What is a fdisk?

FDisk is short for “fixed disk” and it refers to a command used when someone wants to make a partition or division on his/her computer operating system.  Through the fdisk command, one may separate disk spaces depending on preferences and requirements.  A specific disk space could be allocated for various program files while personal documents and other files may also be given certain amounts of disk space.  All these can be done with the fdisk function on computer operating systems.

FDisk is a function and feature of Microsoft DOS and Windows operating systems.  So whether one is using old computers with DOS OS and new ones with Windows OS, he/she could make partitions on the disk space. Normally, new computers are setup with installation of the operating system such as Windows and partitioning of the disk space.  Some personal computers are pre-programmed and configured with the disk space having only one partition commonly labeled as Drive C.  But through the fdisk function under the command prompt, one may divide the disk space allocated for Drive C into two or more drives.  In this case, the Drive C could be used up for installation and program files, while the other drive/s may be allocated for personal files.

Aside from partitioning disk space and creating two or more drives, the fdisk function may also be used to allocate spaces for two operating systems.  One computer may be configured to boot up a specific OS as preferred.  For this function, a computer must be configured for a dual boot system with one running on Windows for example and the other system on Linux.  Because of the dual boot up system, the disk space must be partitioned to accommodate both operating systems to function separately.  During the startup process, the computer user will just choose which OS to run, and the computer will load the necessary files using the disk space partitioned and allocated for the chosen OS.