The introduction of Windows 8 makes the UEFI+GPT standard combination more popular. UEFI+GPT, a new system startup method, will be the mainstream technology of the future. Therefore, we need to know more about UEFI+GPT. Today, Xiaobian introduces the role of some special partitions in the disk used to boot Win8's GPT partition structure.
When we install Windows 8 in GPT and use the Windows installer to repartition the hard disk, these partitions will be created by default: recovery partition, EFI system partition, MSR reserved partition, Windows installation partition.
Let's briefly talk about the role of these partitions:
The first recovery partition is the partition that holds the WinRE image. This partition is 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, 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)
The pre-installed Win8 brand machine will also see the partitions shown in the above table, but its size may be It's different, and you may also see other hidden partitions. This is the default partition of a Lenovo model pre-installed Win8 computer: recovery partition (WinRE), EFI system partition, MSR reserved partition, OEM partition, Windows installation partition, recovery partition (system backup).
Compared with the normal installation situation, the extra partition in the pre-installed system 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.
It can be seen that the disk partition structure brought by the brand machine pre-installed Win8 and the ordinary installation Win8 is not the same, but it is also similar. The above is a simple explanation of the role of some special partitions in the disk used to boot Win8 GPT partition structure, I hope to be helpful to everyone.