92 Copyright © Acronis, Inc., 2000-2010
If only one Windows operating system is installed on your machine, the system volume is usually the
same as the boot volume (p. 82).
If more than one Windows operating system is installed on your machine, each of these operating
systems normally has its own boot volume, whereas there is still only one system volume.
In terms of volume type, the system volume can be a primary volume on a basic disk, or a simple
volume on a dynamic disk.
See also boot volume (p. 82).
T
Track
Any one of the concentric circles to which a hard disk (p. 87) is divided.
Information from one track can be accessed without moving the magnetic head.
U
Unallocated space
Space on a disk that is available for creating a new volume or a part of it, or for extending an existing
volume.
Not to be confused with free space (p. 86) on a volume.
V
Volume
An independent area of storage on a hard disk (p. 87).
Typically, a volume contains a file system (p. 86), which is used to store files and folders.
A disk can store more than one volume. Some volumes, such as spanned volumes (p. 90), can reside
on more than one disk.
Volume label
An optional name that can be assigned to a volume (p. 92) to simplify its identification by the user.
The length of a volume label depends on the volume’s file system (p. 86). For example, the NTFS file
system allows volume labels of up to 32 characters.
Some file systems, such as FAT16 and FAT32, do not allow certain characters in a volume label—for
example, a colon (:) or a quotation mark (").
Volume letter
A letter, such as C, that a Windows operating system assigns to a volume to locate files and folders
that are stored on it.
