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| partitions | logical sections on a hard drive use to store files and folders |
| Typically with DOS, when the hard drive is divided into more than one partition, the first partition is called the | primary partition |
| Typically with DOS, when the hard drive is divided into more than one partition, the second partition is called the | extended partition |
| The primary partition is usually the active partition, that is, the . | partition that contains boot information |
| The extended partition uses the free hard disk space, and is normally assigned all the | available space outside the primary partition(s). |
| DOS can only address a maximum of | two gigabytes of hard disk space. |
| DOS and Windows 95/98 can manage | only one primary partition per hard drive. |
| Windows NT and Windows 2000 can be used to manage | multiple primary partitions on a hard drive. |
| A primary partition cannot be | subdivided into smaller units. |
| There can be only one | extended partition per disk |
| The extended partition can be subdivided into | multiple (up to 23) sections called logical drives. |
| multiple logical advantages | rapid retrievial of info, Multiple operating systems, separation of information for organizational and security reasons. |
| FDISK is the partitioning program for | MS-DOS, Windows 9x (95, 98, and Millennium), UNIX, and Linux |
| Typically the boot sector is the | first area on each logical DOS disk, or partition. |
| When a hard drive is partitioned, the FDISK program creates the | disk boot sector. |
| When the hard drive is formatted, the information to boot the operating system is | recorded in the boot sector. |
| The partition table is located in the | boot sector at the very beginning of the disk |
| The partition table, includes information about the | location and starting point of each logical drive, which partition is marked active, location of the master boot record |
| The location of the partition table at the beginning of the disk is significant in that | this is the point where the system looks for boot up information. |
| After the drive is partitioned, it must be | prepared to store data (formatted) |
| Formatting a hard drive creates | magnetic tracks in concentric circles on the disk surface |
| tracks are then broken up into chunks of 512 bytes called | sectors |
| The combination of two or more sectors on a single track is called a | cluster |
| A cluster is the minimum unit DOS will | use to store a file |
| The disk capacity is determined by the number of | tracks and sectors and, therefore, by the number of clusters that can be created on the disk surface by formatting it. |
| In a hard disk drive where several disks are stacked and rotate on a common spindle, all of the | tracks having the same number are referred to collectively as a cylinder |
| During formatting, a special file called the File Allocation Table (FAT) is created and | located in the disk sector 0. |
| FAT is a reference table that the OS uses to | locate files on the disk |
| DOS | FAT16 |
| FAT32 | Windows 95 OSR2, Windows 98, and Windows Millennium Edition |
| The FAT is created when a hard drive is | formatted for installation of DOS |
| A Windows program such as Cvt1.EXE or third party utilities such as Partition Magic can be used to | convert FAT16 to FAT32, without destroying the data in the disk partition. |
| Low-level formatting routine marks off the disk into sectors and cylinders, and | defines their placement on the disk. |
| IDE and SCSI drives normally come with the . | low-level format already performed at the factory |
| High-level format routine is performed by | the format command in MS-DOS. |
| When MS-DOS or a Windows 9x bootable system disk containing format.exe is used to format the hard drive, the process creates | a blank File Allocation Table (FAT) and root directory structure on the disk. |
| A:\>format C: /s | a Windows 98 bootable disk containing the format command to format a hard drive with the system files |
