Creating and Managing Partitions

• Logical segments of a physical hard drive are referred to as partitions.
• Partitions are created for data separation.
• MBR (Master Boot Record) allows for 4 primary partitions but is limited to 2TB partitions.
• GPT (GUID Partition Table) has no limit on the number of primary partitions and no partition size limitation.
• Primary partition (MBR) is a partition with an OS installed for booting an OS.
• OS require their own primary partition.
• Extended Partition (MBR) overcomes four primary partition limits but cannot store OS.
• Hidden partition is used by Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) to store system recovery data (recovery partition).
• Swap partition is used as a virtual memory by some OS.
• Full format runs an additional step that checks hard drive for bad sectors.
• Quick format does not check hard drive for bad sectors.
• Drive letter is assigned to a physical computer drive or drive partition.
• Hardware Compatibility List: A list of hardware compatible with a certain OS.
• Netboot: Enable installation of an OS via a network interface.
• GPT: Each partition is labelled with a GUID.