partitions why they needed

[joetheghost]

Exactly what is the purpose of a partition ,never really understood.The t itle name indicates what it des but when and why is it needed.

 

[norseman4]

Partitions really aren't needed any more, back in the day when drive capacities surpassed the OS's addressing space, a partition, or more, was needed to allow the one large drive to be seen as multiple smaller drives.

Using partitions, most computer/laptop VAR's make a small, hidden, partition that their software can use to either restore a computer to the bloatware infested product that it was when it shipped out of their door.

 

[boosted1g]

A partition designates a start and stop point and then you attach a drive letter to that partition.

You can have many partitions on a single hard drive, think a wall partition in a room, you can use the partitions to make many smaller rooms, or offices.

Also even though you only see 1 drive, your C drive, there is actually 1-2 other partition's that windows creates that is completely hidden.

Thus the ability to have partitions is necessary.

 

[Math Geek]

a benefit of a partition is that it will totally isolate data from one to the next. i always separate my windows/program drive from my data. this way if anything happens to my windows install and i have to format, i don't have to worry about backing up data or possibly losing data. if you only have a single drive, then 2 partitions (one for os and other for data) is still much safe than one big partition. yes the drive can fail completely wiping everything out but this is less likely than a virus/malware getting into things and you loosing important stuff.

if i feel the need to do a fresh install, i simply drop the windows disk in and not give it another thought since i know my data is safe elsewhere.

 

[USAFRet]

Individual partitions used to be MUCH more of a benefit when drive space was expensive, and programs didn't need to be 'reinstalled' with a new OS.

Currently, it does help with OS/applications on one partition, and your data on another partition.
But since drive space is cheap, that is better done with individual physical drives.

But there will always be 'partitions' on the drive, even if it is just one. The OS drive, be it Windows or Linux, will have more than one, just to let the OS operate. You may not see them, but they are there.