Why disk partition

Think of this like having a plastic storage bin, three feet tall and one foot wide. By putting drawers in the bin you optimize the space, so that you can group and access items separately instead of going through everything all at once. In the same way, disk partitioning compartmentalizes your system so that each region can run and be utilized independently, without affecting one another.

For instance, if you have files on different partitions and one becomes corrupted, the files on the other partition s should go unharmed. Similarly, if you run different operating systems OS on separate partitions and one becomes damaged, you could boot your computer from the other this is commonly done with Windows and Linux.

This allows you to minimize the impact of data corruption, viruses, and crashes. If done incorrectly, partitioning can unintentionally reduce total storage space. Multiple partitions require the system to duplicate certain file administration areas, and having the same duplicate files on different partitions will also take up more space than normal.

To be specific, users should initialize the disk MBR or GPT and create one or more partitions with capacity, file system , cluster size, drive letter, etc. It' s better to have two or more partitions in a computer. One partition is used as system partition to store operating system boot files that can boot Windows.

The rest partitions can be used to store apps' installation packages and other personal files. If you want to reinstall Windows someday, all you have to do is to format the system partition and reinstall the OS. The installed programs and personal files will stay where you left them. Some users like to place their data into a certain place according data types. Partitions make it easier.

You can create partitions for games, music, or other documents. If you know on which partition the data you want to backup is stored, but you don't know the exact file path, you can back up the whole partition.

Backing up partition is better than backing up whole hard drive or finding out the exact files in a huge number of files. While Windows shows separate entries for each partition you've created, those partitions are all still on the same physical drive.

Because of this, if your hard drive fails, is destroyed by a natural disaster, or otherwise stops working, you'll lose everything on it. This could be a shock for a new user, who's used to every drive in the This PC window representing a separate physical device. Thus, backing up your data in Windows , no matter what partition it's on, is crucial. You need to have multiple copies of data for a proper backup. One of the biggest hassles when you have several partitions is keeping them straight.

With any more than three or four partitions, you'll likely lose the organization benefits just trying to keep track of them. And even with an extra partition or two, you'll still have to set up Windows to save your files and software on the other partitions. This is more complex than saving everything on one partition, making it unnecessary for most people. Additionally, the complexity of having multiple partitions introduces more chances for a mistake. When formatting one partition, you might accidentally erase another.

With one disk partition, you don't have to worry about overall disk space, aside from filling up the drive completely. But with multiple partitions, you can end up in a situation where you're cramped for space on one partition but have plenty of free space on another. The limited space also means you could run into surprises. For instance, a major update to Windows 10 could require more space than you have free on its partition. You'd then have to remove some games from a separate partition, shrink that partition, then extend the one with Windows installed.

Thankfully, Windows makes it pretty easy to shrink and extend partitions, so you're not locked into your initial sizes. But resizing partitions frequently is inconvenient. Many power users like to partition for the reasons listed above, which is great. But for the average user, it's often not necessary.

Typical computer users don't typically have enough files that they need a different partition to manage them. And they don't often install other operating systems, negating that benefit. While partitioning isn't overly complex, it also introduces some potential for issues for a novice user. Compared to the low benefit, it's generally not worth the effort for them to partition.

Many of the historical reasons for partitioning don't matter as much now, due to the widespread inclusion of SSDs in modern computers. See the below section for a discussion on this. As you may be aware, older hard disk drives HDD are mechanical.

They have moving platters and a head that reads and writes data. Because of this, the organization of data on the drive affects how quickly you can access it. If the drive has to spin all around to access bits of data that are far apart from each other, it will affect performance.

For some time, partitioning was a solution for this. Your primary partition, with Windows installed, would live at the outside of the platter which has the fastest read times.