A disk containing operating system is known as

This article needs additional citations for Please help Find sources: · · · · ( September 2014) ( In computer data storage, a volume or logical drive is a single accessible storage area with a single Differences from partition [ ] A volume is not the same thing as a partition. For example, a In Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and onward the term "volume" is used as a superset that includes "partition" as well. It isn't uncommon to see a volume packed into a single file. Examples include ISO9660 disc images (CD/DVD images, commonly called "ISOs"), and installer volumes for Mac OS X ( not partitions. Example [ ] This example concerns a Physical disk Partition Filesystem Drive letter Hard Disk 1 Partition 1 NTFS C: Partition 2 FAT32 D: Hard Disk 2 Partition 1 FAT32 E: In this example, • "C:", "D:", and "E:" are volumes. • Hard Disk 1 and Hard Disk 2 are physical disks. • Any of these can be called a "drive". Nomenclature [ ] In Windows NT-based operating systems [ ] It is important to note that Windows NT-based OSes do not have a single root • A • A mount-point on an C:\Music" In these two examples, a file called "Track 1.mp3" stored in the root directory of the mounted volume could be referred to as " F:\Track 1.mp3" or " C:\Music\Track 1.mp3", respectively. In order to assign a mount point for a volume as a path within another volume, the following criteria must be met: • The mounted-to volume must be formatted NTFS. • A directory must exist at the root path. (As of Windows V...

If you work with legacy codebases or build operating systems, then you’ve surely come across the term “DOS” — but what is it exactly? And why do we only hear about DOS when we talk about computers in the ’80s and ’90s? In this article, we’ll go over what DOS is, how it works, how it was replaced, and why people still use it today. What is a disk operating system? A disk operating system (DOS) is a type of operating system that runs from a disk drive rather than a paper-based medium like a punch card. More specifically, DOS refers to an early command-line-based operating system used to access, manage, and control a computer’s hard drive and hardware components such as the processor and memory. This is different from today’s most popular operating systems, which all use a graphical user interface (GUI) rather than a command line. One thing that DOS and GUI-based operating systems have in common is that they’re the key to getting a computer to do what you want it to do. This includes finding a personal document file, connecting to the internet, or running a program. Life before GUIs Whether you’re reading this on a device powered by macOS, Windows, Android, iOS, or Linux, you’re working within a GUI-based operating system. That means that you can control and manage your computer or device through visual representations like icons, folders, menus, and files. Believe it or not, using a computer wasn’t always this easy or intuitive. Instead, people typed in commands to navigate ...

After Bill Gates found out that IBM was looking for an alternative operating system to the one it had originally planned, he bought the rights to QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) from a small software company. IBM acquired the license from Microsoft and integrated it into the IBM PC as PC-DOS 1.0. PC-DOS took inspiration from CP/M (the operating system IBM had originally planned) and leading Microsoft to completely reprogram it. PC-DOS 2.0 then came to market as the first reasonably functioning operating system. Since IBM did not have an exclusive license for the operating system, Microsoft could also sell it to other companies. Under the name MS-DOS, it became one of the most popular operating systems of its time. In 1982, over 50 companies had licensing agreements for Microsoft’s disk operating system. As time went on, DOS users asked more and more of their graphical user interface (GUI). Microsoft fulfilled this wish in 1985 with Windows 1.0, which imitated the GUI developed by Xerox back in the 1970s. Apple also launched with a GUI around this time. Users thus no longer had to type commands to open programs - they could simply click on an icon with their mouse. CP/M and PC-DOS/MS-DOS aren’t the only well-known disk operating systems. Other widely used DOS include: • Commodore DOS: Commodore DOS was developed in 1977 and is located on the disk rather than in the computer, setting it apart from most other disk operating systems. This actually makes it a firmware r...

