Win7 etc run on NT kernel.

So if you have 1 operating system have at least 2 partitions. If you have 2 operating systems have at least 4 partitions. Too many partitions or too few prove unhelpful. Now my friend boldly & confidently read those 5 html & you'll not find them frightening anymore

Ramesh

Did ya read the stuff?

Wad-dya lurn?

Any new info?

Al?

Ramesh

Im gonna try one last time, but you should just read the links below, they actually know what they're talking about.  A physical hard drive can be split into only 4 partitions.  These are the primary partitions.  One of these primaries will be flagged "active" or "boot" and will contain the default OS (and a few other things, I think).  These 4 partitions can be split into 22* extended (secondary) partitions.  However, these secondary partitions can act separately from the primary partitions on which they reside.  

*I assume 22: 1 for each letter of the alphabet minus the 4 for the primary partitions.  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_partition

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/file/structPartitions-c.html

Also is the OS partition what is know as Master Boot? In another thread (Steeler6 System Dump thread) you had pointed out that only 2 things are not related to Windows OS issue:-

1. Master Boot
2. Bios

Ramesh

A partition is like a division of your hard drive.  The operating system views all the partitions as separate drives, but they are actually just one (or more) divided into separate parts.  They act separately, too, so you can format an entire partition without formatting the whole drive.  I don't know what makes a primary partition primary, but you can only install Windows to a primary partition.  One of these will be assigned the 'boot' partition, which is the default OS.  Any other partition is a secondary partition, and there is nothing special about them.  

 

for the most part you wont have to change any of these partition types, except maybe which primary partition you want to be 'boot'.  This can be done by clicking Start, and typing "msconfig" into the search bar and pressing enter.  Click on the "Boot" tab and you can see all the OSs installed on your system.  To make a partition 'boot', select the OS installed to it and click "set as default".  I believe that if there is linux on a secondary partition, then you CAN make the secondary partition boot.  Can anyone verify this?

Thanks friend! I got it. 

Man you have a very sharp brain

Ramesh

for the most part you wont have to change any of these partition types, except maybe which primary partition you want to be 'boot'.  This can be done by clicking Start, and typing "msconfig" into the search bar and pressing enter.  Click on the "Boot" tab and you can see all the OSs installed on your system.  To make a partition 'boot', select the OS installed to it and click "set as default".  I believe that if there is linux on a secondary partition, then you CAN make the secondary partition boot.  Can anyone verify this?

yourpalal said:

Locutus said:

Four primary partitions.  Also, Windows can't install to a secondary one (Linuxes can).

---

 

Obviously 1 is for the OS; is another one of them the recovery partition of your hard drive?, or is that part of the primary partitions?

---

A recovery could be any type, primary or secondary.  The computer can boot Windows from any primary partition, and by default will boot from the Boot primary partition, so if you have less than 4 windows installations a primary could be a backup or a Linux or your personal files or whatever.  So it depends what kind of recovery it is.  If its a Windows based recovery then it will be on a primary partition; if its a linux or other based recovery it could be on any type.

Perhaps Preterosso in his post number 1 wanted to understood what partition means - drive or a part of your drive & how it looks. Why only Preterosso I'd like to understand it as well, please. Also what is primary & secondary? Where can we see these settings inside our comp? When should we tweak these settings & how?

Grateful for your kind help

Ramesh

Locutus said:

Four primary partitions.  Also, Windows can't install to a secondary one (Linuxes can).

---

 

Obviously 1 is for the OS; is another one of them the recovery partition of your hard drive?, or is that part of the primary partitions?

A recovery could be any type, primary or secondary.  The computer can boot Windows from any primary partition, and by default will boot from the Boot primary partition, so if you have less than 4 windows installations a primary could be a backup or a Linux or your personal files or whatever.  So it depends what kind of recovery it is.  If its a Windows based recovery then it will be on a primary partition; if its a linux or other based recovery it could be on any type.

There's much to be learned about the diff between backup, virtualization, partioning, system restore, recovery, sandboxing,.......................

Seems to me that alot of it is all about finding/getting info & data, keeping it, hiding it, getting rid of it, & recovering it!!!

Regards

Al

Four primary partitions.  Also, Windows can't install to a secondary one (Linuxes can).

Obviously 1 is for the OS; is another one of them the recovery partition of your hard drive?, or is that part of the primary partitions?

I’m trying to use Ahraf’s review/suggested Paragon B/up recovery 10.1 free, & it said mountable= assigned drive. My main purpose is what Karen referred to:

“lots of other people like to keep their data and their OS on separate partition (or better yet, separate drives) so that it is easier to reinstall the OS without having to worry about the data”

But OS must know for sure which partition (& order) --to boot from, & in case of failure/crash…..may need to boot from rescue disk (CD, or some may accept flash drive/memory stick-). We all want to avoid data loss & whole new install. So just want best & fastest recoveries possible.

Thanks

Al