es no power supply to maintain the data that has been placed on the drive. In addition, the data is completely under user control. Data can be added and deleted at will and the drive can be configured in various ways to suit the purpose of the user.

Examining the Hard Disk Layout

The easiest way to understand the system drive structure is to use a tool supplied with Windows XP called Disk Management, a snap-in that's part of the Microsoft Management Console. The majority of systems sold today for home or small business use will come equipped with one hard drive, although many manufacturers offer special deals on new systems that make it financially attractive to add a second, third, or even fourth hard drive if you have a need for the extra capacity. In spite of the fact that a single hard drive can be configured in many different ways, it's a pretty safe bet that an off the shelf system will arrive in one of two basic configurations. Either the entire drive will be partitioned as C: as shown in Fig. 01 or it will be split into two partitions, one as C: that is visible and another partition that is hidden and contains an image of the operating system (and a ton of useless software) in case things go terribly wrong requiring a reinstall of the operating system.