Primary Partition is a partition that is needed to store and boot an operating system, though applications and user data

can reside there as well, and whats more, you can have a primary partition without any operating system on it. There can be up to a maximum of four primary partitions on a single hard disk, with only one of them set as active (see Active partition). Active (boot) partition is a primary partition that has an operating system installed on it. It is used for booting your machine. If you have a single primary partition, it is regarded as active. If you have more than one primary partition, only one of them is marked active (in a given PC session). Extended partition can be sub-divided into logical drives and is viewed as a container for logical drives, where data proper is located. An extended partition is not formatted or assigned a drive letter. The extended partition is used only for creating a desired number of logical partitions. Logical drive is created within an extended partition. A logical partition is a way to extend the initial limitation of four partitions. An extended partition can contain up to 24 logical partitions (youre limited by the number of drive letters and the amount of hard drive space available for creating drives; of course, its senseless to use 24 partitions on a system in most cases, because it will be a data organization nightmare). Logical partitions are used for storing data mainly, they can be formatted and assigned drive letters; their details are listed in the extended partitions table - EMBR (Extended Master Boot Record). Lets presume you are setting up a new system and starting with an empty 300 GB hard disk. Of course, you may create a single 300 GB partition - a primary Windows one. However, in many cases dividing up such a disk will make it easier to manage the space. So we imagine you want to split up this drive as follows: You will first set up a primary Windows partition - 40 GB. Then you will create an extended partition that is 260 GB in size. This is the second partition on the hard disk. Within the extended partition you will create three logical volumes: 60 GB, 80 GB and 120 GB. These are your second, third and fourth volumes respectively. The first partition will be your C: drive from which you boot the machine, and Windows will assign D:, E: and F: to the other logical partitions. The D: drive can be used for storing docs, the E: one for games, and the F: one for large multimedia files, backups and future expansion. Thus, your hard disk will have one primary partition, and one extended partition containing three logical volumes.

Partitioning
Partitioning is the process of dividing the hard disks space into sections, so they can be dedicated to different aims. You can partition your HD, and each partition will behave like a separate disk drive. Having a partitioned hard disk is indispensable, rather than just convenient. There are various types of partitions; we are mostly interested in those logical, since its often their alignment, size and contents that determine the efficiency of your PC work. To tell the truth, the most widespread partitioning scheme would look like this:

 C: - operating system (+ some docs or program files); D: - other, including data, applications and so on. This appears a bit senseless in the way it is insecure in the first place. There are a number of more reasonable partitioning schemes designed for particular needs of the user. So before splitting up your HD into partitions, try to figure out the end goal of partitioning for you. You might find these points important: organize your work and structure your files; secure protection against data loss; boost your PC performance and expand its capabilities (for example running multiple OSes). For a home user, it would be suitable to partition their HD as follows: C: - operating system only; D: - program files; E: - docs, music, video; F: - backup.

Combining the two mentioned lists (the targets of partitioning and your HDs possible structure), we can make several useful conclusions. To hit the first target (organize your work and structure your files), you can split your E: drive into logical sections, containing your workfiles, pictures and multimedia respectively. Itll facilitate and accelerate the search for needed files and help you keep things in order. The second target implies youll have to enlarge your F: partition. Backup is of vital importance for any user, but unfortunately, we often forget (or are a little bit too lazy) to make an extra copy of our docs, music and pictures, which can easily get lost after a system failure. It always occurs when you least expect it and wipes out all your critical workfiles and dear memories. There are a lot of pieces of backup and recovery software in the market now; and its desirable that you use one to preserve your data. The third target is connected with multi-boot in most cases, or other operations valuable for experienced PC users mainly. Multi-booting is the act of installing multiple operating systems on a computer, and the ability to choose which one to boot when switching on the computer power. The feature has many advantages: Several pieces of software require different operating systems and cannot be run on a single system. A dual boot configuration will allow the user to apply all this software on one computer. The user can test a new operating system without switching to it completely. Multi-booting allows one to get to know the new system, configure all applications needed and migrate data before making the final step and removing the old operating system. Multi-booting can also aid software developers where multiple operating systems are required for development or testing purposes. Having these systems on one machine can greatly reduce hardware costs. Nevertheless, you need to have great expertise to take advantage of multi-boot, since compatibility

