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The system partition and the boot partition (also known as the system volume and the boot volume) are computing terms for disk partitions of a hard disk drive or solid-state drive 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 definition.


Common definition

In context of every operating system, except those developed by Microsoft, the system partition and the boot partition are defined as follows: * The ''boot partition'' is a primary partition that contains the boot loader, a piece of software responsible for
booting In computing, booting is the process of starting a computer as initiated via hardware such as a button or by a software command. After it is switched on, a computer's central processing unit (CPU) has no software in its main memory, so som ...
the operating system. For example, in the standard Linux directory layout (
Filesystem Hierarchy Standard The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS) is a reference describing the conventions used for the layout of a UNIX system. It has been made popular by its use in Linux distributions, but it is used by other UNIX variants as well. It is maintained b ...
), boot files (such as the kernel, 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 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 computer file system, and primarily used in the Unix and Unix-like operating systems, the root directory is the first or top-most directory in a hierarchy. It can be likened to the trunk of a tree, as the starting point where all branches ...
). 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 (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. Before Windows 7, the system and boot partitions were, by default, the same and were given the "C:" drive letter. Since 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. As of Windows 11, this nomenclature is still used by the "Disk Management" utility.


See also

* NTLDR * Windows startup process * Windows NT startup process * Windows Vista startup process * Windows To Go


References

{{Firmware and booting Booting Disk partitions Windows administration