What is the role of each partition of the Win8 system?

With the large number of pre-installed Win8 computers coming to market, the UEFI+GPT standard portfolio has received a wider range of attention. UEFI+GPT is undoubtedly the future development trend, so we need to first understand the role of some special partitions in the disk used to boot the GPT partition structure of Windows.

Using the Windows Installer to Create Partitions by Default

When we install Windows 8/7 in GPT and use the Windows Installer to repartition the hard disk, the defaults shown in the table below will be created. Several partitions.

Partition Size Type File System

Recovery Partition (WinRE) 300MB Primary Partition NTFS

EFI System Partition 100MB EFI FAT32

MSR Reserved Partition 128MB MSR< Br>

Windows installation partition user specified size primary partition NTFS

Let's briefly talk about the role of these partitions:

The first recovery partition is the partition that holds the WinRE image, this Partitions are created by default only when Windows 8 is installed. WinRE is the abbreviation of Windows Recovery Environment, which includes system restore point restore, system image recovery (this function will be removed in Windows 8.1 according to the current situation), system refresh, system reset and other functions. . It also automatically fails over to WinRE when the Windows 8 system fails to boot properly.

In Windows 7, WinRE and Windows installation partitions are in the same partition and are not taken out separately. In Win8, Microsoft separates the WinRE and Windows installation partitions by default. The purpose should be to ensure the reliability of WinRE to the greatest extent. When installing Windows 8 on the MBR hard disk, you will find that the size of the system reserved partition is expanded from 100MB in Win7 to 350MB. This extra space is used to save the WinRE image.

The second partition is the partition that holds the system boot files, which is the partition necessary to implement UEFI boot.

The third MSR partition, which is Microsoft's reserved partition, is not yet clear about its specific role. It is known that converting a basic disk to a dynamic disk is the partition that will work.

The fourth is the target partition we choose to install the system. Its actual capacity = the capacity you specify - the capacity of the first few partitions.

If only the normal startup of the system is considered, then the EFI system partition (second) and the Windows installation partition (fourth partition) are required.

Pre-installed Windows 8 brand machine default partition (take Lenovo model as an example)

In the pre-installed Win8 brand machine, you will also see the partitions shown in the above table. However, the size may vary and you may also see other hidden partitions. The following table shows the default partitioning of a model pre-installed Win8 computer.

Partition Size Type File System

Recovery Partition (WinRE) 1000MB Primary Partition NTFS

EFI System Partition 260MB EFI Fat32

MSR Reserved Partition 128MB MSR< Br>

OEM partition 1000MB

Windows installation partition user specified size primary partition NTFS

Recovery partition (system backup) 20000MB

Compare partitions in the first table In the case, the extra partition in the second table is used for one-click recovery of the brand machine. The OEM partition is used to store the one-click recovery tool, while the larger recovery partition is used to store the system backup image.

The above is a brief explanation of the role of some special partitions on the disk used to boot the GPT partition structure of Windows. Next, GPT, UEFI, and UEFI+GPT boot will be explained in more detail.