Ken Blake, MVP wrote:

> On Thu, 29 May 2008 08:06:57 +0100, "Gerry" <gerry@nospam.com> wrote:
>
>
>>A windows partition is also called the system partition.
>>It contains the operating system.
>
>
>
> Gerry, read here:
> http://support.microsoft.com/default...;EN-US;q100525
>
> Microsoft's nomenclature is very strange. Although one expect the
> System Partition to be the one Windows is installed on, Microsoft
> calls that the "Boot Partition." The System Partition "refers to the
> disk volume containing hardware specific files needed to boot Windows
> (NTLDR, BOOT.INI, and so on). On Intel x86-based machines, it must be
> a primary partition that has been marked active. On x86 machines, this
> is always drive 0, the drive the system BIOS searches during system
> boot for the operating system."
>
> It sounds backwards to me, but that's the way it is.

Think of the old MS-DOS SYS command and the logic of using the term
"System partition" becomes a bit clearer.

John