Various areas of the hard drive concept

various partitions

Primary partition, extended partition, logical partition, active partition, system partition, boot partition ...

Main boot sector, Mbr,bootloader .....

All kinds of concepts, do you know what it means?

It took a day to finally study clearly, the online many of the explanations are wrong, or do not go deep into the essence, what is the C-disk Ah, D, ah, are Windows brainwashed. Wasted a good long time.

Primary Partition

In fact, there is no concept of primary partitions, extended partitions, and logical partitions in earlier hard disk partitions, and each partition is of the primary partition type. Since the hard disk retains only 64 bytes of storage for the partitioned table, and the parameters for each partition occupy 16 bytes, the total in the main boot sector can only store data for 4 partitions. In other words, a physical hard disk can only be divided into 4 logical disks. In a specific application, 4 logical disks often fail to meet the actual requirements. To create more logical disks for use by the operating system, extended partitions and logical partitions are introduced, and the original partition type is referred to as the primary partition.

Extended Partition

It says that 4 partitions are clearly not enough to meet the requirements, but the physical hardware limit can only have 4 partitions what to do? So the operating system began to do, the name of one of the main partition is extended partition, remember just named Oh, in principle, extended partition and primary partition is the same, but the function is different. Now that you're done with the logical partition, you know what I'm talking about.

Logical Partitioning

4 partitions Certainly not enough, I want 20 partitions, how to do? Turn one of the main partitions into an extended partition, and then cut on this extended partition, turning into D, E, F, and so on, but these disks are integrated into an extended partition, which are linked to each other, and not like the main partition, where 4 of them are independent from each other. The logical partition is linked with a linked list, and if the partition information in the E drive is lost, the operating system cannot find the F drive.

boot partition

Very simple, the partition that holds the operating system file, for example you installed 2 system: Win7+linux then you are 2 boot partition. If you have windows, look at the Windows folder (system32 file) in that area, which is your boot partition, the default is C drive, you can also install F disk and so on. If you have Linux, you can see where the partition is installed, and which is the boot partition.

system Partition

The partition that holds the NTLDR program or the GRUB program, Windows is usually installed in the C drive, Linux usually loads the/boot partition

Active partition

Active partition is the primary partition, the active partition is the system partition, each time the PC starts, a hard disk can only have one active partition, if you want to start Windows to set the Windows system partition as the active partition, the computer will go there to load the boot program (NTLDR or GRUB) and execute, If you want to start Linux, set the Linux system partition as the active partition.

Did you see that?   Is my hard disk partition situation, my win7 installed in the C drive, that is my Windows folder on the C drive, so the C drive is the boot partition, but I put grub to Z disk, which is the boot program NTLDR. Boot. ini or something, so Z disk is the system partition ..... Since I am currently booting the Win7 system, the Win7 system partition is also the active partition.
You should know all the kids ' shoes, ~~~~~.

Main boot Sector

Let's talk about starting things.
Main boot sector: per hard disk, yes, each disk is not each partition, there is only one main boot sector, that is, the hard disk No. 0 cylinder, the first sector of the No. 0 head, the size of 512 bytes. The main boot sector contains the MBR (HDD master boot MBR accounts for 446bytes), DPT (partition table DP to 64bytes), MN (hard disk valid flag Magic Numbe for 2byte. AA and 55 are called Magic Numbers (magic number), Bois read the MBR always check that the last is not the two magic numbers, if not is considered to be a non-partitioned hard disk, these 3 areas are operating system-independent, on each hard disk is present; MBR is an executable program, Different code is written by each operating system. MBR is limited to 446 bytes of storage space, and the only thing MBR does is load the second boot loader. The MBR load generated by Windows generates an MBR mount run Pbr;grub run GRLDR
MBR: As mentioned above, it is a program with a length of 446 bytes, which is loaded bootloader.

