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System partition and boot partition

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"System partition" redirects here and is not to be confused with EFI System partition.
"Boot partition" redirects here and is not to be confused with BIOS boot partition.
"SYSTEM.DRV" redirects here. For other uses, see SYSTEM.DRV (disambiguation).

System partition and boot partition are the computing terms for the disk partition of a hard disk drive within a PC, that must exist and be configured for some Operating System (OS) to function correctly. An accepted definition for these terms refers to the firmware disk partition on a PC's disk drive, that manages the Boot Loader's location and grants selection access to the available operating systems on the PC to be used. This firmware disk partition is intended to hold a single Operating System's boot code and controls the PC's system with it, and is necessary for certain proprietary or personalized computer system. Some system partitions and boot partitions are hidden, or assigned without a drive letter.

Personalized Operation

In the context of personalized operating systems, system partition and boot partition can act as follow:

  • The disk partition might be a manual input decision in the hands of the user or it might be automated by a distro.
  • The boot partition is a primary partition that contains the boot loader, a piece of software responsible for booting the OS. For example, in the standard Linux directory layout (Filesystem Hierarchy Standard), boot files (such as the kernel, initrd, and boot loader GRUB) are mounted at /boot/.[1]
  • The system partition is the disk partition that contains the operating system folder, known as system root. By default, in Linux, operating system files are mounted at / (the root directory).

In Linux systems, a system partition and boot partition can be within the operating system's main hard disk space, without requiring a separate disk entity; or they can also occupy a single, non-primary disk partition together, if both /boot/ and root directory are in the same partition.

Proprietary Operation

In the context of a computer with a proprietary operating system, such as Microsoft's Windows 7 and beyond, it can be understood as following:

  • The disk partition is generally created automatically during factory configuration (not to confuse with Windows 8 computers' required firmware attachment of EFI or UEFI in lieu of a BIOS).
  • The system partition is a partition that contains boot loaders, software responsible for booting one or more OS'.[2][3]
  • The boot partitions are the disk partition that contains the operating system folder, known as system root or %systemroot% in Windows NT.[4]

A single partition may be both a system and a boot partition. In case they are separate, however, the boot partition does not contain the boot software and the system partition does not have the system root.[3]: 971 

Before Windows 7, the system and boot partitions were, by default, the same and were given the identifier "C:". After Windows 7, however, Windows Setup creates, by default, a separate system partition that is not given an identifier and therefore is hidden. The boot partition is still given "C:" as its identifier. This configuration is suitable for running BitLocker, which requires a separate, unencrypted system partition for booting.

Additional Information

Some system and boot partition like system_DRV has no drive letters assigned and is required by Windows, therefore, cannot be removed. On some brands of computers, such as Lenovo, it is possible that such system partitions and boot partitions also allow and contain critical user files used in recovery attempts and retrieve; however, these recovery partitions can be removed under certain conditions to gain extra hard drive space. Under this circumstance, creating backups and/or reallocating the partitioned space is common place.

See also

References

  1. ^ Petersen, Richard (2009). "Chapter 21: Basic System Administration". Ubuntu The Complete Reference. New York: McGraw-Hill. p. 473. ISBN 0-07-164368-0.
  2. ^ Tulloch, Mitch; Tulloch, Ingrid (2002). Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking (2nd ed.). Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press. p. 1087. ISBN 0-7356-1378-8.
  3. ^ a b Russinovich, Mark E; Ionescu, Alex; Solomon, David A (2008). Windows Internals (5th ed.). Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press. p. 970. ISBN 0-7356-2530-1.
  4. ^ Tulloch, Mitch; Tulloch, Ingrid (2002). Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking (2nd ed.). Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press. p. 174. ISBN 0-7356-1378-8.
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