The system hive contains system settings that do not pertain to any one user. The OEM selects the system hive file name and ___location. The system hive file is typically named System.hv, but the ___location may vary.
By default, the system and user hives are separated into two locations. When the system boots, it reads the ROM-based version of the hives. Any change to the registry data is written to the hive that exists in the file system. On a cold boot, the portion of the registry that is stored in a file system is essential empty until a write operation occurs.
If access to the ROM is slow for the read-only data, the .hv files can be compressed in the FILES section so that they are demand paged into RAM when used.
See Also
User Profile Hives | Using the Hive-Based Registry | Troubleshooting the Hive-Based Registry | Persisting Data with the Hive-Based Registry | Hive-Based Registry Data
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