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Lesson 12 System Partition

Lesson on System Partition
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
8 views

Lesson 12 System Partition

Lesson on System Partition
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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WELCOME TO

TLE - ICT CLASS


TOPIC:

System Partition
A system partition stores files that are used
to boot (start) the computer. These are used
whenever a computer is powered on (cold
boot) or restarted from within the operating
system (warm boot). A boot partition is a
volume of the computer that contains the
system files used to start the operating
system. Once the boot files on the system
partition have been accessed and have
started the computer, the system files on the
boot partition are accessed to start the
operating system. The system partition is
where the operating system is installed. The
system and boot partitions can exist as
separate partitions on the same computer, or
on separate volumes.
The partition types must match the
firmware of the computer. You can
install OS on hard drives that are
based on any of the following types of
firmware:

Basic Input/Output System (BIOS).


Uses the Master Boot Record (MBR)
partition structure.
Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI)
(Class 1): Uses the GUID Partition
Table (GPT) partition structure.
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
(UEFI) Class 2: Uses the GPT partition
structure. Also includes a
compatibility support module (CSM)
that enables you to use BIOS
functions, including the MBR partition
structure. This module can be enabled
or disabled in the firmware.
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
(UEFI) Class 3: Uses the GPT partition
structure.
A primary partition is a partition on
which you can install an operating
system. A primary partition with an
operating system installed on it is
used when the computer starts to load
the OS. Although a primary partition
can exist without an operating
system, on older Windows and DOS
operating systems, the first partition
installed had to be a primary
partition. Modern versions of Windows
allow up to four primary, or three
primary and one extended partition
(which we'll discuss next) on a single
An extended partition is a partition
that can be divided into additional
logical drives. Unlike a primary
partition, you don't need to assign it a
drive letter and install a file system.
Instead, you can use the operating
system to create an additional number
of logical drives within the extended
partition. Each logical drive has its
own drive letter and appears as a
separate drive. Your only limitations
to how many logical drives you create
are the amount of free space available
on the extended partition and the
NOTE:

Don't get too confused about the


purposes of the boot and system
partitions. The names are self-
explanatory if you reverse their actual
purposes. Remember that the system
partition is used to store boot files,
and the boot partition is used to store
system files (that is, the operating
system). On many machines, both of
these are on the same volume of the
computer.
Boot Sectors and the Master Boot Record
Although many sectors may exist on an
HDD, the first sector (sector 0) on a hard
disk is always the boot sector. This sector
contains codes that the computer uses to
start the machine. The boot sector is also
referred to as the Master Boot Record
(MBR). The MBR contains a partition table,
which stores information on which primary
partitions have be created on the hard
disk so that it can then use this
information to start the machine. By using
the partition table in the MBR, the
computer can understand how the hard
disk is organized before actually starting
the operating system that will interact
with it. Once it determines how partitions
NTFS Partition Boot Sector

One of the many file systems we'll


discuss later in this chapter is NTFS,
which is used on many computers
running Windows. Because NTFS uses
a Master File Table (MFT) that's used
to store important information about
the file system, information on the
location of the MFT and MFT mirror
file is stored in the boot sector. To
prevent this information from being
lost, a duplicate of the boot sector is
stored at the disk's logical center,
allowing it to be recovered if the
Note

At times, you'll hear about boot


viruses that infect your computer
when it's started, which is why users
have been warned never to leave a
floppy disk or other media in a
bootable drive when starting a
machine. Because the MBR briefly has
control of the computer when it
starts, a boot virus will attempt to
infect the boot sector to infect the
machine immediately after it's
started, and before any antivirus (AV)
software is started.
THANK YOU!
REMEMBER: Respect, Obey is the key to
success!

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