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 Computer data storage#Secondary storage, secondary storage, so that each region can be managed separately. These regions are called partitions. It is typically the first ...

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 hard disk drive platter, pla ...

solid-state drive A solid-state drive (SSD) is a type of solid-state storage device that uses integrated circuits to store data persistently. It is sometimes called semiconductor storage device, solid-state device, or solid-state disk. SSDs rely on non- ...

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 corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

definition.

Common definition

In context of every operating system, except those developed by

, the system partition and the boot partition are defined as follows: * The ''boot partition'' is a primary partition that contains the

boot loader A bootloader, also spelled as boot loader or called bootstrap loader, is a computer program that is responsible for booting a computer and booting an operating system. If it also provides an interactive menu with multiple boot choices then it's o ...

, a piece of software responsible for

booting In computing, booting is the process of starting a computer as initiated via Computer hardware, hardware such as a physical button on the computer or by a software command. After it is switched on, a computer's central processing unit (CPU) h ...

the

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

. For example, in the standard

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

directory layout (

Filesystem Hierarchy Standard The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) is a reference describing the conventions used for the layout of Unix-like systems. It has been made popular by its use in Linux distributions, but it is used by other Unix-like systems as well. It is main ...

), 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 learnin ...

, initrd, and boot loader GRUB) 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 software, proprietary Graphical user interface, graphical operating system produced by Microsoft as part of its Windows product line, the first version of which, Windows NT 3.1, was released on July 27, 1993. Original ...

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 a Computing, computer file system, and primarily used in the Unix and Unix-like operating systems, the root directory is the first or top-most Directory (computing), directory in a hierarchy. It can be likened to the trunk of a Tree (data st ...

). 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. It marked the company's entry into the corporate computing environment, designed to support large networks and to be ...

(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 A boot sector is the disk sector, sector of a persistent data storage device (e.g., hard disk, floppy disk, optical disc, etc.) which contains machine code to be loaded into random-access memory (RAM) and then executed by a computer system's bui ...

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

. Before

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

, the system and boot partitions were, by default, the same and were given the "C:" drive letter. Since Windows 7, however,

Windows Setup Windows Setup is an Installation (computer programs), installer that prepares a computer for a Microsoft Windows installation by allowing the user to pick installation settings (modifying Partition (computing), partitions if necessary) and co ...

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 Advanced Encryption Standard ...

, which requires a separate unencrypted system partition for booting. As of

Windows 11 Windows 11 is a version of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released on October 5, 2021, as the successor to Windows 10 (2015). It is available as a free upgrade for devices running Windows 10 that meet the #System requirements, Windo ...

, this nomenclature is still used by the "Disk Management" utility.

References

{{Firmware and booting Booting Disk partitions Windows administration

Common definition

Microsoft definition

See also

References