Is it OK to recover 100MB System Reserved partition?

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  1. Posts : 238
    Win7-64
       #1

    Is it OK to recover 100MB System Reserved partition?


    I did a standard Win7-64 installation on a 128GB SSD and have no problems. My question is, can I merge the 100MB System Reserved partition that the Win7 Installer creates into my normal boot partition. Right now that 100MB is just wasted space and I'd like to get it back into use.

    I have MiniTool Partition Wizard and this screen shot shows my current configuration.

    Is it OK to recover 100MB System Reserved partition?-capture.jpg

    My concern is that my system won't boot if I merge the 2 partitions because the new partition starting place will be different from where it is now, and I'm not clear on what to do about Boot Manager or how to get it to point to the proper place.

    I do have the MiniTool boot CD and I have verified that this works OK, but I can't find any info on whether or not trouble will happen if I merge the 2 partitions on my boot drive.

    What is that "System Reserved" partition supposed to be used for anyway?
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  2. Posts : 3,724
    Windows 10x64 Build 1709
       #2
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  3. Posts : 238
    Win7-64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Very interesting. But the last post on that thread points to this:

    Hack to Remove 100 MB System Reserved Partition When Installing Windows 7 « My Digital Life

    which suggests you really can do without that partition. So I think my question still stands - will my system boot if I empty the 100MB partition and merge it with my current boot partition?
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  4. Posts : 13,576
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #4

    I do it all the time. Use Partition Wizard to create your partition and MARK IT ACTIVE. Windows will not create the SR partition. If you don`t need it, it`s a waste of a primary partition. IMO.

    Once you mark the partition active you will have to run startup repair with your windows install dvd to write the boot files to your windows partition, it usually only takes 1 time.

    Startup Repair

    System Recovery Options

    In your case you already have your partitions, so just mark the windows partition active with PW, merge the 2 and reboot and run startup repair.

    With just a 119 GB hard drive you really have nothing to gain here, but it`s a good lesson to learn for future installs, so the SR partition isn`t made in the 1st place. 6 of this 12 of that :)
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  5. Posts : 10,455
    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Service Pack 1
       #5

    We even have a tutorial for it. System Reserved Partition - Delete
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  6. Posts : 238
    Win7-64
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Thanks. After a bit of Googling I found this:


    1) Open a command prompt with administrator privileges (right click => run as administrator)

    Type:

    bcdboot c:\windows /s c:

    You should get a message similar to:

    Boot files successfully created.

    2) Open the Disk Management GUI (you could use diskpart for scripts), locate the C:\ partition right-click and select “Mark Partition as Active”, select yes to the “do you want to continue message”

    3) Reboot to confirm that everything is ok.

    4) In Disk Management you can now delete the 100Mb System Reserved partition by right clicking on it and selecting “Delete volume”

    Optional

    5) To re-claim the 100Mb you can use a partitioning tool such as partition magic or gparted

    My boot partition is already marked as Active; in fact, it is the only partition in my system that is Active. So it looks like all I have to do is run the

    bcdboot c:\windows /s c:

    command. Perhaps that will remove the Active spec from my boot partition; if it does I know how to use Disk Manager to put it back.

    Do you think I'll still have to run a Startup Repair?
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  7. Posts : 13,576
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #7

    Probly not, if you`re into command line, go for it. You won`t know til you try.
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  8. Posts : 89
    Windows 7 x64 Home Premium
       #8

    I noticed that I have that 100mb partition on my drive but I don't see what the big deal about it when it's only 1/10 of a gig. If you delete it and make your partition active for the boot files, won't they use the same amount of space?
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  9. Posts : 10,455
    Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Service Pack 1
       #9

    It's not the waste of space that is the problem. It is usually the limit of 4 primary partitions.
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  10. Posts : 2,464
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       #10

    Wrenches said:
    I noticed that I have that 100mb partition on my drive but I don't see what the big deal about it when it's only 1/10 of a gig. If you delete it and make your partition active for the boot files, won't they use the same amount of space?
    Not really, if you look at that partition's contents, it's mostly empty with the actual boot files using up a tiny part of it, so you'll actually gain space, simplify backups and repairs on the disk and not waste an entry in the partition table. The only real use for it is BitLocker and Disk encryption, because both of them were horribly implemented to require this thing.
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