Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Windows 2000 and later use either the Disk Management snap-in component of the Computer
earlier used the FDISK program. The disk-partitioning tools enable you to select the amount of space
on the drive to use for a partition, from a single megabyte (or 1%) of the drive up to the entire
capacity of the drive or as much as the particular file system will allow. Normally for simplicity's
sake, I recommend using as few partitions as possible per drive. Note that the Disk Management
snap-in as well as the
DISKPART
command included with Windows Vista and later automatically
create 4K sector (including SSD) aligned partitions, so I recommend using those versions even if you
are creating partitions for use under XP and earlier OSs.
Figure 9.9. The Disk Management component of Computer Management in Windows 7, showing
drives with NTFS, exFAT, and FAT32 volumes.
Caution
The disk-partitioning tools included in most OSs normally can't be used to change the size of a
partition; with a few exceptions, all they can do is remove or create partitions. Unfortunately,
the act of removing or creating a partition destroys and loses access to data that was contained
in the partition or that was on that part of the disk. To easily resize or otherwise manipulate
partitions without destroying data, I recommend free third-party utilities, such as Parted Magic
(
www.partedmagic.com
). Parted Magic is also useful for creating 4K sector aligned partitions
as well as moving existing partitions into alignment.
After a drive is partitioned, each partition must then be high-level formatted by the OS that will use it.
High-Level Formatting
During the high-level format, the OS writes the file system structures necessary for managing files and
data on the disk. These data structures enable the OS to manage the space on the disk, keep track of
files, and even manage defective areas so they do not cause problems.
High-level formatting is not really a physical formatting of the drive (except with floppy disks in
some cases), but rather the creation of a table of contents for the disk. True low-level formats of
modern hard drives are performed by the manufacturer and technically cannot be performed by the
