Talk:Disk partitioning
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[edit] Active partitions and list of file systems
Could anyone give an explanation
[edit] Merger
Hi, I returned the materials moved to Hard disk drive partitioning history, because they don't make up for a whole article. Let me explain: each article in Wikipedia has to reach a balance of size versus integration of details. Now the history of hard drive partitioning is quite integral to the concept of drive partitioning, and it doesn't excessively increase the size. So in this case it's best to leave it in one chunk. Remember, Wikipedia is an encyclopedia with proper articles, not Everything2 with nodes :-) --Uriyan
In fact, the history of partitioning is just about the only thing on the topic. The whole concept of partitioning is completely obsolete. Partitioning (and formatting) make no sense in the case of a Logging FS where you can grow and shrink the log dynamically. -- Ark
- POV, surely -- partitioning is still critically relevant to the vast majority of filesystems. Wikipedia doesn't enjoy the luxury of closing its eyes and pretending that it doesn't exist. --Jkew 19:46, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
To do: Drive partitioning on non- IBM PC architectures was moved from the article to here. --cprompt 02:23, 21 Dec 2003 (UTC)
I merged the following articles Active partition, Partition (Computing), Partition (IBM PC) - Jacob 16 Jun 2005
[edit] Extended partitions?
Extended partition is linked here, but the article doesn't define - or even mention! - extended partitions, let alone explain how they function. Is this missing for a reason, or does it just await writing? --Dyfrgi 22:42, 7 May 2006 (UTC)
- I added a blurb about this when I rewrote the article a bit. Fiskars007 21:19, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] 1024 sector limitation
The article says:
"Technical limitations of a filesystem or operating system (e.g. old versions of the Microsoft FAT filesystem or old Linux kernels that can't boot on a partition with more than 1024 sectors)"
Is this a reference to the old limitation in LILO that meant it could not boot from a partition that began after the 1024th cylinder on a drive? If so, the statement above needs to be corrected. — Yama 10:00, 15 September 2005 (UTC)
[edit] XOSL link
I have removed the dead link to xosl.org (which now belongs to a link farm):
Although Ranish has a mirror of it, I'm not really sure how relevant an operating system loader is to an article on partitioning -- all the other links are to either further information on partitioning or to partitioning utilities, not to loaders. --Jkew 19:30, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Extended/logical partitions
24 logical partitions in an extended partition? Since when? Assume this is a typo for 4. Should also note that extended partitions can be nested. --Jkew 19:40, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
I think this refers to the limit existing since DOS 3.3 (1987) to have a maximum of 23 logical partitions inside an extended partition (using a chained setup where each partition is preceded by an "EMBR" with only two entries, one being the logical, and the other being another extended which points to the next slice.)
The limit of 23 was computed as being 26 (letters) -2 (A: and B: were for floppies) -1 (for C: which had to be primary). --AntoineL 15:16Z, December 5th, 2005
[edit] Hardlink attacks
Would be useful to provide a link to this for those (like me) who had their interest piqued -- can't find anything suitable within Wikipedia. --Jkew 19:49, 22 November 2005 (UTC)
- Google. ;^ ] 68.64.175.222 22:45, 26 January 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Other partitioning implementations
[edit] Concurrent schemes used
There are a number of them; GNU Parted or Linux fdisk support a few like the Unix-inherited (BSD, Sun, etc.) disklabels or the Apple Macintosh scheme; there is also the SCO Xenix divvy scheme which may be historically relevant.--AntoineL 15:51Z, December 5th, 2005
[edit] Intel GUID Partition Table
A recent edit (Nov 30th) added
Its however unlikely this project will ever replace IBM PC partitions as the Itanium processor was not received well by the market.
While factually correct about Itanic, I do not agree with the conclusion. For the PC architecture, GPT is still the only scheme with some acceptance which saves the 2TB barrier (32-bit count of 512-byte sectors). It is implemented in Linux, BSD, and the recent versions of Windows.
I am not to say GPT will be the solution (would be a POV.) Booting is certainly still a problem to solve, and the BIOS makers are expected here; also AMD does not seem willingful to acceptance the EFI standard as a whole (but GPT can easilly be severed.)--AntoineL 15:51Z, December 5th, 2005
[edit] Too technical
In reading this article, I have come across quite a few terms that would definitely not be readily identifiable to many people who use PCs. Jargon terms are used rather than simple English- defining/wikifying the terms would be a good idea. On the whole, the article is well written from a basic techie viewpoint, but that moves it away from being generally useful to a broad base of Wikipedia readers.
→ P.MacUidhir (t) (c) 05:34, 26 February 2006 (UTC)
- I agree with you - i actually did try a bit at fixing that up a bit. I find it less confusing now, but it's also noticeably shorter (mostly because the List of partition utilities was given it's own article). Fiskars007 21:19, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] windows partition setup??
talking about windows partitions... should the programs and files (eg my docs) be stored together on a 2nd partition, or both separately on a 2nd and 3rd?? - mar 1st
- You should put this sort of question on a computer tech support forum or similar where it may be better answered - this is an encyclopedia, not an IT help desk. If you'd like my recommendation, you would be able to get by with just one or two partitions - adding more partitions makes your life harder, and you run the risk of running out of space for example documents while you still have room for programs (like what often happens to users on Unix-like operating systems). Fiskars007 21:19, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] One technical detail
The drive mentions making the C drive "nonexistent" and putting the OS on another drive. Could this somehow be clarified?
- No idea how that works. My computer actually boots Windows XP from H:, not C:, but I still have a C: drive. I think that it's a requirement in Windows still that you must have a C: partition, a holdover from MS-DOS... but I really have no clue. Research should be done on this, or it should be removed. 72.78.224.21 20:48, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
- Often, to create extra space, a hard disk is compressed. When this happens, the compressed data is basically stored as one huge file on the hard disk. It is then opened and treated as a separate disk. To avoid confusion, the drive letters are often swapped, so that the compressed data is C: and the original hard disk (containing the compressed file and usually all or part of the system) is given another letter.130.101.100.106 16:06, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Needs more info.
On Primary, Logical and Extended Partitions. BKmetic 14:29, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
- I added a mention of them - they should be expanded. I will mark it as a stub. Fiskars007 21:19, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
[edit] UNIX partitions??
According to the article /boot is its own partition. That makes no sense, /boot includes files that is needed to define how to mount the partitions defined in /etc. For these reasons, /boot, /etc, /proc and /bin cannot be their own partitions or the system won't boot. Better be correct. And also, note that very few distributions actually make that making partitions by default. --[Svippong - Talk] 20:49, 23 November 2006 (UTC)
