

The structure of the extended partition (about the logical partitons contained within the extended partition) is described in the Extended Boot Record (EBR).

Extended partition acts as a container for logical partitions. But the extended partition could be subdivided in to several partitions called logical partitions. Only a single extended partition can be contained in a hard disk. If a drive needs to be bootable, it needs to be a primary partition. When there are multiple primary partitions in a hard disk, only a single partition can be active at any given time and the other partitions will be hidden. Partition type code of a primary partition indicates information about the file system contained in the primary partition or the whether the partition has a special usage. But the boot files should be located in a primary partition. Unlike earlier versions of Microsoft Windows systems, more recent Windows operating systems such as Windows XP, Windows 7 could be placed on any partition. One file system is contained in a primary partition. PrimaryĪ disk drive can contain a maximum of four primary partitions or three primary partitions and a single extended partition. Information about the partitions in a computer is included in the Partition table, which is located in the Master Boot Record. Initially, a hard disk drive could be divided in to two partitions called the primary partition and extended partition. Furthermore, partitions would allow the user to have multiple operating systems to be installed in different partitions of the same hard disk. Creating partitions would allow the user files to be resided separately from the operating system and other program files. Software that can be used to create, delete and modify partitions is called a partition editor. Creating partitions would make a single physical disk drive appear as multiple disks.

These storage units are called partitions. A hard disk drive can be divided in to several storage units.
