Partitions (Xbox)
From Wiki-Scene
In computing terms, a Partition is a division of space on a hard drive. Often partitions are incorrectly referred to as the drives themselves (due to the common practise of using one partition per hard drive). The Xbox uses a single hard drive, but with at least five partitions.
In an unmodded system, the sum total of these adds up to about 8gb, though in the case of stock systems with Seagate drives, there's 10gb worth of space actually available (the extra 2gb is simply unallocated, though can be put to use in a modded Xbox). It is known to be possible to install and partition drives of up to 2tb in size, with a current theoretical limit of 2.2tb.
Each partition is typically formatted using FATX and a cluster size of 16kb. This can often cause problems in that it only allows for extended partitions of up to 256gb in size; XBPartitioner must be used to safely create partitions larger then this.
In order to create partitions larger then 129gb, your BIOS must support LBA48. XBPartitioner can also inform you as to whether this is the case or if you need to upgrade. To create partitions larger then 256gb, your BIOS must furthermore support XBP's "custom" partitions.
Standard Partitions
These partitions are required for the usual operation of the Xbox console.
- Partition 0: (Hidden)
- ~512kb in size.
- Holds configuration data. Not really sure what goes in there, how to access it, or if it actually exists at all.
- Partition 1: E
- ~4.76gb in size.
- Used for storing save games, ripped music CDs, and content downloaded from Xbox Live. Also holds some caching related data.
- Partition 2: C
- 500mb in size.
- Used for storing system files, such as the Microsoft Dashboard and/or perhaps a softmod and custom dashboard.
- Partition 3, 4 & 5: X, Y & Z
- 750mb in size.
- Used exclusively for caching. Data placed on these partitions is prone to deletion at any time. For this reason, some dashboards hide them.
Extended Partitions
These partitions are optional, and are not defined on an unmodified hard drive from a stock system. Typically you will need to install a new, larger HDD to take advantage of them. However, stock systems with a Seagate drive have enough unpartitioned space to create an F partition of roughly ~2gb in size.
- Partition 6 & 7: F & G
- Size is user defined, up to 1tb each.
- Can only be accessed via a modded system and must be manually formatted. The console itself does not use these partitions, and so users typically store games/videos/music/etc on them.
