Windows 7 "System Reserved" Partition

Discussion in 'other software & services' started by TheKid7, Aug 11, 2012.

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  1. TheKid7

    TheKid7 Registered Member

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    A few days ago I helped someone install Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit on a 500 GB Western Digital SATA300 hard drive.

    At the time, I did not think to disconnect his backup Seagate 160 GB EIDE hard drive prior to the installation of Windows 7. I selected for Windows 7 to be installed on the Primary Partition (~160 GB) of the 500 GB Western Digital hard drive. Windows 7 took over the first Partition of the Seagate hard drive and used it for the Windows 7 "System Reserved" Partition. Luckily he had his data backed up.

    Yesterday I had him disconnect the power to the Seagate hard drive and he re-installed Windows 7 on the Primary Partition of the Western Digital hard drive. I told him to leave the Seagate hard drive disconnected until next week when I plan to have him reconnect it and deleted the Windows 7 "System Reserved" Partition using GParted on a Live CD. Then I will make a new Partition and format it. After than he can copy his backed up data to the newly created data partition.

    Has anyone every ran into the problem of Windows 7 taking over a partition on a different hard drive? In a Google search I see many references to people having this happen to them.

    His motherboard's BIOS shows the EIDE hard drive as HD0 and the SATA hard drive is HD1. I am not sure if this helped to contribute to this problem.

    Thanks in Advance.
     
  2. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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  3. SirDrexl

    SirDrexl Registered Member

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    I haven't ran into this either, but ever since XP I've always let Windows install to unallocated space, so that it creates the partition as it installs, rather than creating the partition ahead of time in some utility. That way, whatever parameters it may need will get set properly, and for Windows 7 if it's a SSD it will align the partitions.

    If I need a smaller partition, I specify the size in Setup and leave the rest of the drive unallocated, then create the remaining partition(s) after the installation has finished.
     
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