What is the difference between linux primary partition and extended partition

Differences: 1. Quantity difference, there can only be one extended partition, while primary partition has at least one and up to four; 2. Formatting difference, extended partition cannot be formatted and can only be extended by The partition is divided into logical partitions, the logical partition is formatted, and the primary partition can be formatted directly.

#The operating environment of this tutorial: linux7.3 system, Dell G3 computer.

What is the difference between Linux primary partition and extended partition

Linux stipulates that each hard disk device can be composed of up to 4 primary partitions (including extended partitions), and any extended partition must occupy one The primary partition number is the total number of primary partitions in the hard disk. The maximum number of extended partitions is four. For early DOS and Windows (versions before Windows 2000), the system only recognizes one primary partition. You can further optimize your partition by adding a logical drive letter (logical partition) to the extended partition.

The function of the primary partition is to use the computer to boot the operating system. Therefore, every operating system startup or bootloader should be stored on the primary partition. This is the biggest difference between primary partition and extended partition and logical partition. When we specify the bootloader to install and boot Linux, it must be specified on the primary partition, which is the best example.

Linux stipulates that the primary partition (or extended partition) occupies the first 4 numbers from 1 to 16. Take the first IDE hard drive as an example. The primary partition (or extended partition) occupies hda1, hda2, hda3, hda4, while the logical partition occupies 12 numbers from hda5 to hda16. Therefore, each hard disk under Linux has a maximum of 16 partitions.

For logical partitions, Linux stipulates that they must be built on the extended partition (the same is true for DOS and Windows systems), not on the primary partition. Therefore, we can see that the extended partition can provide a more flexible partition mode, but it cannot be used as an operating system boot.

Because the size of the partition table is only 64 bytes, only 4 partition records can be recorded. That is to say, the total number of primary partitions and extended partitions can only be 4, but there can only be one extended partition. , this is their quantitative difference. Also, the extended partition cannot be formatted. Only the extended partition can be divided into logical partitions. The logical partition can be formatted, but the primary partition can be formatted.

The function of the extended partition is to make up for the shortcomings of the partition table. The partition table can only record four sets of data. If you want to divide more than 4 partitions, you must have an extended partition, which divides (extends) logical partitions. , the extended partition is responsible for recording the partition information of the logical partition, so the extended partition itself cannot be formatted. The extended partition is only the carrier of the logical partition. This is the main difference between it and the primary partition.

Related recommendations: "Linux Video Tutorial"

The above is the detailed content of What is the difference between linux primary partition and extended partition. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!