System partition and boot partition: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 08:00, 6 February 2016

Revision as of 08:02, 6 February 2016

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{{Redirect-distinguish|Boot partition|BIOS boot partition}}

'''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 some [[Operating System]] (OS) to function correctly. There are two different definitions for these terms: One that developed from the firmware on the PC's Operatingoperating Systemssystems to manage their own Boot Loader's ___location and onethe other, common in servers, for firmware that manages the ___location and selection of Boot Loader which access the operating system. The difference comes from the differing view that the partition is intended to hold a single Operating Systems "boot" code and that the "system" firmware controls the partition with the boot code.

==PC definition==

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>

*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 <code>/</code> (the [[root directory]]).

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.