Partitions and Types

A partitioned disc is a hard disk divided into one or more logical sections.

System Partition: The system partition contains the files needed to start up the computer. Depending on the OS, the file system type may be FAT, FAT32, or NTFS. In Windows for example, DOS is apart of the system partition which uses FAT (acronym for File Allocation Table).

Boot Partition: The boot partition contains the files of the operating system (Windows Vista, Macintosh OS X, etc). With newer operating systems, the NTFS (acronym for New Technology File System) is used.

Note: Although the terms would seem like they mean the opposite things (ex: You would think the “Boot” Partition would contain the files needed to start the OS), they do not and are reversed and defined correctly above.

Written by Clio