I decided to reinstall Windows, but on the step "Choose a Physical Location to Install Windows On" I appeared to doubt which partition to choose. There were System Reserved partition and partition where Windows resides (where Program Files, Windows and other directories are located).
So it made me think, which partition is active. But there's this Microsoft's alternative terminology. What do they even mean by these terms?
Borrowing from nonsensical101's answer:
The System volume (also known as the "Active volume") is where the boot manager (BOOTMGR) is located, which is where control goes after BIOS. The boot manager is responsible for loading the operating system.
The Boot volume (also known as the "OS volume") is where the Operating System is stored. In your case Win7.
I know. The naming is ridiculous. You use the System volume to boot and your Operating System is on your boot volume. The naming is often confused, even within Microsoft documentation.
Term "Active volume" coincide in the meaning with term "Active partition", taken from MBR terminology.