issues may arise with different operating systems: one operating system may not be able to recognize another operating systems file system and thus try to format it to its native file system, erasing the existing data. Hard disk repartitioning is one of the common tasks that people are facing when installing a second OS on their PC. Each OS uses its own file systems (e.g. Windows XP primarily uses NTFS and can use FAT32). Linux should be installed on its own file system Ext3 or Reisner. In this case you need at least two additional partitions. If your NTFS system encompasses the whole hard drive, repartitioning is the best option. The second important use of repartitioning is to create a partition to backup a bootable partition. You should always defragment the all existing partitions on the disk before repartitioning. Thats the law. Otherwise your chances to lose data increase dramatically. By the way, it should be noted that partitioning your home PC and a server are quite different things. The latter is dedicated to special tasks; the following description explains which ones: server partitioning.

Server partitioning
First, lets list the advantages of optimal server partitioning. These include: consolidating multiple applications into one physical server box (it helps centralize management, save space and decrease administrative and management costs); enhancing enterprise resource planning (applications are divided across multiple desktop clients, application servers and database servers.); hosting applications on different partitions within a single server, thereby improving performance; consolidating the work previously carried out by multiple independent servers. All hard drive partitioning operations. There are also three methods of server partitioning described below.

Physical partitioning
Resources are divided along hardware boundaries. A single large server divides it into multiple smaller systems, each partition running its own copy of the operating system. Each partition is physically independent, self-contained server with its own processors, memory, input / output subsystem and network resources. The boundaries can be reset at any time.

Software-based, or logical partitioning

Partitions are more flexible because the boundaries between them arent physically defined. At least, a single processor can be divided among multiple logical partitions, or resources such as memory and disks can be shared dynamically between partitions. Flexibility allows applications to maximize the use

of total system resources as needed instead of being confined by physical boundaries.

Dynamic partitioning
Users are able to create, resize or delete partitions without rebooting. It allows administrators to quickly allocate additional resources to applications - say, to handle a sudden spike in Web server traffic without serious disruptions.

Drive partitioning operations

There are 2 types of partition operations: basic and advanced. The former are more frequent, but you are likely to need to perform the latter ones either. So, lets analyze both types. Basic partition operations: Create partition Increase/decrease partition size Increase free space If a partitions capacity is not sufficient for storing extra data on it, you might need to increase its space. The increase free space wizard will help you fulfill this task. Move partition In what cases do you move partitions? First, if you want to change the letter order assigned by the OS. Then in case you need to work with some older OS that can boot from binary partitions located at the beginning of the disk, you also perform this kind of operation. Speeding up partition operations and changing partition configuration are also implemented by means of moving partitions. Copy partition You perform this operation when you create a partition backup or want to move all data from an old disk to a new one. Delete partition After a partition is deleted, its space is added to unallocated disk space. It can be used for a new

partition or to resize an existing partition. Delete partition and destroy data (Wipe process) To securely wipe out data stored on the deleted partition use special partitioning tools, which include powerful hard disk/partition wiping utilities. Split partition You can split a partition in two or create an empty partition from another partitions free space. Merge partitions You can merge two partitions, even if their file systems are different. All data will stay intact and reside on the resulting partition. Explore partition You can explore and manage partition contents before configuring operations on that partition. Changing partition labels The partition label is a name assigned to a partition for easier recognition, for example, System, Data, etc. Format partition To organize a file system that supports files and folders data storage, you must format a partition. Checking hard disk partitions for errors Defragmenting a partition Defragmentation is reorganizing file storage on a hard disk partition so that parts of files are not spread about the disk, which allows the red head to move less across the disk and thus, increases PC and server performance. Advanced partition operations: Changing partition letter Some operating systems assign letters to hard disk partitions at startup. Connecting an additional disk as well as creating or deleting a partition on existing disks might change your system configuration. As a result, some applications might stop working or user files might not be opened. To avoid this, you can change letters assigned by the operating system. Converting a file system Some file systems do not support large-sized partitions, files, or disks. They may also have a limited root size. To improve these characteristics you can use this particular feature. Supported conversions: FAT 16 FAT 32 FAT 16NTFS FAT 32FAT 16

