
- #Basic data partition vs primary partition install#
- #Basic data partition vs primary partition software#
#Basic data partition vs primary partition install#
Each will receive a Drive letter, but you will only be able to install the OS on a Primary partition. On older SATA IDE Hard Drives, you are limited to either 4 Primary partitions or a combination of some Primary and Logical partitions.
#Basic data partition vs primary partition software#
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. Windows partitions come in two types Primary and Logical.Since Windows NT 3.1 (the first version of Windows NT), Microsoft has defined the terms as follows: 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.

By default, in Linux, operating system files are mounted at / (the root directory). The system partition is the disk partition that contains the operating system folder, known as the system root.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". For example, in the standard Linux directory layout ( Filesystem Hierarchy Standard), boot files (such as the kernel, initrd, and boot loader GRUB) are mounted at /boot/. The boot partition is a primary partition that contains the boot loader, a piece of software responsible for booting the operating system.In context of every operating system, except those developed by Microsoft, the system partition and the boot partition are defined as follows:
