Differences between volume and partition(from wiki)

Differences between volume and partition

A volume is not the same thing as a partition. For example, a floppy disk might be accessible as a volume, even though it does not contain a partition, as floppy disks cannot be partitioned with most modern computer hardware. Also, an OS can recognize a partition without recognizing any volume associated with it, as when the OS cannot interpret the filesystem stored there. This situation occurs, for example, when Windows NT-based OSes encounter disks with non-Microsoft OS partitions, such as the ext3 filesystem commonly used with Linux. Another example occurs in the Intel world with the "Extended Partition". While these are partitions, they cannot contain a filesystem directly. Instead, "logical drives" (aka volumes) must be created within them. This is also the case with NetWare volumes residing inside of a single partition. In short, volumes exist at the logical OS level, and partitions exist at the physical, media specific level. Some times there is a one-to-one correspondence, but it is not guaranteed to be true.

It isn't uncommon to see a volume packed into a single file. Examples include ISO9660 disc images (CD/DVD images, commonly called "ISOs"), and installer volumes for Mac OS X (DMGs). As these volumes are files which reside within another volume, they certainly aren't partitions.

[edit]Example

This example concerns a Windows XP system with two physical hard disks. The first hard disk has two partitions, the second has only one. The first partition of the first hard disk contains the operating system. Mount points have been left at defaults.

Physical DiskPartitionFilesystemDrive LetterHard Disk 1Partition 1NTFSC:Partition 2FAT32D:Hard Disk 2Partition 1FAT32E:

In this example,

• "C:", "D:", and "E:" are volumes.
• Hard Disk 1 and Hard Disk 2 are physical disks.
• Any of these can be called a "drive".