The main and logical partitions of a hard disk: their essence and conversion from one type to another. local disk
External drives on which data and programs are recorded have long been called disks.
But in fact, anything can be an external drive, for example, a plastic card with a rewritable memory chip (the so-called flash memory). The operating system does not care what kind of device it is, it considers them all to be disks.
In computers, “disk drives” are denoted by the letters of the Latin alphabet B:, C:, D: and so on. For example, as a rule, they are denoted by the Latin letter C:. A characteristic sign that we are talking about a disk is a colon, you can double-click on the icon - My Computer and pay attention to this fact.
As for the designations of disk devices, there are several simple conventions:
1. The letters A: and B: are usually assigned to those devices that work with removable disks, earlier these were the so-called floppy disks, now these letters can denote a card reader. Also, earlier on the computer there was only one floppy drive and was designated by the letter A:, and the letter B: was not used in this case.
Currently personal computers no floppy drive at all. And each computer is equipped with a "writing" CD-ROM drive, the so-called CD-RW, DVD-RW.
2. Notation hard drives start with the letter C:. If your computer has two or more hard drives, they are labeled C:, D:, and so on.
3. For most conventional (non-specialized) computer systems hard drive limit today it is four, although in older computers (manufactured before 1993) the limit was two.
4. Drives CD— ROM, DVD-ROM, which designed to read laser CDs, or CD— RW, DVD — RW intended not only for reading, but also for writing, are perceived by the operating system as hard disks. If such a drive is present, then the limit for the number of physical hard drives is reduced to three.
5. Hard drives - can be not only physical, but also logical. Many users have HDD large volume and prefer to divide it into several logical partitions. In this case, each partition will exist as a separate disk (though not physical, but logical). We will talk about this in future articles when we study operations such as repairing and formatting hard drives. The number of logical disks can be any. At least for consumer purposes, the limit does not matter.
6. Logical drives are named the same as physical drives. If the first hard disk is divided into two partitions, they are named C: and D:. If the second hard drive is divided into two partitions, they will be named E: and F: and so on.
7. If an optional external media reader is connected to the computer, it is named after the last name of the physical or logical hard drive.
8. Drive CD— ROM (CD— RW), DVD-ROM ( DVD-RW) gets the name last, so it can be "floating". When connecting additional devices it moves to the right, to the letter Z:, and when they are turned off, it moves to the left, to the letter C:.
But in professional operating systems, the order of naming disks may be different. Today we talked only about Windows systems designed for the mass consumer.
P.S. I hope this lesson "computer for dummies" was useful and relevant for you.
We continue to study the computer. In this lesson, we will look at the folder “ Computer and find out what is hard disk partitions. Let's set up the section names and take a look at their properties.
In the last lesson, we set up the Start menu. In this menu, we have the item “Computer”.
In older operating systems Windows systems this folder was called “My Computer”. The “Computer” folder contains hard disk partitions, CD, DVD, Blu-Rey drives, connected flash drives and external hard drives. I'll give you a picture for clarification.
Here you can see that there are 3 partitions (disk) in the computer - C, D, Y.
If you have read Lesson 1. What a computer is made of, then you know that the hard drive stores all the information and data. Typically, any physical hard drive (a device that is stored in system unit) is divided into sections in the operating system. Hard disk partitions in the operating system are called discs. So, in the figure you can see 3 disks - disk C, disk D and disk Y. All data is stored on them: music, movies, games, documents, etc.
Each drive is assigned its own letter. In almost all computers, the drive on which the operating system is installed is denoted by the letter C. A letter is assigned to each drive when it is created. Creating a new hard drive partition is a complicated and time-consuming process for a beginner, but soon you will be able to do everything yourself. Subsequently, the hard drive letter can be changed, but so far we are not so advanced users. But we can change the name of each disc quickly.
The names of the discs will make it easier for you to find information. For example, you can name the D drive Kino and store movies on it. You will know that only movies are stored on discs with the name Kino, but no music is stored there.
In order to change the name of the disk, you need to right-click on it (RMB) and select the "Properties" item in the menu that opens. The disk properties window opens.
There is a line that contains the name of the disk (I have “Data” written here), although this line may be empty.
It is better to write the title of the disc in English. Change the input language to English (press “Alt” + “Shift” or “Ctrl” + “Shift” on the keyboard) and write a name for the disk. Then, click the Apply button and OK. The disc title has changed.
In the properties of the hard disk, you can also see how much total disk space and how much free space.
The size of information on a hard drive is measured in gigabytes or terabytes (in the past also in megabytes). The larger the disk, the more information can be placed there.
The amount of free space can also be viewed in the “Computer” folder. Below each drive is a bar that shows how busy the hard drive is. And under this bar, information about the volume of the disk is displayed in numbers. If the bar is red, then there is not enough space left on the disk and you need to delete unnecessary information from it or transfer the data to another disk.
In addition to hard drives, a USB flash drive and a DVD-ROM are now visible in the “Computer” folder.
Flash drive- a small portable hard drive that is very convenient to carry around. In the “Computer” folder, it is displayed in the same way as the partition of the hard disk, but in a different line, no matter what the user confuses. Flash drive- external media.
DVD-ROM– allows you to open information from DVD or CD discs. If you insert a disc into the DVD-ROM, then information about the amount of disk space will appear in the “Computer” folder.
In general, the “Computer” folder contains all storage media connected to the computer.
The lesson is over. In the next lesson, you will learn what sizes of information are. I write a lot of information and try to give it. plain language, but if something is not clear to you - write it in the comments. You are studying, and a computer is a very complex device. It is better to ask now than to repeat the lessons later.
