A 200mb Partition Is Created?

[Chuts]

Anyone else noticed that the installation of Win 7, both 6801 and 6956, creates a 200mb partiton which Disk Management lists as Simple, Basic, NTFS, Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)? And in my case 168mb is free. What is this used for?

 

[iroken22]

None of my 4 Windows 7 Computers on either 6801 or 6956 have done such a thing. All of my computers are dual booted into 6801 and 6956. I have never seen a 200 mb or any other partition that windows made. Did you make some kind of recovery partition or another? Did you use upgrade during the installation process?

 

[Chuts]

Hmm ... that's odd ... they were clean installs. I'll have to try it again.

 

[Radenight]

None of my 3 computers did that either.. I have a 500GB in one, a 160GB in one and 320GB in the 3rd and none of them created a 200MB partition after installing Windows 7 build 6801 or 6956... that's a weird one ya got there...

 

[Chuts]

Well, I can't figure out what is going on here with that 200mb partition. I installed 7 build 6956 again - use it to nuke what was on the drive, it made the entire drive "Unallocated" as expected. Then when I clicked the "New" link, the 200mb partition was instantly created with the message that Windows may need to put System files in it.
On previous installs, instead of clicking the "New" link I just let Win 7 install itself in the "Unallocated" space. At the end of the installation I checked and saw the 200mb partition.
It's too small to lose any sleep over it.

I couldn't upgrade from WinXP either - when I clicked the Upgrade link the next window came up with the heading Compatibility and a blank box. Nothing showed in the box and the only clickable button was one called "Close". Maybe the Upgrade will be enabled in the true Beta.

 

[iroken22]

Correct the upgrade will not be available until the beta of windows version 7. Unfortunately i have no idea why the 200mb hard disc partition is being created. Is it possible you did not allocate all the unallocated space to the drive and that the other partition is the extra space?

 

[Chuts]

I'm sure that all of the drive was listed in the one Unallocated piece. When I clicked the "New" link (after all the space was showing as unallocated), a momentary popup said something to the effect "windows may need to create a seperate partition for system files" and right after that I saw the 200mb partition along with the rest of the drive as another partition, listed in the window. Maybe windows 7 is getting too smart and does stuff it thinks is necessary depending on the system it is being installed on - going more Mac-like perhaps. I like to be in some semblance of control which is why I don't use a Mac.

 

[dgacorp]

I see this partition if I use "Macrium Reflect" to make an image of the Windows 7 HD created in VirtualBox. There is also this partition, but I think A) it can be related with the setup that installed Windows 7 (it make a copy of some necessary files into this partition before it starts); B) it is related to the "Windows 7 setup rollback" option in the boot menu during Windows 7 installation; C) it can be some unallocated space, that I see only in virtual hdd, in my phisical disks this partition doesn't exist.

 

[HomeMediaJoe]

My system created one too, but if i remember right it said it would be used for system files. when I installed it was clean, blank drive and new partitions. I am using build 7000.

 

[martylavender]

It has to do with GPT partitions. Its a protective partition. Mac OSX does this as well.

 

[hata28]

My system created too a 200mb hidden partition drive, i am using build 7000.

 

[crazy_cjenkins]

If I'm not mistaken I think It does that to store file system information on and Is not unique to windows seven however it is odd that they are all the same size mine too has a 200mb partition. It may be a glitch in the windows installer creating a 200mb partition every time. What size it your hard drive? Mine Is a 1TB with dual boot windows 7 and Ubuntu 8.10.

 

[dgacorp]

Probably files and folders in this partition are created restoring the BOOT.WIM image from Win7 installation disk (\sources folder). The image is written into this partition during the initial setup, when the program displays "Setup is copying necessary files...", before you see the EULA and start the installation sequence.
I think it because I opened BOOT.WIM and INSTALL.WIM content using ImageX to see why are changed with this build so that Win7 7000 cannot be installed on my RAID drive, while 6956 and 6801 build can be.

 

[hata28]

Mine is the
HITACHI Deskstar P7K500 HDP725050GLA360 (0A35415) 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive


Just got it about 2 weeks ago.
Before I installed Windows 7 I had Vista x64 on the Primary partition and 2 other logical partition. As usual when I got into the installation option I'll do a format first, After the format was done, I noticed the drive became System and error msg unable to install.
Well my mobo was set to ACHI which I suspected it need the required drivers but it's don't required on Vista. I tried to use the boot cd of Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0.2160 to reformat the C drive again, same thing it can't install. So I had to delete all the partitions and thus Windows 7 installation created a 200 Mb System Hiddened Drive and a Primary C drive.
Finally, Windows 7 x64 was installed successfully. And Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0.2160 was unable to create partitions at all. Eventually I had to use the Hiren's Boot CD V9.7 built in Acronis Disk Director V. 9 xx to create 2 more logical drives

 

[dgacorp]

How to Avoid 200MB Hidden System Partition From Been Created During Windows 7 Installation » My Digital Life

 

[crazy_cjenkins]

^ Well you learn something everyday, I guess It's kind of a useful feature, I'd rather it be put in the file system but I guess that would be defeating the purpose. Oh well whats 200mb out of a terabyte!