Differences between the system partition and the boot partition

In peacetime operation, often have to contact the system partition and boot partition, many friends confuse them, in fact, this is two different concepts of the partition. For example, you simply copy all of the files in the C drive to your own C drive, although it includes Windows folders, but it does not start the system successfully. What is the reason? Which is the system partition and boot partition at mischief. Small series to help you straighten out a bit.

The system partition is a partition that guides the hardware-specific files required to load windows (such as NTLDR, boot. INI, Ntdetect.com), and the system partition can be, but not must be, the same as the boot partition, as explained in the Microsoft Parts Help documentation. The boot partition refers to the partition that contains the operating system and its supporting files. As you can see from Microsoft's explanation, this is a partition of two different definitions. In common understanding, the system partition is the partition that holds the various boot files (also called the boot partition), and the boot partition refers to the partition where the Windows directory is saved. For Windows 7 systems, for example, the partition that holds the Bootmgr file and boot directory is the system partition, and the boot partition is the partition where the Windows directory is saved. The relationship between the two can be clearly seen from the system startup flowchart.

Depending on the situation, it will be different.

It is possible (but not mandatory) in Microsoft documentation to indicate that there is a connection and a difference between the two.

Scenario 1: The system partition is the boot partition

For system users, the system partition is typically the boot partition because both the boot file and the Windows directory exist in the same location. For example, XP is installed on the C-system user, NTLDR, boot. ini, Ntdetect.com boot files, and Windows directories are all in the C drive, so the two partitions are consistent.

Scenario 2: System partition is not a boot partition

For C:windows xp+d:windows 7 dual system users, the system partition is not necessarily the boot partition at this time. For example, when you enter Windows 7 via the BOOTMGR Multi-boot menu, for Windows 7, the system partition is the C drive (because it contains the C:\bootmgr boot file and the C:\boot boot directory), and the boot partition is the D drive (because the partition holds the D:\ Windows system directory). When you open the Disk Management component after entering Windows 7, you can see very clearly the difference between the two, which is explained in the document but not the required instance interpretation.

For some brands or users who use the Windows 7 installation disc to install a new system, the hidden partition is responsible for saving the system boot file because there is a hidden partition before the computer's C drive, so the system partition is not the boot partition. Don't touch the system partition easily.

It is easy to deal with some common startup failures by clearly understanding the system partition and the connection and difference between the boot partitions. For example, for C:windows xp+d:windows 7 dual system users, if the C drive is formatted to reload XP, you will not be able to enter Windows 7. Because for Windows 7, formatting the C drive destroys its system partition, which naturally fails to boot successfully.

System partition assumes the system boot function, if the partition file is lost, it will gaocheng the system cannot boot. For example, for XP users, if the NTLDR boot file is lost, the NTLDR is missing (NTLDR file loss) prompt will appear. The general fix is to add a startup file, or to re-edit the startup configuration, such as a BCD file under Windows 7. The boot partition is the system core file, system initialization, core load, drive configuration, system service management are based on the existence of the partition file.

What is the difference between a system partition, a boot partition, a primary partition, and a logical partition?

The first two are for the operating system, mainly from the concept of functional division, the latter two are for the partition type of disk. The system partition has the boot function, generally is the active primary partition, the boot partition may be the primary partition or the logical partition (mainly see whether the partition holds the Windows directory).

Note: The above content is transferred from the network

Note

Windows original system ISO file map

Sources system files are in the inside, a very large folder

Autorun.inf is one of the more common files used in our computers, which allows you to automatically run a specified file when you double-click the disk

Bootmgr: Boot manager. Bootmgr is the boot manager abbreviation for the new boot manager that is used in Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8/8.1, and Windows 10 in place of the Windows NT series operating system (Windows XP, Windows 2003) in the Boot manager--ntldr.

My installation

It's me. When I use the Winntsetup system, the location of the installation disk is incorrectly selected as the E-drive, and after the system is installed, the disks E and C are merged into the same disk C, and the disk letter is reassigned as shown below:

The C disk is the original e-disk, and the E-disk is the original C-drive. \window directory on drive C, original Windows system in E-drive

Various areas of the hard drive concept