Windows 7 installer and "system reserved" partition

Discussion in 'hardware' started by Creer, May 21, 2009.

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  1. Creer

    Creer Registered Member

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    Hi,

    finally i got my brand new HD - All capacity my new disk is 640GB (596,17GB).
    During installation process Windows 7 I created the new partition for system equal 100GB. After that i got additional (hide) partition with 100MB capacity.

    Did i smth wrong? Or maybe it is everything OK?
    Please look at the screen:
    partition.png
     
  2. Kerodo

    Kerodo Registered Member

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    No, that's normal. I have that one also. No worries..... :)
     
  3. Creer

    Creer Registered Member

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    Thank you very much for clarification, i have one more question...
    In BIOS should i change IDE Controller to AHCI Controller? What are the main differences?

    Thanks.
     
  4. TairikuOkami

    TairikuOkami Registered Member

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  5. rdsu

    rdsu Registered Member

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    And what is that "System Reserved" partition for?
     
  6. Creer

    Creer Registered Member

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    Thanks,

    i have found test and comparison table with disk works on IDE Controller and second one (the same disk) works on AHCI Controller, and i don't see any significiant results :ninja:
    http://www.abchw.com/content/seagate-barracuda-7200.11-ide-vs-ahci-%26amp;-baracuda-es.2

    I have heard that even if i have installed OS in IDE it is possible to download from MB website drivers for AHCI and it should works. :doubt:

    About additional 100MB partition i found this:
    http://www.shivaranjan.com/2009/05/...ystem-reserved-partition-during-installation/

     
  7. rdsu

    rdsu Registered Member

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    Thanks Creer ;)

    I would prefer to have that partition at the end of disk...
     
  8. TairikuOkami

    TairikuOkami Registered Member

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    I forgot to add, that AHCI can results in improved performance, though it might not, but it will increase CPU usage, with some chips/drivers even to 20-30%. o_O
     
  9. Creer

    Creer Registered Member

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    You're welcome.

    I believe there are some reasons why this partition is exactly at the beggining of the disk not at the end.
     
  10. Creer

    Creer Registered Member

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    Ok thanks again I decide that i will stay with IDE Controller so far - if it ain't broke, don't fix it :)

    Btw, my HD Tach result on new disk:
     

    Attached Files:

  11. Creer

    Creer Registered Member

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    I have one more question about System Reserved partition.
    How can i get there during boot? I mean this partition should replace normal DVD Windows 7 with repair mode, but during boot i press F8 and i see only menu list from which disk i'd like to boot my system. Any ideas how to get access to menu where i will have options to restore my system from image or just use rollback option?
     
  12. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I wondered about that. When I get my systems from Velocity micro there is no such partition. But they install the OS from scripts. When I do a clean XP install there is indeed a small partition. Apparently MS does that so if you change the disk to dynamic disks that needs to be there.

    I got rid of it when I did an image and restore. Before restoring, I told SP to delete not the partition, but the volume. Then when I restored, I didn't create an exact partition from the image, but a new partition using all the free space.

    No issues as I don't use dynamic disks.

    Pete
     
  13. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    Try to press F-12 (the boot option enabler) and see if you get a diagnostic option on the list. Selecting that will boot you into the reserved partition, if it is a diagnostic partition.

    If you have SATA hard disk it is recommended to use AHCI controller instead of IDE. It improves you hard disk performance.

    I have no idea why you have a system reserved partition. Maybe it has something to do with windows 7 and as I have never installed it I can not comment on it. I normally partition my hard disks using a partition manager first and then install windows. I am sure doing this way you will not have this system reserved partition.
     
  14. Creer

    Creer Registered Member

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    Well, unfortunatelly F12 don't work for me :(
    I have no idea how to get to boot option which (i suppose) is installed on my 100MB System Reserved partition.

    I did little investigation in this case and i found that on special System Reserved Partition are files which should start boot mode smth like what you get from DVD with Windows installer, but how activate this still i don't know o_O

    Details about C partition with system installed:
    c_partition.PNG


    Details about System Reserved partition:
    system_reserved.PNG

    Any thoughts?
     
  15. Raza0007

    Raza0007 Registered Member

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    ^ F-12 has to do with BIOS. Perhaps your BIOS does not support F-12 or maybe it has a different key for this purpose. On my system if I press F-12 during start up, the system shows me various boot options like CD/DVD drive, hard drive, USB drive etc. I can choose which device to boot into. On that list I had a diagnostic option from Dell and if I chose that it booted into a 80 MB partition created by Dell on my system. I have since then formatted my hard drive and removed this partition.

    I do not think it is the windows recovery partition, as that option uses windows PE and even on XP it should be a little more than 100 MB. In Vista the vista PE is about 200 MB. It must be the same size for windows 7.

    I would recommend that you image your current OS partition and save if to an different hard disk, then reformat your OS hard disk, removing all partitions. Then restore your OS from the image and update MBR to make the new partition bootable. This is one way to remove this 100 MB recovery partition. If you ever need to use the recovery option you can always boot through the windows 7 DVD. The recovery option is on there.

    I hope this helps.
     
  16. Creer

    Creer Registered Member

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    Thanks for reply,

    in my system when i press F8 i see boot options, but there is no separate drive with System reserved partition, I see only my main HD and DVD so i don't know how it should work. I still remember when i used Rollback - it was clearly enough, any time you will be able to easy rollback your system during boot. Here i have to put in my DVD drive Windows 7 installer and then 'repair system' it is too complicated i think.

    I really would like to see how this hide System Reserved partition works in practice :ninja: :ninja: On the TechNet forums i have read about this and i found information that this special prartition is reserved mainly for BitLocker datas and some boot information :doubt:

    On the other hand - 100MB it's not too much for me - in fact it is only 0.1% capacity of my C: drive, so if it really gives me any benefits then i will leave this alone.
     
  17. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

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    MY hard drive doesnt have a 100mb system reserved partition. currently using Vista.
    When I installed windows 7 I got the 100mb system reserved partition.
    im more annoyed about the amount of space vista and windows 7 takes up tbh.
     
  18. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    lodore,

    If you install Windows7 to a dedicated partition you don't get that "system reserved" partition. Out of interest I installed Windows7 to an 8 GB partition. It leaves just under 2 GB of Free Space.
     
  19. lodore

    lodore Registered Member

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    Hey Brian,
    I formatted my C: (system) 50gb partition and installed windows 7 to it and im sure it created the 100mb system reserved partition.
    i still have the image of it so may restore it when i feel like testing windows 7 again.
     
  20. Creer

    Creer Registered Member

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    I can confirm that. In fact when i was installing Windows 7 first time on my 'old' hard disk Seagate 40GB with separate C: partition equal ~11.6GB, then installer didn't create 100MB System Reserved partition.

    But when i have installed Windows 7 on brand new HD with unalocated space, then installer has created extra 100MB partition.
     
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