The system partition and the boot partition (also known as the system volume and the boot volume) are computing terms for
disk partition
Disk partitioning or disk slicing is the creation of one or more regions on secondary storage, so that each region can be managed separately. These regions are called partitions. It is typically the first step of preparing a newly installed disk ...
s of a
hard disk drive
A hard disk drive (HDD), hard disk, hard drive, or fixed disk is an electro-mechanical data storage device that stores and retrieves digital data using magnetic storage with one or more rigid rapidly rotating platters coated with magne ...
or
solid-state drive
A solid-state drive (SSD) is a solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuit assemblies to store data persistently, typically using flash memory, and functioning as secondary storage in the hierarchy of computer storage. It is a ...
that must exist and be properly configured for a computer to operate. There are two different definitions for these terms: the common definition and the
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
definition.
Common definition
In context of every operating system, except those developed by
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washin ...
, the system partition and the boot partition are defined as follows:
* The ''boot partition'' is a
primary partition
Disk partitioning or disk slicing is the creation of one or more regions on secondary storage, so that each region can be managed separately. These regions are called partitions. It is typically the first step of preparing a newly installed disk, ...
that contains the
boot loader
A bootloader, also spelled as boot loader or called boot manager and bootstrap loader, is a computer program that is responsible for booting a computer.
When a computer is turned off, its softwareincluding operating systems, application code, a ...
, a piece of software responsible for
booting the
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...
. For example, in the standard
Linux
Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, w ...
directory layout (
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard), boot files (such as the
kernel
Kernel may refer to:
Computing
* Kernel (operating system), the central component of most operating systems
* Kernel (image processing), a matrix used for image convolution
* Compute kernel, in GPGPU programming
* Kernel method, in machine learn ...
,
initrd
In Linux systems, initrd (''initial ramdisk'') is a scheme for loading a temporary root file system into memory, to be used as part of the Linux startup process. initrd and initramfs refer to two different methods of achieving this. Both are comm ...
, and boot loader
GRUB
Grub can refer to Grub (larva), of the beetle superfamily Scarabaeoidea, or as a slang term for food. It can also refer to:
Places
* Grub, Appenzell Ausserrhoden, Switzerland
* Grub, St. Gallen, Switzerland
* Grub (Amerang), a hamlet in Bavar ...
) are mounted at
/boot/
. Despite Microsoft's radically different definition (see below), System Information, a utility app included in
Windows NT
Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released on July 27, 1993. It is a processor-independent, multiprocessing and multi-user operating system.
The first version of Win ...
family of operating systems, refers to it as "boot device".
* The ''system partition'' is the disk partition that contains the operating system folder, known as the ''system root''. By default, in Linux, operating system files are mounted at
/
(the
root directory).
In Linux, a single partition can be both a boot and a system partition if both
/boot/
and the root directory are in the same partition.
Microsoft definition
Since
Windows NT 3.1
Windows NT 3.1 is the first major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, released on July 27, 1993.
At the time of Windows NT's release, Microsoft's Windows 3.1 desktop environment had established brand recognition ...
(the first version of Windows NT),
Microsoft has defined the terms as follows:
* The ''system partition'' (or system volume)
is a primary partition that contains the boot loader, a piece of software responsible for booting the operating system.
This partition holds the
boot sector and is marked active.
* The ''boot partition'' (or boot volume)
is the disk partition that contains the operating system folder, known as the ''system root'' or
%systemroot%
in
Windows NT
Windows NT is a proprietary graphical operating system produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released on July 27, 1993. It is a processor-independent, multiprocessing and multi-user operating system.
The first version of Win ...
.
Before
Windows 7
Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearly ...
, the system and boot partitions were, by default, the same and were given the "C:"
drive letter
In computer data storage, drive letter assignment is the process of assigning alphabetical identifiers to volumes. Unlike the concept of UNIX mount points, where volumes are named and located arbitrarily in a single hierarchical namespace, driv ...
.
Since Windows 7, however,
Windows Setup
Windows Setup is an installer that prepares a hard disk drive for a Microsoft Windows operating system installation by executing two processes: a) initializing the drive and b) copying system files to that drive in order for the operating syst ...
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
BitLocker is a full volume encryption feature included with Microsoft Windows versions starting with Windows Vista. It is designed to protect data by providing encryption for entire volumes. By default, it uses the AES encryption algorithm i ...
, which requires a separate unencrypted system partition for booting. As of
Windows 11
Windows 11 is the latest major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released in October 2021. It is a free upgrade to its predecessor, Windows 10 (2015), and is available for any Windows 10 devices that meet the new Windows 11 ...
, this nomenclature is still used by the "Disk Management" utility.
See also
*
NTLDR
NTLDR ( abbreviation of ''NT loader'') is the boot loader for all releases of Windows NT operating system from 1993 with the release of Windows NT 3.1 up until Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. From Windows Vista onwards it was replaced by the B ...
*
Windows startup process
The booting process of Microsoft Windows varies between different releases.
DOS-based Windows Windows 1.x/2.x
In Windows versions 1.01 to Windows 2.11, the system was loaded when WIN.COM was executed. It then loaded WIN100.BIN or WIN200.BIN and ...
*
Windows NT startup process
The booting process of Windows NT includes Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. In Windows Vista and later, this process has changed significantly; see Windows NT 6 startup process for information about what has chan ...
*
Windows Vista startup process
The booting process of Windows Vista and later versions differ from the startup process part of previous versions of Windows.
In this article, unless otherwise specified, what is said about Windows Vista also applies to all later NT operatin ...
*
Windows To Go
Windows To Go is a feature in Windows 8 Enterprise, Windows 8.1 Enterprise, Windows 10 Education and Windows 10 Enterprise versions prior to the May 2020 update, that allows the system to boot and run from certain USB mass storage devices such ...
References
{{Firmware and booting
Booting
Disk partitions
Windows administration