Single-user

A system which is used

by a single person,

Multi-user
A multi user system can
be used by many persons

The entire information of The hard disk contents

the hard disk only used by can be used by many
only one person.
persons at the same time.
A single user system is
like a standalone PC.

Single-user OS is that OS
which support only one
user at a time. for
example: DOS,
WINDOWS 3X,
WINDOWS 95/97/98 etc.

A multiuser system is
several PCs or terminals
networked to a server or a
mainframe.
Multi-user OS is that
which support more than
one users at the same
time. Linux is a Multiuser
operating system

Read more:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Differentiate_between_a_single_user_system_and_multi_user
_system#ixzz1jXXTP5WQ

A multi-user operating system Time-sharing system can be classified

as multi-user systems as they. Single-user operating systems, as
opposed to a multi-user operating system, are Being able to have
multiple accounts on a Windows operating system does not make it
a multi-user system. Rather, only the network administrator is the
real user. But for a Unix-like operating system, it is possible for two
users to login at a time and this capability of the OS makes it a multiuser operating system.