FAT 32NTFS NTFSFAT 16 NTFSFAT 32 Ext2Ext3 Ext3Ext2 Hiding a partition This option is necessary for protecting important information from unauthorized or casual access. Partition software usually allows you to hide both primary and logical partitions. Unhiding a partition This feature lets the operating system see the partition, assign a letter and provide access to its files. Setting active partition Since a hard disk can have only one active partition, the latter must be set. Resizing a root The FAT 16 partition is located in a special place and has a limited size. Advanced partitioning tools enable you to change the size of existing partitions. Changing cluster size A file occupies at least one cluster (one unit of disk space allocation for files and directories). Smaller clusters reduce slack disk space. Changing partition type This operation is performed to change a hexadecimal value that defines the file and operating system suitable for a partition.

Drive partitioning operations

There are 2 types of partition operations: basic and advanced. The former are more frequent, but you are likely to need to perform the latter ones either. So, lets analyze both types. Basic partition operations: Create partition Increase/decrease partition size Increase free space If a partitions capacity is not sufficient for storing extra data on it, you might need to increase its space. The increase free space wizard will help you fulfill this task. Move partition

In what cases do you move partitions? First, if you want to change the letter order assigned by the OS. Then in case you need to work with some older OS that can boot from binary partitions located at the beginning of the disk, you also perform this kind of operation. Speeding up partition operations and changing partition configuration are also implemented by means of moving partitions. Copy partition You perform this operation when you create a partition backup or want to move all data from an old disk to a new one. Delete partition After a partition is deleted, its space is added to unallocated disk space. It can be used for a new partition or to resize an existing partition. Delete partition and destroy data (Wipe process) To securely wipe out data stored on the deleted partition use special partitioning tools, which include powerful hard disk/partition wiping utilities. Split partition You can split a partition in two or create an empty partition from another partitions free space. Merge partitions You can merge two partitions, even if their file systems are different. All data will stay intact and reside on the resulting partition. Explore partition You can explore and manage partition contents before configuring operations on that partition. Changing partition labels The partition label is a name assigned to a partition for easier recognition, for example, System, Data, etc. Format partition To organize a file system that supports files and folders data storage, you must format a partition. Checking hard disk partitions for errors Defragmenting a partition Defragmentation is reorganizing file storage on a hard disk partition so that parts of files are not spread about the disk, which allows the red head to move less across the disk and thus, increases PC and server performance. Advanced partition operations: Changing partition letter Some operating systems assign letters to hard disk partitions at startup. Connecting an additional disk as well as creating or deleting a partition on existing disks might change your system configuration. As

a result, some applications might stop working or user files might not be opened. To avoid this, you can change letters assigned by the operating system. Converting a file system Some file systems do not support large-sized partitions, files, or disks. They may also have a limited root size. To improve these characteristics you can use this particular feature. Supported conversions: FAT 16 FAT 32 FAT 16NTFS FAT 32FAT 16 FAT 32NTFS NTFSFAT 16 NTFSFAT 32 Ext2Ext3 Ext3Ext2 Hiding a partition This option is necessary for protecting important information from unauthorized or casual access. Partition software usually allows you to hide both primary and logical partitions. Unhiding a partition This feature lets the operating system see the partition, assign a letter and provide access to its files. Setting active partition Since a hard disk can have only one active partition, the latter must be set. Resizing a root The FAT 16 partition is located in a special place and has a limited size. Advanced partitioning tools enable you to change the size of existing partitions. Changing cluster size A file occupies at least one cluster (one unit of diskDrive partitioning operations There are 2 types of partition operations: basic and advanced. The former are more frequent, but you are likely to need to perform the latter ones either. So, lets analyze both types. Basic partition operations: Create partition Increase/decrease partition size Increase free space If a partitions capacity is not sufficient for storing extra data on it, you might need to increase its space.

