<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      type="topic" style="tip"
      id="disk-partitions">
  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="disk"/>


    <credit type="author">
      <name>GNOME Documentation Project</name>
      <email>[email protected]</email>
    </credit>

    <revision pkgversion="3.4.0" date="2012-02-19" status="review"/>

    <desc>Understand what volumes and partitions are and use the disk utility
    to manage them.</desc>
    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
  </info>

 <title>Manage volumes and partitions</title>

  <p>The word <em>volume</em> is used to describe a storage device, like a hard
 disk. It can also refer to a <em>part</em> of the storage on that device,
 because you can split the storage up into chunks. The computer makes this
 storage accessible via your file system in a process referred to as
 <em>mounting</em>. Mounted volumes may be hard drives, USB drives, DVD-RWs, SD
 cards, and other media. If a volume is currently mounted, you can read (and
 possibly write) files on it.</p>

  <p>Often, a mounted volume is called a <em>partition</em>, though they are not
 necessarily the same thing. A “partition” refers to a <em>physical</em> area of
 storage on a single disk drive. Once a partition has been mounted, it can be
 referred to as a volume because you can access the files on it. You can think
 of volumes as the labeled, accessible “storefronts” to the functional “back
 rooms” of partitions and drives.</p>

<section id="manage">
 <title>View and manage volumes and partitions using the disk utility</title>

  <p>You can check and modify your computer’s storage volumes with the disk
 utility.</p>

<steps>
  <item>
    <p>Open the <gui>Activities</gui> overview and start <app>Disks</app>.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
    <p>In the list of storage devices on the left, you will find hard disks,
    CD/DVD drives, and other physical devices. Click the device you want to
    inspect.</p>
  </item>
  <item>
    <p>The right pane provides a visual breakdown of the volumes and
    partitions present on the selected device. It also contains a variety of
    tools used to manage these volumes.</p>
    <p>Be careful: it is possible to completely erase the data on your disk with
    these utilities.</p>
  </item>
</steps>

  <p>Your computer most likely has at least one <em>primary</em> partition and a
 single <em>swap</em> partition. The swap partition is used by the operating
 system for memory management, and is rarely mounted.  The primary partition
 contains your operating system, applications, settings, and personal files.
 These files can also be distributed among multiple partitions for security or
 convenience.</p>

  <p>One primary partition must contain information that your computer uses to
  start up, or <em>boot</em>. For this reason it is sometimes called a boot
  partition, or boot volume. To determine if a volume is bootable, select the
  partition and click the menu button in the toolbar underneath the partition
  list. Then, click <gui>Edit Partition…</gui> and look at its
  <gui>Flags</gui>. External media such as USB drives and CDs may also contain
  a bootable volume.</p>

</section>

</page>