Partition Question


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Hi, I just got puzzled by the partition work of Linux.

Is that better to install Linux on a Primary Partition than on an Extended Partition?

I know you can only have 4 Primary Partition at most, so is it a good idea to use all of them?

Lastly but not least, different "filesystems" mean different partitions?

thx for help.

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YIKES! You need to read up a bit! lol

Here is the Reader's Digest® version:

A hard drive can have 4 primary partitions (BIOS limitation)

The extended partitions can be 'attached' to the primaries, but this only matters to BIOS. In Linux (and Windows), they are each treated separately.

Now, filesystems are just saying what type of format each partition has. FAT, NTFS are Win parititions, and ext, xfs, reiserfs are examples of Linux/unix partition formats. They more or less are just different methods of arranging the data in a partition, and may contain features such as file attributes and error checking/proofing.

Hope this helps!

Mark

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Another note:

Linux names them in a sensible fashion, the harddrives are (assuming IDE here):

hda: master drive on IDE0

hdb: slave drive on IDE0

hdc: master drive on IDE1

hdd: slave drive on IDE1

numbers are then assigned, in order, for the partitions.

if hda had 3 partitions, then they would be numbered from 1-3, as hda1, hda2, hda3

If you used Windows, and added partitions or drives, you get that annoying case where Windows will put a second primary partition before an extended partition on the first primary. (basically, your D: drive changes to E:, and what you thought should be E: is D: :blink: )

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