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Jimmi Hugh (talk | contribs) Cleaned up some of the biased language ("radically different") subject to my concerns on the Talk page |
Jimmi Hugh (talk | contribs) Removed some of the PC-centric bias ("marked as active"), left it in the common section, as that's a very PC-centric view anyway. Changed heading titles. |
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'''System partition''' and '''boot partition''' are computing terms for [[disk partition]]s of a [[hard disk drive]] that must exist and be properly configured for a system to operate correctly. There are two different definitions for these terms: [[Microsoft]] definition (used by [[Windows]]) and the common definition used by every other operating system.
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In context of many PC operating systems, system partition and 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 the OS. For example, in the standard [[Linux]] directory layout ([[Filesystem Hierarchy Standard]]), boot files (such as the [[Linux kernel|kernel]], [[initrd]], and boot loader [[GRUB]]) are mounted at <code>/boot/</code>.<ref>{{cite book|last=Petersen|first=Richard|title=Ubuntu The Complete Reference|year=2009|publisher=McGraw-Hill|___location=New York|isbn=0-07-164368-0|page=473|chapter=Chapter 21: Basic System Administration}}</ref>
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In Linux, a single partition can be both a boot and a system partition if both <code>/boot/</code> and root directory are in the same partition.
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In the context of Microsoft Windows, and Firmware with System Partition support such as EFI, the terms are defined as follows:
*The ''system partition'' is a partition that contains boot loaders, software responsible for booting one or more OS'.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Mitch|last1=Tulloch|first2=Ingrid|last2=Tulloch|title=Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking|year=2002|publisher=[[Microsoft Press]]|___location=Redmond, WA|isbn=0-7356-1378-8|page=1087|edition=2nd}}</ref>
*The ''boot partitions'' are the disk partition that contains the operating system folder, known as ''system root'' or <code>%systemroot%</code> in [[Windows NT]].<ref>{{cite book|first1=Mitch|last1=Tulloch|first2=Ingrid|last2=Tulloch|title=Microsoft Encyclopedia of Networking|year=2002|publisher=[[Microsoft Press]]|___location=Redmond, WA|isbn=0-7356-1378-8|page=174|edition=2nd}}</ref>
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.<ref name=winternals5 />{{rp|971}}
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