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1. #Partition mac drive for windows dual boot install#
2. #Partition mac drive for windows dual boot serial#
3. #Partition mac drive for windows dual boot full size#

So, whatever the size of the partition or disk, there must be enough sectors per cluster so that the entire disk space can be contained in these 65,525 clusters. The FAT file system supports disks or partitions up to a maximum size of 2 GB but only allows at most 65,536 clusters. This table records the numbers of the clusters that are used and where the files are located in the clusters. It is located in sector 2 of cylinder 0, head 1 (and is duplicated in another sector as a precaution in the event of an accident). The FAT ( File Allocation Table) is the heart of the file system. A cluster actually represents a fixed number of disk sectors. In this section, it is important to differentiate between the FAT file system and the file allocation table (FAT).įAT is the name of the file system used by DOS operating systems (DOS and Windows 95, as well as Windows NT and OS/2, which support it).įAT file systems are characterized by the use of a file allocation table and clusters (or blocks).Ĭlusters are the smallest unit of storage in a FAT file system.

In other words, without it, your hard drive is useless, which makes it a favourite target for viruses. This sector is therefore the most important one on the hard drive and is also used by the BIOS setup to recognise the hard drive.

#Partition mac drive for windows dual boot serial#

This disk sector also contains all of the information concerning the hard drive (i.e., manufacturer, serial number, number of bytes per sector, number of sectors per cluster, number of sectors, etc.). It contains the main partition table and the code, called the bootloader, which when loaded into memory, will allow the system to boot up.Īfter it is loaded into memory, this program will determine from which system partition to boot, and will start the program (called the bootstrap), which will start up the operating system present on that partition. What is “master boot record”? The boot sector (called the Master Boot Record or MBR) is the first sector of a hard drive (cylinder 0, head 0, sector 1). Here is an example of where the disk contains one primary partition and one extended partition made up of three logical drives:įor DOS systems (DOS, Windows 9x), only the primary partition is bootable and is, therefore, the only one on which the operating system can be started. "simulate" several smaller-sized hard drives). In the extended partition, the user can create logical drives (i.e. A disk may contain up to four primary partitions (only one of which can be active), or three primary partitions and one extended partition. There are three types of partitions: primary partitions, extended partitions and logical drives. That is unless you want to create several partitions so as to have several drives on which data is kept separately.

#Partition mac drive for windows dual boot full size#

If you are using just one operating system, a single partition of the full size of the disk is sufficient. Therefore, logically there will be at least as many partitions as there are operating systems using different file systems.

#Partition mac drive for windows dual boot install#

It can be used for example, to install different operating systems that do not use the same file system. It involves creating areas on the disk where data will not be mixed. The partitioning of a hard drive occurs after the drive has been physically formatted but before it is logically formatted.