In these days of double and triple-digit gigabyte hard drives, it's rare that anyone complains that they don't have enough space for their applications, games, and files. While having all this space is wonderful, it can also cause problems. All that wide-open space can become fragmented, causing the file system to become corrupt. That can mean trouble. And if you try to install another operating system beside Windows, you can cause both operating systems to go kaput.

Luckily, there's a way around this. It's called partitioning. And with the right tools and a bit of patience, it can change your computing experience.

Some Partitioning Basics

Partitioning is the act of dividing your hard drive into smaller pieces, called (you guessed it) partitions. Think of partitioning as carving up your hard drive into bit-sized segments. The hard drive isn't physically cut up, and the separate pieces are independent of one another.

The average, out of the box computer comes with only one hard drive. This drive, in turn, has only one partition that spans the breadth of the drive. This is called the primary partition. While you can have up to four primary partitions on a drive, one is visible on your computer at any one time.

You can get around the four-partition limit with an extended partition. You can chop an extended partition up even further. These segments are called logical partitions or logical drives. A logical partition is simply a virtual disk you create on a hard drive. You can format a logical partition, and assign it a drive letter.

While partitioning can be very useful, you can only boot your computer from one partition at a time. And, generally, you can't see any of the other partitions on your drive.