System partition and boot partition are computing terms for disk partitions of a hard disk drive that must exist and be properly configured for a system to operate correctly. There are two different definitions for these terms: Microsoft definition (used by Windows) and the common definition used by every other operating system.
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Common definition
In context of every operating system, save those developed by Microsoft Corporation, system partition and boot partition are defined as follows:
/boot/. Despite Microsoft's radically different definition (see below), System Information, a utility app included in Windows NT family of operating systems refers to it as "boot device"./ (the root directory).In Linux, a single partition can be both a boot and a system partition if both /boot/ and root directory are in the same partition.
Microsoft definition
Since Windows NT 3.1 (the first version of Windows NT), Microsoft has defined the terms as follows:
%systemroot% in Windows NT.A single partition may be both a system and a boot partition. In case they are separate, however, the boot partition does not contain the boot software and the system partition does not have the system root.
Before Windows 7, the system and boot partitions were, by default, the same and were given the identifier "C:". After Windows 7, however, Windows Setup creates, by default, a separate system partition that is not given an identifier and therefore is hidden. The boot partition is still given "C:" as its identifier. This configuration is suitable for running BitLocker, which requires a separate, unencrypted system partition for booting.