1. Introduction

1.1. What is a partition?

Partitioning is a means to divide a single hard drive into many logical drives. A partition is a contiguous set of blocks on a drive that are treated as an independant disk. A partition table (the creation of which is the topic of this HOWTO) is an index that relates sections of the hard drive to partitions.

Why have multiple partitions?

1.2. Other Partitioning Software:

1.3. Related HOWTOs

Table 1. Related HOWTOs

TitleAuthorDescription
Dual boot install strategies Gjoen Stein How to estimate the various size and speed requirements for different parts of the filesystem.
Linux Multiple Disk System TuningGjoen SteinHow to estimate the various size and speed requirements for different parts of the filesystem.
Linux Large Disk Andries Brouwer Instructions and considerations regarding disks with more than 1024 cylinders
Linux Quota Ralf van Dooren Instructions on limiting disk space usage per user (quotas)
Partition-Rescue mini-HOWTO Jean-Daniel Dodin How to restore linux partitions after they have been deleted by a Windows install. Does not appear to preserve data.
Linux ADSM Backup Thomas Koenig Instructions on integrating Linux into an IBM ADSM backup environment.
Linux Backup with MSDOS Christopher Neufeld Information about MS-DOS driven Linux backups.
Linux HOWTO IndexTim BynumInstructions on writing and submitting a HOWTO document

1.4. Additional information on your system: