Windows 7 Hack to Remove 100 MB System Reserved Partition When Installing Windows 7

[reghakr]

I have never had one of these "reserved partitions, because I have always formatted first.

For those of you who haven't here's how to take care of it.

On a fresh (custom) installation of Windows 7, where Windows 7 is installed onto a new hard disk with unallocated disk space (no partition or volume been defined yet), or when user attempts to create a new partition out of empty drive, the Windows 7 installer will create an additional partition with the size of 100.00 MB, and mark as System Reserved.

The 100MB volume is labeled as System Reserved with NTFS file system, and System, Active, Primary partition attribute with no drive letter in Disk Management. The 100MB system reserved partition is only available for Windows 7 Ultimate, Windows 7 Business and Windows 7 Enterprise editions. The 100 MB system partition is used primarily as BitLocker partition for BitLocker encryption. Additionally, it also holds the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) and boot files with boot manager for booting up the computer for troubleshooting when there is no Windows 7 installation DVD disc on hand.

The Windows 7 created 100 MB partition is not the main boot partition or boot drive, but serve only as a backup. The following files and folders are the initial content of the partition (names in [] brackets indicate it’s a folder or directory), before BitLocker is enabled and in use.

Source:Link Removed

 

[Tepid]

Why would you want to remove it? I don't get it. It's only 100M.
I suppose if you are dual booting there may be a reason there,,, but in general, for single OS installation, I don't see the point in removing it.

 

[SIW2]

1.

it also holds the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE)

How can WinRe fit in a 100mb partition?

2.

100 MB partition is not the main boot partition or boot drive, but serve only as a backup

It is not a boot partition - it is the system partition - it contains the files needed to boot windows.

3.

the 100 MB partition can be removed subsequently and easily in Disk Management

Afaik Disk Management will not allow it to be deleted.

4.

but serve only as a backup

If deleted with a 3rd party app. - windows will not boot.

 

[unawave]

The Windows 7 created 100 MB partition is not the main boot partition or boot drive

See attached screen shot from "Linux Live CD" and "GParted". This shows that the 100 MB partition IS the main boot partition or boot drive.

If deleted with a 3rd party app. - windows will not boot.

Correct. But you can recreate the necessary boot sequence with first party application - with Windows 7 installation DVD.

 

[chong67]

I try to do Method 3 doing the Extend and it didnt work for me.

I am using W7 RTM.

 

[Tepid]

I still don't understand the point to doing this.

I guess my point is, just because it can be done, doesn't mean it should be done.

 

[SIW2]

Hi Unawave,

Good to see you again.


Perhaps I did not make the earlier post clear.

The point is that article seems to me to contain a number of inaccuracies.

Indeed you should be able to repair with the 7 dvd - however, the article says it is a backup - it isn't.

It might be the boot partition in Linux - it is not the boot partition in Windows. It is the system partition. The Boot partition in Windows is the one you are currently booted into.

Since the article is about Windows 7 - that is an error which is especially confusing to Newbies.

If you have more than one o/s installed - look in Disk Management and it should be obvious that is the case.

Here is the definition:

Link Removed

WinRe is on the root of the drive in a hidden folder called Recovery. Mine is 163mb - how will that fit into the 100mb system partition as the article suggests ?

Link Removed

Perhaps something got lost in the translation.

 

[reghakr]

I do understand some of your points, especially because the partition is so small.

The article does seem to be full of holes and I tried to contact My Digital Life with no success.

However, since I have always deleted and reformatted the C:\partition directly through the command line before installing a newer builds, the recovery files are placed in a directory called C:\recovery. (eg. Winre.win) As I stated previously I was able to access the recovery options even though I did not have this 100MB partition.

I have no use for Bitlocker whatsoever, so that doesn't bother me at all.

I all boils down to me being a clean freak and I just can't seem to change.

I will investigate further before posting such articles, especially from My Digital life as I have seen others that are not absolutely correct.

 

[SIW2]

Hi Reghkr,

You did the right thing posting the article - so we could all see and discuss it.

I don't use bitlocker either, and avoid the 100mb partition.

I just added WinRe to my boot menu for a bit if fun. It means I can get to system recovery options without having the 7 dvd/recovery cd to hand - however, it only works if bootmr is functioning of course.

 

[chong67]

Did you all get it work?

See my post #5. What did I do wrong?

 

[unawave]

It might be the boot partition in Linux - it is not the boot partition in Windows. It is the system partition. The Boot partition in Windows is the one you are currently booted into.

Here is the definition:
Definitions for system volume and boot volume

OK - but this definition is from Microsoft:

• The "system partition" is the partition where the boot files resides (boot manager "bootmgr" and folder "boot" with boot menu file "BCD") - but do not call it "boot partititon"
• The "boot partition" is the partition where the operating system resides - but do not call it "system partition"

And I use it like this:

• The "boot partition" is the partition where the boot files resides (boot manager "bootmgr" and folder "boot" with boot menu file "BCD") - and therefore I call it "boot partititon"
• The "system partition" is the partition where the operating system resides - and therefore I call it "system partition"

WinRe is on the root of the drive in a hidden folder called Recovery. Mine is 163mb - how will that fit into the 100mb system partition as the article suggests ?

Correct. And if you use "bcdedit /enum all" you can see it:

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------------
identifier....{identifier}
device........ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\[identifier]\Winre.wim...
path..........\windows\system32\winload.exe
description...Windows Recovery Environment
inherit.......{bootloadersettings}
osdevice......ramdisk=[C:]\Recovery\[identifier]\Winre.wim...
systemroot....\windows
nx............OptIn
winpe.........Yes

And with:
bcdedit /displayorder {identifier} /addlast
you can add "Windows Recovery Environment" to the boot menu.

 

[adduncan]

Also, when i came to remove Windows 7 to go back to Vista, i had to format the hard drive. In the format screen (with windows installation), it showed this 100MB partition as drive C:

But in Windows Explorer it doesnt show at all