Automatic Partition Operations
Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000–2010
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Hard disk partitions are not only assigned letters, but are also numbered. That means some
operating system partitions are assigned letters and numbers, in others, only numbers.
Create-, delete- and move-partition operations, as well as hiding/unhiding a partition and
direct letter change may result in problems running applications, opening files (as some
shortcuts become unusable) or booting an operating system.
Therefore, when performing partition operations, you must be careful and remember that
each operating system works differently with partition letters. Each OS has its own
partition letter assignment rules.
Windows 98/Me
Windows 98/Me assign partition letters
automatically
in fixed order, according to these
rules:
•
Partition
letters start from C: and continue until Z:. The C: partition is considered
system, i.e. used for OS startup.
Note that these OS cannot recognize all partitions, but only 1 (FAT12), 4 and 6 (FAT16),
11 (FAT32), 12 (FAT32 LBA) and 13 (FAT16 LBA)
types
. File system type is determined
not by partition type, but by its contents. Partitions of other types are passed (no letters are
assigned to them).
•
The first
primary active
partition found on the first hard disk is assigned C:. If there’s
no such partition, C: is assigned to the first suitable primary partition
•
Similarly and consecutively, one of the
primary
partitions from other hard disks is
considered. They are assigned D:, E:, etc. (If there is no suitable partition found on
the first disk, then C:, D:, etc. are assigned.)
•
Next, all suitable
logical
partitions are considered in the sequence order on the first,
second, third, etc. hard disks. They are assigned E:, F:, G:, for example
•
Finally, in order, letters are assigned to
all remaining
suitable
primary partitions
of the
first, second, third, etc. disks.
Partition operations in the mentioned operating systems may result in problems running
applications, opening files and other problems if letter assignments change.
Windows NT/2000/XP
Windows NT/2000/XP operating systems'
initial letter assignment
is done
automatically
:
similar to Windows 98. Windows NT 4.0 does not support FAT32, but assigns letters to
such partitions.
Please note that letter order in these operating systems can differ depending on the
number of hard disks and other disk drives recognized by the BIOS.
All these operating systems enable you to
change
initially assigned
letters
. Partition
create, delete and move operations do not affect letters assigned to other partitions.
