The first division of a hard disk drive. The primary partition is often the only one on the disk, and it occupies the entire disk volume. If there are multiple partitions, the primary partition is the one that holds the operating system and has to be made "active" in order to do so. See partition.
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2008 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- About Atom: Intel's big plans for its little chip
- One of the bolder goals Intel set at IDF this week is that within a decade it wants ship 1 billion Intel-based mobile computing devices each year. That's a big bet when you consider Intel estimates there will be a total of 163 million notebooks shipped this year. ...
- Blog posts 2008-08-20
- Intel's roadmap comes into focus: Can rivals respond?
- Intel's developer forum in San Francisco has more than its share of chest thumping and as the roadmap comes into focus you really wonder how competitors will respond. To be sure, Intel won't have a cakewalk, but it's making a lot of waves, creating new markets (Netbooks...
- Blog posts 2008-08-20
- PitchEngine revs up public beta, puts the social in PR
- PitchEngine revs up public beta, puts the social in PRMaybe I'm misunderstanding.......but I don't think that "pitches" are what journalists and bloggers are looking for. Informed commentary yes; reliable information on the company's plans and policies, yes; official positions on news items involving the company, yes; pitches, no (that's...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-19
- My Windows 7 wish list
- My Windows 7 wish listPut more muscle in thereWhen you pay 100+ bucks, you'd expect it's loaded with more than just Notepad or Paint. Those two haven't had much major upgrade since Windows 3.0. If you want some themes, you shouldn't have to pay another 40 or so to get...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-19
- Fortune 500 companies use of email spoofing countermeasures declining
- Here's a paradox - a technology originally meant to verify the sender of an email message for the sake of preventing spoofed messages from reaching the network, still hasn't been embraced by the world's biggest companies despite being around for years, but is actively used by adaptive spammers increasingly abusing...
- Blog posts 2008-08-19
- My bad day with Windows Server 2003
- My bad day with Windows Server 2003I'm intrigued...Not by Win2k3 server, but your mention of Ikea furniture. What's that for? Computer desks, lab desks, general tables? My mind is boggling as to what school would let you use that, and what it's being used for!Partition MagicI've had some nasty experiences...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-18
- My bad day with Windows Server 2003
- Today was not a good computer day. I had some good meetings (yes, actual good, productive meetings), finished a couple items on my to do list, and even got some of that good old Ikea furniture put together. The part of my job where I work with a...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- CISCO: Why the Olympics didn't melt NBC
- Yesterday I posted about how Limelight Networks was used as the primary caching content provider for NBCOlympics.com and lifted a huge burden off on the public Internet by leveraging relationships with last mile ISPs. It's an amazing story about how technology can be used to solve immense problems. ...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- IDF: Will your device really get to know you?
- The Intel Developer Forum kicks off Tuesday and the company has started with a few "day 0" presentations--including one on research on how mobile devices that can sense and adapt to you--that are worth a look. Intel released three presentations and the most interesting one--and potentially problematic--comes...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- Might Office be where Microsoft gets socked with Chinese antitrust charges?
- According to a new story from the August 15 edition of the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft still might not be out of antitrust hot water in China. And Office, not Windows, may end up the primary target of any new antitrust complaints. by Mary Jo Foley
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- Limelight by the numbers: Akamai's thorn?
- Limelight Networks may have won a medal for its role behind the scenes to keep NBCOlympics.com humming, but the company is still dwarfed by its largest rival Akamai. The big question: Does Limelight have enough headroom to gain meaningful share from Akamai? Jason Perlow detailed how content...
- Blog posts 2008-08-18
- Limelight Networks: Why the Olympics didn't 'Melt' the Internet
- I admit it, even I was skeptical. When I received the first demonstration of the Silverlight plugin and the NBCOlympics.com web site back in March of this year at the 2008 Microsoft Technology Summit, where a group of Open Source experts gathered from around the world were asked for feedback...
- Blog posts 2008-08-17
- McCain's copyright problem: oh, the hypocrisy
- McCain's copyright problem: oh, the hypocrisyAnother hit job on McCainLooks like another leftist hit job on McCain to me. Too bad McCain is going to win anyway! :-)RE: McCain's copyright problem: oh, the hypocrisyThis is just petty politics on Browne's part. This bleeding heart liberal would not have said a...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-15
- Next Question: A Whole Lot of Traffic Shaping Going On, With Olympics Video?
- Next Question: A Whole Lot of Traffic Shaping Going On, With Olympics Video?Traffic Shaping is not the reasonTom:I suggest you review the material that Limelight Networks has put out regarding the Olympics streaming infrastructure.The reason why the Net has not melted is because the content is not on the...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-14
- New Gpcode (encryption) ransomware speading via botnet
- New Gpcode encryption ransomware speading via botnetIt's a 15 minute problem at bestLoad your most recent C drive image, then restore any lost files from your last backup. What's the problem?It'll help teach people to BACK UP their dataSo maybe there's a silver lining, who knows? For me,...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-13
- Get kids to touch type!
- Get kids to touch type!Two finger typing works.After years of it, one can attain a good speed. So long as the lights are not turned out. We are now in the interim before speech software is ready to replace the keyboard for many purposes. Though transcribing the...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-13
- Get kids to touch type!
- When I see kids hunting and pecking, especially by the time they hit secondary school, I cringe. Unfortunately, the keyboarding classes that many of us took as kids are long gone in favor of applications courses. These classes were usually offered in high school anyway, though, which is...
- Blog posts 2008-08-13
- Download cool PhysX-enabled stuff from NVIDIA
- Download cool PhysX-enabled stuff from NVIDIALinux?Do they have Linux demos available or are they only showing off their technology to Windows gamers? Its a bit disappointing to always see "choose operating system" and only finding "windows blah" and "windows foo" and "windows 9000 64-bit" listed with Linux buried 27...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-12
- Gmail outage the latest cloud stumble; Where's the offline synching?
- Gmail outage the latest cloud stumble; Where's the offline synching?Can't trust it yetWhile seeing the tech world lose their mind via Twitter due to the gmail outage, I agree that it shows the need to not rely on a single source for anything deemed "critial", whether it's cloud, hardware, software,...
- Discussion threads 2008-08-12
- Saying Farewell
- It's been a great handful of months here at ZDNet, but I'm deciding to say goodbye to the blogging scene. I'm already really busy with my primary job, and at this point I want to slow the work load down a good deal and just enjoy life. I'd like to...
- Blog posts 2008-08-11
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