Chris Hoffman Editor-in-Chief Chris Hoffman is Editor-in-Chief of How-To Geek. He's written about technology for over a decade and was a PCWorld columnist for two years. Chris has written for The New York Times and Reader's Digest, been interviewed as a technology expert on TV stations like Miami's NBC 6, and had his work covered by news outlets like the BBC. Since 2011, Chris has written over 2,000 articles that have been read more than one billion times---and that's just here at How-To Geek. Hard disks, USB drives, SD cards — anything with storage space must be partitioned. An unpartitioned drive can’t be used until it contains at least one partition, but a drive can contain multiple partitions. Partitioning isn’t something most users will need to bother with, but you may need to work with partitions when installing an operating system or setting up a new drive. What is a Partition? Many drives come with a single partition already set up, but all storage devices are just treated as a mass of unallocated, free space when they contain no partitions. To actually set up a file system and save any files to the drive, the drive needs a partition. The partition can contain all of the storage space on the drive or just some of it. On many storage devices, a single partition will often take up the entire drive. Partitions are necessary because you can’t just start writing files to a blank drive. You must first create at least one container with a file system. We call this contai...

Updated: 02/07/2022 by Computer Hope When referring to a computer disk partition or partition is a section of the hard drive that is separated from other segments. Partitions enable users to divide a physical disk into logical sections. For example, allowing multiple With older file allocation tables, such as Note A small amount of disk space allocated to a partition is unusable space and cannot be used to store data. For example, the picture below shows the Extra Volume (E:) drive, or partition, having a capacity of 5.86 GB, but the Free Space available for storing data is only 5.84 GB. The 20 MB (.02 GB) difference is space that is unusable. Types of partitions There are also several partition types. Below is a listing of partitions with a brief description. Note Some of these partitions may not be available in your partition utility. Partition Description AIX partition (boot) A partition used with the Boot partition As defined by BSD/OS partition (OpenBSD) A partition used with the BSD operating system. DOS partition (12-bit, 16-bit) A partition used with older versions of DOS extended partition A partition that is extended from one or more of the original MS-DOS partitions. DRDOS ( hHidden) A partition used with the Extended partition A partition that is extended from one or more of the primary partitions. Hibernation partition A partition used with older HPFS partition ( OS/2 IFS) An Linux ( Linux native, Linux swap, Linux extended, ext2fs) A partition used with vario...

By • Former Senior Technology Editor What is MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System)? MS-DOS stands for Microsoft Disk Operating System and is also known as Microsoft DOS. MS-DOS was the Microsoft-marketed version of the first operating system ( In 1981, IBM licensed and marketed its PC-DOS rebranding of MS-DOS to run on IBM PCs. MS-DOS was released for x86 computers, went through eight major versions and was ultimately retired from all active support in 2006. Most users of either DOS system simply referred to it as C:> The default command prompt shows the disk drive currently in use. This type of computer interface, where commands are input in response to a text prompt, is called a command-line interface ( In this example, drive "C:" represents the system's primary hard disk drive. When The first version of the Microsoft Windows OS was really an application that ran on top of MS-DOS. Today, Windows operating systems emulate MS-DOS to continue to support DOS -- or a DOS-like user interface -- for special purposes. In the 1970s before the PC was invented, IBM had a different and unrelated DOS that ran on smaller business computers. It was replaced by IBM's VSE (Virtual Storage Extended) OS. Why is MS-DOS used? Although most computer users prefer a modern OS with a graphical user interface ( • Education and research efforts let people learn about how a simple OS works. • Legacy systems persist throughout the world. In some cases, organizations prefer to continue using a sys...

Hard disks, USB drives, SD cards — anything with storage space must be partitioned. An unpartitioned drive can’t be used until it contains at least one partition, but a drive can contain multiple partitions. Partitioning isn’t something most users will need to bother with, but you may need to work with partitions when installing an operating system or setting up a new drive. What is a Partition? Many drives come with a single partition already set up, but all storage devices are just treated as a mass of unallocated, free space when they contain no partitions. To actually set up a file system and save any files to the drive, the drive needs a partition. The partition can contain all of the storage space on the drive or just some of it. On many storage devices, a single partition will often take up the entire drive. Partitions are necessary because you can’t just start writing files to a blank drive. You must first create at least one container with a file system. We call this container a partition. You can have one partition that contains all the storage space on the drive or divide the space into twenty different partitions. Either way, you need at least one partition on the drive. Why You Can Make Multiple Partitions and When You Might Want To You probably don’t want multiple partitions on your USB flash drive — a single partition will allow you to treat the USB drive as a single unit. If you have multiple partitions, multiple different drives would appear when you plug...

