What are the primary & logical partitions in PC?
In: Engineering
Partitions are dividers of a hard drive’s storage space. A logical drive is what the computer uses a partition for – storing files.
Primary partition is a special kind of logical partition found on drives formatted with MBR standard. This is the partition where boot up data is kept. Note that this practice was made obsolete c 2013, and commonly GPT is used instead.
The key word is partition. A hard drive’s data space is split into pieces – partitions- so that the computer uses them as separate drives when they are not literally separate physical things. Logical partitions store files, and appear in windows as C: or D: etc. Partitions can have more uses than just storing files. Boot partitions can store important boot information, such as UEFI keys. Swap drives contain space that the computer uses as memory.
Logical partition is called logical referring to it existing in software. The idea of a file space existing in the abstract is at a level above the physical hard drive space being split. Your house is partitioned into rooms, but what each space is used for gives it more meaning beyond floor space. Walls partition the house, but what you use them for “logically” defines what the room is — living, dining, Tv, toy, etc
This distinction is not all that helpful to this discussion. The terminology is antiquated. Originally you had a physical disk and then the computer had a logical drive representing the computer’s software drive corresponding to the physical disk. Things are much more complex now. “Disk partition” is more apropo. “Llogical partition” is somewhat a misnomer. There are logical drives that correspond to disk partitions; strictly speaking the partition is not logical.
Primary partitions are physical drives like hard drives. Logical partitions are software defined in unallocated free space that the user creates. Like a D: and E: drive in empty unallocated space on a new hard drive or existing drive.
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