If several local disks have been created on your computer, then each of them must be given a different name. How to name the disk, we will tell in this article.
How to name a local drive
If you do not want to use the classic letter designation, then try giving the disc a name based on its purpose. As a rule, one of them stores all system information, and the second - personal information of the computer owner. Therefore, it would be logical to assign the name "System", "Main" or "Main" to the first disk.
The second disc can be called "Miscellaneous", "Other", "Music and Photos" - in a word, the title should contain a word that best describes everything that is stored on the disc. In addition, you can use your own name in the title of the disc. If you're a fan of original titles, you can name the disc after your favorite planet, movie character, or hobby term. For example, "Neptune", "Caesar" and others.
If you want to learn more about the correct operation of hard drives, read our articles.
- a hard drive, which is a physical storage medium. The hard disk, in turn, can be divided into so-called local drives. Those. a hard drive is a physically quite tangible object that you can touch with your hands. But local disks are partitions on a hard drive that the operating system perceives as several virtual media. For ease of understanding, imagine an apartment with rooms. In this example, the total area of the apartment is divided into several rooms. There can be one, two or more rooms. Those. we can say that the rooms are local drives on one physical medium.
HDD is a physical object designed to store information. You can look at it and touch it. Located in the system unit.
local disk is a virtual storage medium that does not exist in a physical state and is located as a partition on a hard drive.
Why are local drives needed?
Why do we need local drives, because you can use the entire hard drive, "scattering" all the information in folders? Of course, you can do this, and in this case you will have one logical disk that occupies the entire volume of the hard drive. Let's go back to the apartment analogy. Let's say you have a sufficient size of the total area in which there is no division into rooms. Living room, bedroom(s), kitchen and bathroom are located in the same room without partitions and doors. It is unlikely that you will be comfortable living in such an apartment. Similarly, in a computer, partitioning a hard drive into logical disks serves to conveniently store information and ensure the normal functioning of the operating system. For example, you have an operating system and the programs you need installed on one disk, music files sorted into folders are stored on the other, video files and (or) photos, also arranged in folders, are stored on the third.
You can see what disks you have in the system and their volume by clicking the left mouse button on the button "Start", select menu item "Computer".
Creation of local disks and storage of information on them.
Local disks are created during the installation of the operating system using the prompts of the installation program, the so-called installation wizard. It is possible to create, delete, split and merge local disks even after the system installation. For this there are special programs. The operating system necessarily assigns a Latin letter to all local disks: C, D, E, etc. In addition to the letter designation, you yourself can also name the disk or rename it. For example, name the drive "System", and drive D - "Documents".
Using the example of Windows 7, to give a name to a disk or rename it, left-click on the button "Start" in , on the right side of the menu, select "Computer". A window will open showing the available local drives. Select desired disk, and by clicking the right mouse button, call the context menu, where select the item "Properties". In the window that opens, enter the name of the disk and click the button "Apply". In the properties window, you can also see the total size of the local disk, how much space is used for files and folders, and how much is free.
Depending on the size of the hard disk, you can create several local ones. They can be the same size or different, depending on your needs. Let's say you store a lot of movies and photos on your hard drive. In this case, it would be reasonable to allocate a larger volume for the video collection than for the disk for the photo, because. video files are large.
No matter how many local partitions you have in your system, the most important will be the C drive, which is called the system drive. The vast majority of programs are installed here by default. It is recommended to allocate 50-60 GB of space for the system partition. It is not recommended to store your documents on the C drive, because if it becomes necessary to reinstall the operating system, then you risk losing all your data. During system installation, all data on this partition is erased. Therefore, make it a rule for yourself not to store your documents on partition C, despite the fact that by default in Windows, data for saving is sent to the My Documents folder on this partition. Any available local drive will do for this.
Share.Your computer may have multiple hard drives. disks divided into logical partitions. For ease of identification, disks and logical partitions are assigned letters from A to Z, while the user can change them at his discretion. In addition, each disc can be given the most convenient name.
Instruction
If a single drive is installed on the computer, then it is usually assigned the letter C. This is convenient, since the operating system is located on the C drive by default. You should not change this letter, you may get an inoperable system or run into problems starting already. installed programs.
Everyone else's letters disks can be changed. To change, open: "Start" - "Control Panel" - "Administrative Tools" - "Computer Management". In the left column of the window that opens, select "Disk Management".
In the window that opens, you will see a list disks and their graphic representation. Right-click the desired drive and select "Change Drive Letter or Drive Path" from the context menu. In the new window, select any free letter for the drive and save the changes.
In the event that, for example, you want to rename drive F to D, but this letter already belongs to another drive, rename drive D to any other, and assign the freed letter to drive F.
You can not only change the drive letter, but also its name, displayed in the "Explorer". Open "My Computer", right-click on any drive and select "Rename". So, if you have games on the selected drive, you can name it "Games" or Game. If it's a data drive, options like "Data" or "Files" are fine. You may have disks on your computer: "Photo", "Music", "Soft", "Archive", etc.
Some users create a separate section in which they save all files that have lost their relevance, but can still be useful in some situation. The name of such a disk is appropriate - "Dump", "Miscellaneous", "Old Files", "Junk", etc. - in this case, it all depends on the user's imagination. Changing the drive name does not change the drive letter.
Even if you have only one physical disk on your computer, it is recommended to divide it into several logical disks. Allocate a fairly small amount of space to drive C - for example, 50 GB. This is enough for the operating system and installed programs. Keep all other files on other partitions, this will significantly increase their safety. Even better, if your system has two or more physical hard drives: by duplicating important information, you will minimize the risk of losing it.
