* A disk is divided up into **partitions** which are subsections of the overall disk. The kernel presents each partition as a [block device](./Devices.md#Devices.md) as it would with an entire disk.
* The disk dedicates a small part of its contents to a **partition table**: this defines the different partitions that comprise the total disk space.
* The **filesystem** is a database of files and directories: this comprises the bulk of the partition and is what you interact with in [user space](./User_Space.md) when reading and writing data.
Whenever you install a Linux distribution on a real or virtual machine, you must partition the drive. There are three main tools to choose from: `parted`, `g(raphical)parted`, `fdisk`.
The two tools disclose that the main harddrive is `/dev/nvme0n1` (equivalent to `sda` on older machines running Linux) and it has the standard three partitions:
* This takes up the smallest amount of space and exists in order to bootstrap the operating system: to load the kernel into memory when the machine starts. This is where your bootloader is stored and that will be accessed by the BIOS. In Linux this will be GRUB.
* This is the domain of the [superuser](./User_Space.md#root-user-superuser). The part of the filesystem that you need sudo priveleges to access and where you manage users
In the Linux world there are two main types: MBR and GPT. The type of table used determines how the OS boots. So although partition tables are also responsible for the partitioning of non-bootable sectors of a disk, **they are distinguished by the boot system they implement**.
If we look at the output from `parted` and `fdisk` above we see that the harddrive uses the GPT partition type.
#### Primary, extended and logical partitions
Most standard partition tables allow for primary, extended and logical partitions. The primary partition is the part of the harddisk that contains the operating system and is thus described as 'bootable' and may be called the 'boot partition'. During the bootstrapping process this is injected into memory as the [kernel](The_Kernel.md).
The extended partition is basically everything other than the primary partition. This is typically subdivided into other partitions that are called *logical* partitions. This is because they physically reside in the same sector of the disk (the extended partition) but are treated as virtual and independent disks.
In our example above:
*`/dev/nvme0n1p1` is the primary/boot partition
*`/dev/nvme0n1p2` and `/dev/nvme0n1p3` comprise the extended partition and by themselves are each logical partitions.
