Origin of "partition" in storage devices

On Mon, 31 Jan 2022, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote: PC-DOS/MS-DOS early partitioning When PC-DOS/MS-DOS started to support hard drives (XT/5160, March 8,1983), with PC/MS-DOS 2.00, the limit was 32MB. NOT 2GB. That limit called for breaking up drives as small as 40MB into multiple partitions. That limit lasted until MS-DOS 3.31 / PC-DOS 4.00 After that, the limit was bumped up to 2GB. (Probably would have been 4GB if they had used an UNSIGNED 32 bit number, and given up the option of having negative file and drive sizes) The XT/5160 shipped with a 10MB drive, but some people even split that up. ("we're going to share the drive between all of us, so there will be a partition for DOS and programs, and each person will get a personal partition for your data." The XT/5160 used a rebranded Xebec hard disk controller, that included support for 2 drives, of 5?, 10, 16, and 26MB. It was set for 10MB, but the other sizes could be accessed by adding jumpers to solder pads on the board. Other sizes could be done with software kludges. FDISK.COM, for partitioning, was included in PC-DOS 2.00 . The 5160 shipped with the hard disk already formatted. However low level format, to redo it, or for a third party drive, required "Advanced Diagnostics", or third party solutions. "Advanced Diagnostics" was part of the "Hardware Maintenance And Service" and was on a 160K floppy AND on a cassette! (for machines without floppy) The regular "Diagnostics" that shipped with the machine (both 5150 and 5160) did NOT have hard disk low level format. Third party controllers usually came with a low-level format utility, or provision in the hard disk controller's ROM at C800h -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com