Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000–2005
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Chapter 7.
Hard Disk And File
Systems
You cannot, however, change partition structure by means of the Windows operating
system. To do this, you will need software such as Acronis Disk Director Server. It lets
you resize, move, hide partitions, set them as active, copy and perform other operations
without losing any data
or causing any OS and application workability problems.
A.4 Primary
Partitions
A primary hard disk partition can contain the operating system, applications and user data
(files). Only one primary partition can be set as active in a given PC session.
Most operating systems can boot from a primary partition only.
If you want to use several operating systems, you might have to create several primary
partitions.
A.5 Extended
Partitions
The extended hard disk partition was developed as a way to avoid the four-primary-
partitions limit. The extended partition is used only for creating a desired number of
logical partitions
.
An extended partition does not contain any data directly.
A.6 Logical
Partitions
An extended partition can be divided into any number of logical partitions; these are
similar to primary partitions in that they can contain operating systems, applications and
user data.
Primary partitions should be used for booting operating systems, system files and folders.
Logical partitions can contain any other information, as they are accessible by most
operating systems.
If you need several operating systems, you should use logical partitions for booting
purposes and leave primary partitions free.
