Editing Disk partitioning (section)

{{Short description|Creation of separate accessible storage areas on a secondary computer storage device}}
[[Image:GParted 1.3.1 screenshot.png|thumb|272x272px|[[GParted]] is a popular utility used for disk partitioning]]

'''Disk partitioning''' or '''disk slicing'''<ref>{{cite book|first=Bill|last=Calkins|title=Oracle Solaris 11 System Administration|year=2013|url=http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2103810&seqNum=10|access-date=2016-03-04|archive-date=2016-03-07|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307094543/http://www.informit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=2103810&seqNum=10|url-status=live}}</ref> is the creation of one or more regions on [[Computer data storage#Secondary storage|secondary storage]], so that each region can be managed separately.<ref>{{cite book|first=Bozidar|last=Levi|title=UNIX Administration|year=2002}}</ref> These regions are called partitions. It is typically the first step of preparing a newly installed disk after a partitioning scheme is chosen for the new disk before any [[file system]] is created. The disk stores the information about the partitions' locations and sizes in an area known as the partition table that the operating system reads before any other part of the disk. Each partition then appears to the operating system as a distinct "logical" disk that uses part of the actual disk. [[System administrator]]s use a program called a [[Disk editor#Partition editor|partition editor]] to create, resize, delete, and manipulate the partitions.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ward|first=Brian|title=How Linux Works: What Every SuperUser Should Know|publisher=No Starch Press|year=2004|isbn=9781593270353|page=39|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wOGUuoHUyAEC&pg=PA39}}</ref> Partitioning allows the use of different filesystems to be installed for different kinds of files.  Separating user data from system data can prevent the system partition from becoming full and rendering the system unusable. Partitioning can also make backing up easier. A disadvantage is that it can be difficult to properly size partitions, resulting in having one partition with too much free space and another nearly totally allocated.