Disk partitioning is the creation of one or more regions on a
hard disk or other
secondary storage, so that an
operating system can manage information in each region separately. Partitioning is typically the first step of preparing a newly manufactured disk, before any
files or
directories have been 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 in the operating system as a distinct "logical" disk that uses part of the actual disk.
System administrators use a program called a
partition editor to create, resize, delete, and manipulate the partitions.