The increase free space wizard will help you fulfill this task. Move partition In what cases do you move partitions? First, if you want to change the letter order assigned by the OS. Then in case you need to work with some older OS that can boot from binary partitions located at the beginning of the disk, you also perform this kind of operation. Speeding up partition operations and changing partition configuration are also implemented by means of moving partitions. Copy partition You perform this operation when you create a partition backup or want to move all data from an old disk to a new one. Delete partition After a partition is deleted, its space is added to unallocated disk space. It can be used for a new partition or to resize an existing partition. Delete partition and destroy data (Wipe process) To securely wipe out data stored on the deleted partition use special partitioning tools, which include powerful hard disk/partition wiping utilities. Split partition You can split a partition in two or create an empty partition from another partitions free space. Merge partitions You can merge two partitions, even if their file systems are different. All data will stay intact and reside on the resulting partition. Explore partition You can explore and manage partition contents before configuring operations on that partition. Changing partition labels The partition label is a name assigned to a partition for easier recognition, for example, System, Data, etc. Format partition To organize a file system that supports files and folders data storage, you must format a partition. Checking hard disk partitions for errors Defragmenting a partition Defragmentation is reorganizing file storage on a hard disk partition so that parts of files are not spread about the disk, which allows the red head to move less across the disk and thus, increases PC and server performance. Advanced partition operations: Changing partition letter

Some operating systems assign letters to hard disk partitions at startup. Connecting an additional disk as well as creating or deleting a partition on existing disks might change your system configuration. As a result, some applications might stop working or user files might not be opened. To avoid this, you can change letters assigned by the operating system. Converting a file system Some file systems do not support large-sized partitions, files, or disks. They may also have a limited root size. To improve these characteristics you can use this particular feature. Supported conversions: FAT 16 FAT 32 FAT 16NTFS FAT 32FAT 16 FAT 32NTFS NTFSFAT 16 NTFSFAT 32 Ext2Ext3 Ext3Ext2 Hiding a partition This option is necessary for protecting important information from unauthorized or casual access. Partition software usually allows you to hide both primary and logical partitions. Unhiding a partition This feature lets the operating system see the partition, assign a letter and provide access to its files. Setting active partition Since a hard disk can have only one active partition, the latter must be set. Resizing a root The FAT 16 partition is located in a special place and has a limited size. Advanced partitioning tools enable you to change the size of existing partitions. Changing cluster size A file occupies at least one cluster (one unit of disk space allocation for files and directories). Smaller clusters reduce slack disk space. Changing partition type This operation is performed to change a hexadecimal value that defines the file and operating system suitable for a partition. space allocation for files and directories). Smaller clusters reduce slack disk space.

 Changing partition type This operation is performed to change a hexadecimal value that defines the file and operating system suitable for a partition.

Disk partition
A partition is a part or section of a hard disk, or, in other words, a storage space unit of the highest level on it. You can have only one partition, occupying 100% of your HD, or divide your hard disk into multiple partitions (each for a certain purpose), determine their size, install the operating and file system you want. As a result, your single physical hard drive will turn into several smaller logical disks. We recomend Acronis partition manager for partitioning operations. Actually a hard disk can exist on your machine without any partitions on it, but itll be pointless because you wont be able to implement even basic tasks, say, install an operating system and thus store and access your data properly. It need be added that you can install the majority of Windows OSes onto a non-partitioned disk - in this case the operating system will implement partitioning itself in the course of installation. One can distinguish four types of partitions. Lets look at them closely to find out their specialties and cases where they can be of use at hard drive partitions types page. See also: Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific business project.

