Once you have purchased a desktop computer,
laptop, or even an internal or external storage disk, you will notice that the
hard disk is only one sector that contains the entire storage capacity. But
what does the word "partition" in the hard drive mean? When you first
set Windows to a new hard drive, you'll notice that Windows reads the hard as
unallocated space, which appears as "Unallocated Space". In this way,
Windows cannot perform the necessary installation process. Thus, you are forced
to create a "sector" in order for the operating system to know what
space it is allotted and allowed to use.
Of course, you can divide the hard drive into
only one partition. Windows can exploit this sector in order to install all of
its files, along with keeping all your other data. Or, of course, you can rely
on the second method, which is to divide the hard drive into several different
“partitions”. But until this moment some are still asking, "What is the
best way to partition a hard drive?" Should it be in the form of one
sector or a group of different sectors? Accordingly, we decided to share with
you our personal experience in this matter and answer your question by
clarifying the most important advantages and disadvantages of dividing the hard
drive into several "partitions".
What are the advantages of dividing the hard drive into several sectors?
If you want my personal opinion, I will assure
you that it is very normal, whether you decide to divide the hard drive into
only one sector or into several sectors, it is entirely up to you. But I
personally prefer and support the idea of dividing the hard into several
different sectors. These are the most important advantages that you may get by
dividing it into several parts.
1-
It will be easy to install new windows at any
time
Let's assume that your device suddenly stopped
working due to the collapse of the Windows system and you cannot in any way
skip the Microsoft logo. That is, you found yourself forced to set the Windows
system again. Surely we have all had this problem before. Now imagine if you
keep all the data in one storage sector besides the Windows system files. It
will be a big problem because you will "mostly" need to reformat the
partition on which you want to install Windows. And if you decide to reformat,
it means that you will delete all your important and necessary data that you
kept along with your Windows system files.
Or you may find yourself having to reinstall
Windows next to the old Windows in the same sector, and this is not the healthy
way to install a new Windows system on the computer.
On the other hand, imagine if you had a
different set of partitions. For example, you keep all your programs,
applications, and documents in one party, while you keep all the multimedia in
another, and leave a custom partition for Windows named C. This is the ideal
way to help you reformat the C sector at any moment and set a new Windows copy
very easily.
At the same time, you will not lose any
important part of your personal data because you keep it in different sectors.
So, in a nutshell, the advantage of the presence of several different sectors
is that you will always be ready to challenge the many obstacles and errors
that the Windows system may be exposed to, and it will be easy to install a new
copy of Windows at any time.
2-
Improving the level of security
Dividing the hard drive into several different
sectors helps keep your important and necessary data safe, even if it is
theoretical. Let's assume that your Windows sector has been affected by some
Trojans or ransomware attacks. So you will never be able to use the storage
sector of the Windows copy again, but fortunately, it will be very easy to
delete Windows, reformat the C sector, completely get rid of viruses, and
reinstall Windows from scratch.
But imagine if you keep all the data in one
storage sector next to the Windows files. Then the chance of preserving your
personal files will be very small, and you will also be exposed to viruses. In
the end, you will not find an escape from these viruses until after you
completely reformat the hard drive. Therefore, in theory, dividing the hard
drive into several sectors will help even a small percentage in keeping your
personal data safe and away from malicious attacks.
3-
A special sector for backing up important data
If you have a large storage disk, you can
simply create a private sector for backups only of the most important data you
want to keep. For example, you can compress all your media and games into
Winzip zip files and keep them compressed in a dedicated sector, under the name
"Backup or Archive" and keep all your important data in it.
In this case, if the data on other storage
sectors is lost either due to accidental deletion or virus attacks, you will
have to easily restore it from the "Backup" sector that you keep. So,
this feature is very necessary especially if you do not have a NAS device in
your home and do not prefer to rely on cloud storage services.
4-
Better organization of files and easy access to
them
Nobody hates order and order. If you are one of
those people who like to organize and organize everything, you will definitely
find the best solution in dividing the hard drive into several different
sectors. You can easily keep games, programs, and documents in their own
section, create another section for music, videos, and photos, and another
section for Arabic and foreign films, etc. Whenever you find yourself having
many different types of data, you can easily create a new sector and keep that
new data in it.
This feature will help you in accessing files
better and in faster periods of time because they will be right in front of you
and their location is known. If you keep everything in one sector, you will
find yourself looking for “the needle in a haystack” and you will find it very
difficult to find the files whenever you find yourself needing them.
5-
Ability to install multiple file systems
This feature is not required for everyone but
it is still very important for some. We'll assume that you want to partition
one sector of the storage in FAT32 or exFAT format while you need another
sector in NTFS format. Each of these formats has significant advantages and
disadvantages. So then you also have to divide the hard drive into several
different sectors.
6-
Install multiple operating systems
While dividing the hard disk into several
sectors actually helps you keep the different types of data in an organized and
tidy manner, this is not the only benefit of the process of dividing the hard
into several sectors. Let's say you prefer to use Linux in your daily work, but
there are some games or programs that you can only run on Windows, then you can
easily install Linux on one storage sector, and install Windows on another
storage sector.
But that is not all, you can install two
different Windows systems, such as Windows 7 and Windows 10 for example. So if
you want to install more than one operating system on the hard drive, you
definitely need to think about dividing the hard drive into several different
sectors.
What are the disadvantages of dividing the hard into several sectors?
In my personal opinion, partitioning a hard
disk into several different sectors has many useful advantages, but I do not
find many disadvantages except for a few in the process of partitioning a hard
disk, which we must draw your attention to, and it follows…
1- A false sense of security
We will assume that you are sure that you
should back up all your data to a private sector. But suddenly and without
warning, my hard drive suddenly stopped working. This means that you lost all
the data in all sectors and not a single sector. So not only do you make sure
your important data is in an extra sector on the hard drive, it's also
essential that you have another hard drive or at least keep your precious files
on cloud services or consider buying a NAS and setting up RAID arrays so you
can restore the backup For your data if any hard drive stops working.
2- One of the sectors is completely full and the other is still empty
The only advantage is that there is only one sector of the storage disk, you will not feel full on the hard disk until "virtually" all the free space on it is filled with data. But if you divide the hard drive into several sectors, you can often come across one of the sectors that are full of data, while the rest are still completely empty. Then you will have to rely on partitioning software to increase the area of the sector that has become full, or at least start storing your files in other sectors, this way you will lack the advantage of organizing and organizing, and often this can happen. It causes files to be lost and difficult to find.