The Multi-Boot Configuration Handbook

Partition Types

The PC's partitioning scheme provides for three different types of partitions: primary, extended, and logical. I describe each of these in turn in this section. These partition types are different from the partition type codes, which identify the type of filesystem a partition contains.

▸ To learn more about partition type codes, see Filesystem Codes.

Some OSs use unusual partitioning schemes that extend the number of partition types in one way or another. A handful use entirely different methods of partitioning a hard disk, but these OSs cannot coexist peacefully on a single hard and very rare, so you're not likely to need to use them. One partial exception is FreeBSD, which has an option to use its own partitioning scheme, ...