Tip of the Day: Partition IDs

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Today’s tip…

A shift exists in the way Microsoft is marking its partitions. Previously, a partition would have an ID in the partition table that denoted what file system type would be stored in it. For example 06 for FAT and 07 for NTFS. 

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We are moving away from that. While older file system IDs will not be changing, as we introduce new file systems, they will all be using the same partition ID, 07. This began with Windows Vista (exFAT) and has become more pronounced with Windows Server 2012 since we included a new file system (ReFS).

Moving forward, the 07 partition ID will be used for the following file systems.

  • NTFS
  • exFAT
  • ReFS

NOTE: This only applies to MBR style partitioning.