Partition

americancritic2 · 12 Apr 2017

Hi as I am just learning computers can someone explain to me what a partition is on a hard drive.

Thank you...

Ranger4 · 12 Apr 2017

This website explains hard drive partitioning. There are also a lot of other tutorials on HDDs if you scroll down.

What is a Partition? (Disk Partition Definition)

johnhoh · 12 Apr 2017

A hard drive is a single physical component used for storage, but in order for windows to use it the hard drive needs to have a defined partition within it, which is an addressable section that windows can use. One physical drive may have several partitions, but often its just one. Just as most of the homes in your town are just one family per house, most hard drives are one partition per hard drive. But then you may have one apartment building with several apartments within it, each with their own address - that's like a hard drive with several partitions.

Attached is my own system, which is one physical drive (disk 0), but it has two partitions.
Do start > run > diskmgmt.msc > enter, to see yours.

AddRAM · 12 Apr 2017

Think of a hard drive as a house, think of a partition or partitions as rooms in that house.

americancritic2 · 13 Apr 2017

Ok so if something happens to my hard drive does that mean I lose all of the data on it.

AddRAM · 13 Apr 2017

Yep.

But as long as you backup your data, you`ll be fine.

ThrashZone · 13 Apr 2017

americancritic said:

Ok so if something happens to my hard drive does that mean I lose all of the data on it.

Hi,
Yes
Here are a couple of free backup tutorials
It is best to create these system images on a different hard drive so it is unaffected by anything that happens to the original
Imaging with free Macrium - Windows 7 Help Forums

This is for win-10 but is pretty much the same in 7
Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect - Windows 10 Backup Restore Tutorials

Also a youtube video I liked
Create Backup Image with Macrium Reflect by Britec - YouTube