Origin of "partition" in storage devices

Tom Gardner tom94022 at comcast.net
Mon Jan 31 13:01:21 CST 2022


There is a discussion of the origin of the term "partition" in storage
devices such as HDDs at:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Disk_partitioning#Where_did_the_term_%22p
artition%22_originate?

It seems clear it was used in memory well before HDDs but when it got
started there is unclear.
* IBM PC DOS v2 was an early user in 1983 with FDISK and its first PC
support of HDDs
* UNIX, Apple OS's and IBM mainframe all seem to come later.

Partitioning as a "slice" probably predates IBM PC DOS v2

Would appreciate some recollections about DEC usage, other minicomputers and
the BUNCH.

You can either post directly to Wikipedia or let me know; links to
references would greatly be appreciated

Tom



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