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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.
"Windows Disk Partition Features" redirects here. For other uses, see Windows Disk Partition Features (disambiguation).
"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. A standard definition for boot partition refers to the firmware disk partition on a PC's disk drive space, which holds the Boot Loader's location and grants selection access to the available operating systems on the PC to be used and managed by the system partition. Typically, This firmware boot partition is intended to hold a single Operating System's boot code and controls the corresponding system partition with it, and is necessary for most proprietary or certain personalized computer system. Some system partitions and boot partitions are hidden, and/or assigned without a drive letter. It is up to the user's unique situation to decide if this configuration is a restrictive or a security feature.

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, as in the case of certain Linux systems and lesser known system platforms.
  • 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 held within an operating system's main hard or logical disk space, without requiring a separate disk entity; if both /boot/ and root directory are in the same partition. Or they can also occupy a single disk partition of their own, separately from each other.

Proprietary Operation

In the context of a server or a PC with a proprietary operating system, such as Microsoft's Windows 7 and beyond, it can be understood as following (the naming of System/Boot partition is reversed in the case of Windows):

  • The disk partition is generally created automatically during factory configuration and assemblage (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]

For a number of Windows NT systems' disk system, a single partition may be both a system and a boot partition. If they are separate, the boot partition does not contain the boot software and the system partition does not have the system root.[3]

Before Windows Vista and Windows 7, the system and boot partitions were, by default, the same and were given the identifier "C:". After Windows XP, however, Windows Setup creates by default a separate system partition that is not assigned with an identifier - and therefore is hidden. The boot partition which contains the user space is still given "C:" as its identifier letter. This type of setting is suitable for the system partition to run full disk encryption programs such as Veracrypt, TrueCrypt or Microsoft's BitLocker, since the Windows system 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, which also contains a factory-fitted extended partition, it is possible that such system partitions and boot partitions also contain and allow critical user files to be used in recovery and retrieval attemps; however, these recovery partitions can be removed under certain conditions to gain extra hard drive space if the user requires it. 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. 970-1. 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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