Partition recovery signifies the division of a computers processors, memory, and storage into numerous sets of resources, and each of these resources can be operated independently using its own operating system. Depending on the size and the number of logical partitions Hard disks diversify. Thanks to partition a hard drive can be easily divided into several logical parts. However, even after creating these partitions you still might lose them, after virus attacks, disasters or failures. In such cases you might lose all the information, or part of it, stored on these partitions. You can protect your partitions thanks to the award-winning Acronis partition recovery software. After backing up your partitions with this software you may no longer fear losing data. Partition recovery is the process of restoring data from damaged storage media, when due to some failures files cannot be accessed normally. Sometimes you might want to restore data from different storage media, such as tapes or other. Partition recovery will help you with this. One of the most common partition recoveries involves an OS failure, in this case you would want to move all your files from one disk to another. Backup software can significantly simplify the process of

transferring applications, settings, and programs to your new drive. Below are several reasons for using Hard Disk Partitions. You can decide to divide a hard disk into multiple partitions in order to organize his data more effectively. Or you may decide to split a hard disk into several partitions because smaller partitions often have smaller sizes. Or you might split a hard disk into multiple partitions if the hard disk is larger than the partition size supported by your operating system. If it still is not clear what the main purposes of partitioning are, just go through the following points. First of all, you can separate OS files from plain user files. You can leave a special place for OS virtual memory paging. Thanks to partition programs that are frequently used are stored near each other. It enables you to store cache and log files separately from other files. Partition recovery is highly effective when restoring a single file, which has been corrupt. And now lets say some words about Acronis partition recovery software. Two software products Acronis True Image and Acronis Partition Expert provide comprehensive partition management and system protection. After installing both of these programs you will be able to create two partitions on your system, one will be created for data and the second one will be dedicated only to applications, all of this possible thanks to Acronis Partition Expert. Later on thanks to Acronis Scheduler you will be free to update your backup data. You can backup only when installing new software, programs etc. If you do not want to buy True Image for some reason, you can always try Acronis Disk Director with Recovery Expert. With Acronis disk and partition recovery tools you receive a highly comprehensive hard disk recovery solution. Some time ago in order to restore a deleted partition, you had to purchase a separate copy of Acronis Recovery Expert. Now all you need to is buy version 10.0 of Acronis Disk Director Suite. Can it be easier than that? Acronis Recovery Expert and Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 protect all of your data, this permits the recovery of all deleted or lost files, partitions. AS we think, if you consider yourself a sensible person, who can foresee unforeseen events, you will like this software. Nobody is totally protected from drive failure, viruses, crashes, but with this partition software and recovery software you can be sure, that all the above mentioned mishaps will no longer concern you. Acronis specialists are always ready to help you if you have trouble installing, using or recovering partitions. Plus this software is user-friendly, so we are confident that you will not have to many problems using it.

Why do you need backup? Backups are needed in case a file or a group of files is lost. The reasons for losing files include Hardware failure like disk breaking,accidentally deleting wrong file and computer being stolen. Backups help in all the above situations. In addition, it may be good to have access to older versions of

files, for example a configuration file worked a week ago, but since then it has been changed and nobody remembers how, its just not working anymore. There are other solutions, and they are good to have if you can afford them. These include redundant disks (RAID 1 or 5), so that one disk can break without loss of data,using an undelete system (or not making mistakes when deleting files locking up computers. These help, but if there is anything you do not want to lose on the computer, make sure there are backups and they can be restored. What to backup? If there is room on the backup media, and time limits permit running backups long enough, it probably is wisest to back up everything. You may skip /tmp or other places where it is known there are only temporary files that nobody wants to backup. If space or time limits place restrictions, consider not backing up the following Files that come directly from a CD or other removable media. It may even be faster to copy them again from CD than restoring from backup media. Files that can be regenerated easily. For example, object files that can be made with make. Just make sure all the source files and compilers are backed up. If the Internet connection is fast, it may be easy enough to download files again. Just keep a list of the files and where to download them from. Backup devices and media You need some media to store the backups. It is preferable to use removable media, to store the backups away from the computer and to get unlimited storage for backups. If the backups are on-line, they can be wiped out by mistake. If the backups are on the same disk as the original data, they do not help at all if the disk fails and is not readable anymore. If the backup media is cheap, it is possible to take a backup every day and store them indefinitely. Floppy,Disk,Tapes,CD-R and CD-RW are the medias available for backup Planning a Backup Before doing a backup, plan it carefully. Consider Which files are irreplaceable without a back up. Irreplaceable files probably include those in users home directories (including /root), and configuration files, such as those in the /etc/ directory. Which files are on removable drives, such as cd s or floppies. Since you probably do not need to back up removable drives, you might unmount them before doing a complete system backup. Which files can be easily replaced by installing a package or doing a selective install or upgrade of the operating system. You can save time and storage space by not including these files in a backup. Which files are unnecessary or dangerous to backup. For example, files in /tmp are probably unnecessary, while restoring some files that are in the /proc directory could crash the system.

