In most language usage a partition refers to a divider of areas. When working with computer hardware and software partitions refer to not only dividers but a section of a computer hard disk drive or other digital storage device that has been set aside and labeled. Partitions are usually labeled with a two digit number. The reason we divide our information storage areas into the segments used primarily protect the different contents. The use of partitions within a hard disk drive also allows us to run simultaneous functions independently of one another. An example of this would be a dual boot operating system where we had advantages to using an older OS such as Windows XP at times and found it preferable to use the latest version of Windows at others. A further advantage to using the partition system especially on large hard disk drives is as a quarantine measure against file corruption and virus attack.

Should the operating system files of one partition be corrupted and consequently deny access to the system one can then use the second boot operating system as a backup and from that platform use data recovery tools. We can then reload the operating system on to the damaged partition and use a data recovery tool for formatted data recovery. In the event that a hard disk drive has not been divided into separate partitions one can still recover formatted partitions by removing the hard disk drive and connecting it with cables to a working PC onto which the data recovery software has been installed.