OEM hidden partition questions

In this case you really only wanted to drag the C drive from its source drive to the target drive using Macrium imaging app. Once there a link will open underneath which when clicked will let you rearrange the borders to resize the partition.

More complicated is reimaging to different hardware, which sometimes requires to Adjust Win7 to boot on new hardware with Paragon Adaptive Restore CD.

If you want to keep what you have then you can delete the small EISA Tools OEM partition following the same steps as here: Delete and Remove to Unlock EISA Hidden Recovery or Diagnostic Partition.

It's really too small to bother but you can still have a go at this cool tool which can transfer space between partitions, even if they're not adjacent: How to extend partition easily with Partition Wizard - video help.

gregrocker said:

In this case you really only wanted to drag the C drive from its source drive to the target drive using Macrium imaging app. Once there a link will open underneath which when clicked will let you rearrange the borders to resize the partition.

More complicated is reimaging to different hardware, which sometimes requires to Adjust Win7 to boot on new hardware with Paragon Adaptive Restore CD.

If you want to keep what you have then you can delete the small EISA Tools OEM partition following the same steps as here: Delete and Remove to Unlock EISA Hidden Recovery or Diagnostic Partition.

It's really too small to bother but you can still have a go at this cool tool which can transfer space between partitions, even if they're not adjacent: How to extend partition easily with Partition Wizard - video help.

I will try your suggestions. I think I need to retain that OEM partition in my image because there are some quirks on the restored laptop even though it boots up. Currently the restored laptop does not have that OEM partition. So I think the question is how can I preserve that partition in the image?

What is your exact make and model PC?

That OEM partition should not affect how Win7 performs. Why exactly do you think it does? But you can leave it.

You should explain your issues so we can help you resolve them since we deal with thousands of these cases here and are intimately familar with each OEM configuration having helped over 1.3 million consumers do a Clean Reinstall Factory OEM Windows 7.

Issues may likely be due to the change in hardware so needs to have those kinks worked out. How was it adjusted exactly to the new hardware? Did you see it change out almost every driver in the System tray? Did you Enable hardware auto-updating via Windows Update (Steps 3 and 6) to Check for Updates and install all Important and Optional Updates?

As I understand it, you made an image of a partition on a hard drive in machine A and then restored that image to machine B--different hardware. Is that correct?

I'd expect it to have "quirks", regardless of whether or not that OEM partition was included.

I'd assume the OEM partition on machine A was deliberately not included in whatever image you made--which accounts for why it does not appear on the restored hard drive.

So called "verification" doesn't mean a lot in my experience. It doesn't mean that you will necessarily be able to restore successfully without issues.

You can look at the contents of the OEM partition on the original PC by unhiding System and Hidden files in Control Panel>File Options>View.

With Dells that should be the bootable Diagnostics via F12. It would be highly unusual if they copied and are functional now on new hardware since it requires reviving the hotlink with a reagent command.

If it is Windows Help and Search that is not now working, run SFC /SCANNOW Command. The only way that OEM utility partition could affect those is if it was some odd Dell unit that had Dell software loaded that aided Help and Search which I've never seen before.

You will have a considerably better install if you do a Clean Reinstall Windows 7 as the factory install on any OEM is the worst possible install of Win7, and those who suffer under one will never even experience native Win7 performance until you do.

mjf said:

This is not a good approach to verifying an image. I think your original laptop has a OEM:SLP (System Locked Pre-installation) license product key. This is a one machine license for the PC it was originally installed on.
When you restored the system image from the original PC you restored the original MBR which includes the partition table for the original PC. This means you get the original partition structure including the OEM partition but it will be unallocated.

After seeing your response I went ahead & removed the harddrive from computer B & put it in A. I restored the image & it booted up immediately & all WINDOWS utilities seem intact. Now I have a cloned harddrive along with my system image.

So I should have done that in the first place. I surmise by your statement on the OEM:SLP I would have had problems even if computer B was an identical model to computer A?

You would only need to reactivate at Computer>Properties with a retail Product Key, which will reset activation in MS Activation Servers by overwriting the old hardware signature with a new one. You can move retail Win7 anywhere you want.

As Michael said, you cannot do that with OEM even though some have reported that it was allowed.

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