Whether to compress files using gzip or bzip2 . Compressing saves space, but adds another step to the backup. Also, while compression is generally reliable, it creates another stage at which the process can fail. Whether users are responsible for backing up their own files. Since only the root user has full permissions for all files on the system, usually backups are best done by the root user. However, if users back up their own files, you might omit backing up the home directory, or at least not back it up regularly. Choosing a Backup Tool Linux has several tools for backing up and restoring files dump / restore : Old tools that work with filesystems, rather than files, and can back up unmounted devices. Although you can easyly control what is backed up with dump by editing a single column in the /etc/fstab file, for some reason these utilities have fallen into disuse. Today, many distributions of Linux, including Debian, do not even include them by default. If you want to use dump and restore , you must install them yourself. tar : A standard backup tool, and by far the easiest to use. It is especially useful for backing up over multiple removable devices using the -M option. cpio : A very flexible command, but one that is hard to use because of the unusual way in which the command must be entered. dd : The dd command is one of the original Unix utilities and should be in everyones tool box. It can strip headers, extract parts of binary files and write into the middle of floppy disks; it is used by the Linux kernel Makefiles to make boot images. Mondo : Mondo is reliable. It backs up your GNU/Linux server or workstation to tape, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R[W], DVD+R[W], NFS or hard disk partition. In the event of catastrophic data loss, you will be able to restore all of your data [or as much as you want], from bare metal if necessary. Mondo is in use by Lockheed-Martin, Nortel Networks, Siemens, HP, IBM, NASAs JPL, the US Dept of Agriculture, dozens of smaller companies, and tens of thousands of users. Dar: dar is a shell command that backs up directory trees and files. It has been tested under Linux, Windows, Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD, MacOS X and several other systems Many commercial or free software back up tools are also available. Types of Backup There are different kinds of backups, the following lists some of them: Full Backup Full backup is the starting point for all other backups, and contains all the data in the folders and files that are selected to be backed up. Because full backup stores all files and folders, frequent full backups result in faster and simpler restore operations. Remember that when you choose other backup types, restore jobs may take longer. Advantages

Restore is the fastest Disadvantages Backing up is the slowest The storage space requirements are the highest Incremental Backup Incremental backup means backing up everything that has changed since last full backup. Advantages Backing up is the fastest The storage space requirements are the lowest Disadvantages Restore is the slowest Differential Backup Differential seems to be another name for incremental.differential backup offers a middle ground by backing up all the files that have changed since the last full backup Advantages Restore is faster than restoring from incremental backup Backing up is faster than a full backup The storage space requirements are lower than for full backup Disadvantages Restore is slower than restoring from full backup Backing up is slower than incremental backup The storage space requirements are higher than for incremental backup Network Backup Network backup usually means backing up a client to a backup server, this means the client sends the files to the server and the server writes them to backup medium. Dump Backup Dump backups are not ordinary file by file backups. The whole disk partition or file system is dumped to the backup medium as is. This means it is also necessary to restore the whole partition or file system at one go. The dump backup may be a disk image, which means it must be restored to a similar disk with same disk geometry and bad blocks in same places. Watch out for this. Level 0 - 9 Backup Level 0 to 9 backups are a finer grained version of incremental backups. Level N backup means backing up everything that has changed since a same or lower lever backup.

Check the backup can be restored, with original file owners, permissions and timestamps. To be useful, you must be able to restore the backup. Very often not only the contents of file are important, but their time stamps, permissions and owners. Check that you can restore the backup so that all these are preserved.