This article will explain some of the terms involved with partitioning your hard drive, as well as some concepts you will need to understand before installing Linux, and will help you determine what partitions you need to create for Linux. Imagine your company is moving into a new building that is set up like a warehouse. There are no internal walls, it's just one big room for everybody to work in. Next, each worker will get a cubicle in the big room with smaller partitions to separate you from the person next to you.
Hard drives work the same way.
The disk gets partitioned into smaller, separate pieces which can belong to different owners. In our case, Windows might own some and Linux will own others. In order to find what you're looking for, you must understand the library's file system, or method of organization. Fiction books are easy, they use a simple type of file system commonly known as alphabetical by author. Nonfiction books can be tougher because they use a different type of file system, the Dewey Decimal System.