Active Partition vs. System Partition vs. Boot Partition...?

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Hello all, I'm just going through the unit about the Initial Startup process, and the information on the above partitions is confusing me!

Is anyone able to give me the differences between the three partitions and what they are used for during the initial startup process in as simple terms as possible please? There appears to be some overlap with what each one does according to my source.

Many thanks in advance!

 

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System & Boot
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boot_partition

Active
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_partition

Qs

 

So am I right in thinking that;

- The MBR looks up the partition table.
- The partition table determines where the active partition is. (The partition that holds the files for starting the desired O/S)
- That same active partition is also called the system partition.
- The active/system partition then looks up the boot partition to boot the O/S? (As the boot partition holds the main [XP in this instance] O/S files.

Yes? No? Kind of? HELP!

 

Sort of. You could have the system files on a partition which is not set active. Just copying the system files to a partition/disk doesn't mean that the computer will start the boot process from that partition or disk.

But if the partition or disk contains the system files AND is set active, then the computer assumes that it has an OS to boot. From there, the system files will orient the rest of the boot process to the boot files (i.e. the primary Windows files in your case seen in the windows directory).

 

The MBR contains the Partition Table.

Pretty much. The Partition Table contains 'descriptions' of the partitions that are contained on the hard-disk. There's only enough room in the table for four primary partitions (the rest are logical).

Yeah, under Win 2000/XP terminology.

A heavily surmised guide

1. BIOS identifies hard-drive and proceeds to look for boot info (MBR)
2. MBR locates active partition
3. Boot sector loaded into memory
4. A program in the boot sector locates the OS's kernel loader program (or boot manager program) and loads it into memory. In XP terms the kernel loader is referred to as NTLDR
5. OS loading time

Qs

 

I think between the two of you I've finally got it. Thanks guys, very helpful and prompt!

Ameel