Updated: 02/07/2022 by Computer Hope When referring to a computer disk partition or partition is a section of the hard drive that is separated from other segments. Partitions enable users to divide a physical disk into logical sections. For example, allowing multiple With older file allocation tables, such as Note A small amount of disk space allocated to a partition is unusable space and cannot be used to store data. For example, the picture below shows the Extra Volume (E:) drive, or partition, having a capacity of 5.86 GB, but the Free Space available for storing data is only 5.84 GB. The 20 MB (.02 GB) difference is space that is unusable. Types of partitions There are also several partition types. Below is a listing of partitions with a brief description. Note Some of these partitions may not be available in your partition utility. Partition Description AIX partition (boot) A partition used with the Boot partition As defined by BSD/OS partition (OpenBSD) A partition used with the BSD operating system. DOS partition (12-bit, 16-bit) A partition used with older versions of DOS extended partition A partition that is extended from one or more of the original MS-DOS partitions. DRDOS ( hHidden) A partition used with the Extended partition A partition that is extended from one or more of the primary partitions. Hibernation partition A partition used with older HPFS partition ( OS/2 IFS) An Linux ( Linux native, Linux swap, Linux extended, ext2fs) A partition used with vario...

By • Former Senior Technology Editor What is MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System)? MS-DOS stands for Microsoft Disk Operating System and is also known as Microsoft DOS. MS-DOS was the Microsoft-marketed version of the first operating system ( In 1981, IBM licensed and marketed its PC-DOS rebranding of MS-DOS to run on IBM PCs. MS-DOS was released for x86 computers, went through eight major versions and was ultimately retired from all active support in 2006. Most users of either DOS system simply referred to it as C:> The default command prompt shows the disk drive currently in use. This type of computer interface, where commands are input in response to a text prompt, is called a command-line interface ( In this example, drive "C:" represents the system's primary hard disk drive. When The first version of the Microsoft Windows OS was really an application that ran on top of MS-DOS. Today, Windows operating systems emulate MS-DOS to continue to support DOS -- or a DOS-like user interface -- for special purposes. In the 1970s before the PC was invented, IBM had a different and unrelated DOS that ran on smaller business computers. It was replaced by IBM's VSE (Virtual Storage Extended) OS. Why is MS-DOS used? Although most computer users prefer a modern OS with a graphical user interface ( • Education and research efforts let people learn about how a simple OS works. • Legacy systems persist throughout the world. In some cases, organizations prefer to continue using a sys...

After Bill Gates found out that IBM was looking for an alternative operating system to the one it had originally planned, he bought the rights to QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System) from a small software company. IBM acquired the license from Microsoft and integrated it into the IBM PC as PC-DOS 1.0. PC-DOS took inspiration from CP/M (the operating system IBM had originally planned) and leading Microsoft to completely reprogram it. PC-DOS 2.0 then came to market as the first reasonably functioning operating system. Since IBM did not have an exclusive license for the operating system, Microsoft could also sell it to other companies. Under the name MS-DOS, it became one of the most popular operating systems of its time. In 1982, over 50 companies had licensing agreements for Microsoft’s disk operating system. As time went on, DOS users asked more and more of their graphical user interface (GUI). Microsoft fulfilled this wish in 1985 with Windows 1.0, which imitated the GUI developed by Xerox back in the 1970s. Apple also launched with a GUI around this time. Users thus no longer had to type commands to open programs - they could simply click on an icon with their mouse. CP/M and PC-DOS/MS-DOS aren’t the only well-known disk operating systems. Other widely used DOS include: • Commodore DOS: Commodore DOS was developed in 1977 and is located on the disk rather than in the computer, setting it apart from most other disk operating systems. This actually makes it a firmware r...