Partition - a separate part of the whole volume of the device.
Cylinder - blocks + group on a plate
Cluster - File allocation
File system - a method of recording, storage and playback of directories and files on the storage media.
The disc may have 4 primary partitions, each of which may be logical disk which means that in each of the other may be partitioned into 64 pieces. Each partition on a logical partition can have its own file system.
DOS / FAT 16 / 32 bits - limited capacity to 20 GB partition, no defragmentation during recording.
NTFS - a modern system from Microsoft, the partition up to 256 TB, accounted for, and access rights
EXT - partition to 16TB, backwards compatibility, in v. 4 64 000 subdirectories
ReiserFS - designed for Linux (not yet implemented), very fast and efficient in reading small files, manage folders with hundreds of millions of files created by Namesys led by Hans Reiser.
Basically, we use Windows only two partitions. The system partition C: where to put the system and software, D: our data.
In the case of Linux partitioning system becomes more complex as it is designed to work on a number of partitions that are not necessarily on the same disk. The system can be broken down according to their individual expectations of the use of the computer.
/ - Tree, the beginning and not separated all the rest of the other partitions 10-20 GB
swap: I recommend the same number as we RAM
/home - user file: the available area
Server - Linux (according to my discretion and judgment blindly):
/ 10-20 GB
swap: in proportion to the amount of RAM (this partition can be repeatedly reproduced)
/Var: most of the available disk (this partition can be repeatedly reproduced)
/var / log: depending on the expected load, but looking to the future should be enough 5 GB
/tmp: temporary files better kept separate, 1 GB
/etc: 5 GB
/home: 10 GB or the rest of the disk space