I bought a new computer where Win7 is already pre-installed on partition C:
In addition I want now to install a second "test" Win7 system on a NEW primary partition.
AND a logical "data" partition.
At startup I want to choose later between the 2 Win7 systems which one I want to boot.
When I inspect now the current partition table (before changing it) it looks like:
1.) "Recovery" 10 GB Primary MBR NTFS
2.) "System Reserved" 100 MB Primary NTFS, Active, System
3.) "Local Volume" 30 GB Primary MBR NTFS Boot
4.) unallocated
As you can I have a problem: If I create a new, 4 th primary, bootable partition with 30 GB into the "unallocated" space
then all maximum 4 primary partitions are filled.
I can NOT create a 5 th primary partition which contains the logical "data" partition.
So I guess I must either destroy "Recovery" or "System Reserved" primary partition to have one more primary partition slot available.
Now what for are the "Recovery" and the "System reserved" partition ?
I don't know them from WinXP. Are they Win7 specific?
Or are they "inventions" from the computer manufacturer (Sony)?
Is "Recovery" absolutely necessary?
Why is "System Reserved" active? From I WinXP I know only paritions as active which hold the OS and not some kind of "pre-boot-partitions"
Thank you
Peter