Necessity of partition and types of partition in Linux.

Necessity of partition and types of partition in Linux.

Not only in Linux but in all operating systems used on the computer, a partition is important because it divides the disk space of your hard drive and sets or labels the file system used. The purpose of setting a partition is to increase data security in case a problem might happen in any of your hard drives.

Like for example in Microsoft Windows, you can always format the whole hard drive as a single drive for your operating system but you will surely regret it in case something goes wrong to your hard drive or to your computer.

Formatting your hard drive as a single drive without any partition will force you to put all your data files together with the system files. In case of a virus infection or drive failure where there is no way of booting your computer, recovering your data files may be very complicated. NTFS file system used by Windows XP and later versions can’t be opened in DOS mode unlike FAT32.

If the only solution is to format the drive then you won’t be able to recover any of your files. This is only one of the many reasons why a partition is important. Linux supports foreign partitions used by Microsoft Windows like NTFS and FAT file systems.