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<concept id="GUID-629AB2C9-BEDD-5166-8B09-F8DFF7527C03" xml:lang="en"><title>The
System Drive</title><shortdesc>This topic describes the properties and its uses of system drive</shortdesc><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>
<p>Symbian platform allows a drive on a device to be marked as the system
drive. The system drive is set up during device startup and cannot subsequently
be changed. It has the following properties: </p>
<ul>
<li id="GUID-F0C2D00C-C7B6-5784-9834-02AC3ED7647A"><p>it is both readable
and writable. </p> </li>
<li id="GUID-13E4ECB2-E432-5741-BDB7-CA1413CF1F93"><p>it is always available,
cannot be removed from the device, and is secure. </p> </li>
<li id="GUID-74F7015E-1937-5199-978D-C21960E1F429"><p>it is non-volatile,
which means that the drive is located on media such as flash memory or battery-backed
RAM. </p> </li>
</ul>
<p>Typically, the system drive is used: </p>
<ul>
<li id="GUID-DA8E500E-F940-56BA-A506-D9D69D9F231A"><p>for storing persistent
settings for system and application software. </p> </li>
<li id="GUID-2EC9B640-BE97-5DA3-A222-37A7DF553B2E"><p>for storing localisation
resources. </p> </li>
<li id="GUID-0FCD75EF-9D0A-520C-BD96-8E03372CF52B"><p>as a default drive for
user data. </p> </li>
<li id="GUID-E77D6A04-4CCE-5EA1-99B7-2F399985A82F"><p>as a target drive for
installing software. </p> </li>
</ul>
<section id="GUID-0544A0FC-6CDC-57A1-9750-9445DC7CD521"><title>Getting the
system drive</title> <p>The system drive is identified by its drive letter.
Use the function <xref href="GUID-E263C747-946F-35AA-9F1D-41833BD350FC.dita#GUID-E263C747-946F-35AA-9F1D-41833BD350FC/GUID-4DBDB23D-A64D-3428-8D6B-1941CB457CB6"><apiname>RFs::GetSystemDriveChar()</apiname></xref> to find the
system drive letter. </p> <p>If you also need to know the drive number, then
you can use the function <xref href="GUID-E263C747-946F-35AA-9F1D-41833BD350FC.dita#GUID-E263C747-946F-35AA-9F1D-41833BD350FC/GUID-E3FADD47-C66B-3E79-827A-DEE36EE79B0E"><apiname>RFs::GetSystemDrive()</apiname></xref> to find
this. However, getting the drive letter is the most common requirement. </p> <p>[Note
that in versions of Symbian platform before 9.2, the system drive number was
fetched using the function <codeph>BaflUtils::GetSystemDrive()</codeph>. This
function is now <i>deprecated</i> and should <i>not</i> be used.] </p> </section>
</conbody></concept>