Operation Manual

System volume

This is the volume from which any of the installed Windows operating systems starts—even if more

than one is installed.

The system volume contains files that are necessary to start Windows, such as boot.ini and Ntldr.

There is always one system volume, whereas each of the installed Windows operating systems

usually stores its files on its own volume, called a boot volume.

Boot volume

This is the volume on which the files of a particular Windows operating system are stored.

A boot volume contains folders such as the Program Files folder and the Windows folder.

Note: The notions of system volume and boot volume apply only to Windows operating systems.

4.5 Dynamic volume types support

The table below lists the operating systems that support certain dynamic volume types.

Simple Spanned Striped Mirrored

Windows XP Home

- - - -

Windows XP Professional

Windows XP Professional x64

+ + + -

Windows Vista Home Basic

+ + + -

Windows Vista Home Premium

+ + + -

Windows Vista Business

+ + + -

Windows Vista Ultimate

Windows 7 Starter

+ + + -

Windows 7 Home Premium

+ + + -

Windows 7 Professional

+ + + +

Windows 7 Ultimate

+ + + +

4.6 Volu me align ment in disks wit h a 4-KB sector size

When a new volume is created, its beginning is aligned with the disk's physical sector boundaries.

It ensures that each file system allocation unit (cluster) on the volume starts and ends on the

boundaries of the disk's physical sectors. If the volume clusters are aligned with sectors, this volume

and all following volumes are also aligned. If clusters are not aligned with sectors, the volumes are

misaligned. Misalignment decreases the overall system performance and hardware lifetime.

When misalignment occurs

Volume misalignment occurs when you create a volume on a modern HDD or SSD drive that has a 4-

KB sector size using a Windows operating systems earlier than Vista.