You can create multiple partitions of a hard drive including the boot drive. Such created logical storage units are referred to as partitions. Each partition can be configured with different file system and can be used to store different kinds of data. It helps in managing the data easily and allows quick searching of any particular type of file.
System partition and boot partition are the two terms associated with hard drive partitioning. Such partitions must be configured properly for a system to run properly. The system partition is a disk partition containing system root, which is the operating system folder. The boot partition contains the boot loader and a software to boot the operating system.
Why it is Required to Partition the Hard Drive
Generally, a system is shipped with a single partition on their hard drive. That means that there is only one drive present to store different kinds of data in it. Having multiple kinds of data on a single partition often confuses the users and makes it difficult to search for a particular file. In addition, keeping your personal data and system files on the same partition could be a risky process. In case of system crash or drive failure, your computer would not be able to boot up and you would not be able to access the rest of your data as well.
By partitioning, you can divide your hard drive into logical separate entities. This helps in keeping your system files and apps on a separate partition for your data. With multiple partitions, it is easier to backup and search data that are present on a separate partition. In addition, in situations like OS crash, your data are not affected as the system files are on a different partition. Moreover, it can be used to install multiple operating systems on a single system.
In spite of having so many advantages, there are a few complexities involved while creating multiple partitions. Some of them are mentioned below.
- Reduces the total available space
- Reduces the overall performance of the disk as data needs to be accessed regularly on all partitions, thus increasing the number of read/write operation
- Increases the chance of disk fragmentation
- Limits copying of large files, even though the total available space on the system are more than the size of the file
How to Partition Your Hard Drive
There are different ways of partitioning a hard drive depending upon the operating system being used. Partitioning a hard drive without having any system files is an easier process. However, in operating systems like Mac, partitioning a boot drive involves movement of bootable files, which is considered to be a risky process. Any issue while partitioning could affect the bootable files, leading to boot failure. There are different ways of partitioning the boot drive. However, most of them make the boot volume corrupt. The best way to perform boot drive partitioning is to use a professional and reliable tool.
Stellar Partition Manager is an ideal tool to perform Mac hard boot drive partition as well as resize Mac partition on Mac boot drive. It is an efficient tool to manage various partitions on Mac and prevents causing any data loss. With this tool, you can perform basic operations related to partitions like creating, deleting, resizing, or hiding/revealing a partition. The outstanding feature of this tool lies in the ability of creating a bootable DVD. Such created bootable DVD can be used to perform various partitioning operations on the boot drive. However, you need to backup the important data before working on it.
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