Windows 7: 100Mb Reserved partition reduced in size by backup software

Hi,

I restored Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit version) on my PC and I used Easeus Todo Backup v4.0.0.2. to do this. I restored the hidden reserved partition and also the Windows partition (my C: drive). However, the restoration altered the size of both of these partitions. It has reduced the reserved partition from 100 Mb to 99.7 Mb and I'm guessing it must have increased the C: partition and used the 0.3Mb reduced from the hidden partition (I can't remember the original size of my C: partition)?

Will the reduction in size of the reserved partition from 100Mb to 99.7Mb have any implications? Does anyone know why this should happen and should I use a partition manager to put it back to 100Mb?

Thanks.

No need to worry.

Go to Disk Management and see how much of the 99.7 Mb is used.

Probably about 30 Mb.

Thanks, Bumpkin. At the moment, its used 24MB. So Windows 7 doesn't actually expect to see a size of 100MB for the reserved partition? I'm just paranoid that it'll stop working one day!

It's really annoying that what I thought would be a simple restore has resulted in me worrying that all may not be right! I was wondering if its got something to do with sector size?

Like they say "don't sweat the small stuff"!

Congratulations on having a image to restore! So many people on this forum could solve their problems if they had made backup images.

I had been using Easus Todo for images, but switched to Macrium because I felt it was more user friendly.

Thanks, Bumpkin I actually back up my system using Paragon and Easeus just because I've not needed to restore my system before and wanted a backup of my backup just in case one of them didn't work!

I might have a look at Macrium. I did use Paragon to restore my system but when I looked at the Windows update history, they were not listed for some reason (however, the installed updates screen did show updates were installed - I was confused with the inconsistency!). I then used Easeus which changed my partition size but did show my Windows update history correctly.

Seems like Macrium and Easeus are the top two free favored programs.

I started using Paragon but had trouble with the bootable restore CD. Also had problems with the Macrium linux restore CD, but then downloaded the WinPE Macrium restore that whs has prepared. There is a link on this site for the download.

It's good to have a second image if you ever have problems restoring.

A less well known program for imaging is Image4DOS from Terabyte and is one of the best. You can download a trial version, which is fully functional, for testing from the following site;

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/index.htm

It's not free, but worth the purchase price, IMHO.

Does your System Reserved have a drive letter? I would remove it so no program can write to it as intended.

Drive Letter - Add, Change, or Remove in Windows 7 - Windows 7 Forums

Yes, glad I had the second image especially as I never restored from either before so couldn't tell if they would be any good. Think I'll try Macrium over Image4DOS as its free and from what I've discovered now, is quite popular (thanks for mentioning it anyway Sir George).

My System Reserved doesn't have a drive letter assign within Windows 7 but as I dual boot with XP, I've given it a letter in XP. Didn't occur to me that this may be a bad idea