System Reserved HD?

desktop · 18 May 2010

That worked great! Thanks for the help everyone :)

myzr7 · 18 May 2010

Desktop, Thanks for replying back and for reporting problem solved. That is great stuff. Welcome to SevenForums. Hope you enjoy your stay here. Lots of Windows 7 how to's here.
Windows 7 - Tutorial Index

gregrocker · 18 May 2010

You will not be able to remove DISK0 HD from your computer and still boot Win7.

If want to recover the System MBR into Win7 so that DISK0 can be removed or SysReserved partition can otherwise be deleted, the procedure is to mark Win7 partition active, remove DISK0 or mark System Reserved partition Inactive, swap HD cables or set Win7 first HD to boot in BIOS setup (after DVD), then boot Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD, click through to Recovery Tools to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to write the System MBR to Win7 partition.

DeaconFrost · 18 May 2010

I'm not sure why you would want to assign a drive letter, or access a 100 MB partition that is set aside for boot and diagnostic info. It is there for a reason, and should be left alone. It is only 100 MB, it isn't robbing you of very much hard drive space, and isn't even entered into mind except when going into Disk Management.

The best tweaking advice for Windows 7 also applies to this: Leave it alone.

gregrocker · 18 May 2010

Users should have the choice if they want a boot partition placed on another HD which doesn't even contain Win7, or have such a partition put on their system at all.

In the past year, we have learned enough about the SysReserved partition that we have confidently helped many who don't want it to remove and recover its functions into Win7.

The standard to decide if you want SysReserved partition is if you have Bitlocker, want the Repair console (WinRE) placed on the Advanced Boot Tools menu accessed by tapping F8 at bootup, or have a Dual Boot and want to have boot files separated from the Win7 partition so that another OS will continue to boot if Win7 becomes disabled.

Others may have their opinions and are encouraged to share them since this is where it needs to be hashed out.

whs · 18 May 2010

DeaconFrost said:

I'm not sure why you would want to assign a drive letter, or access a 100 MB partition that is set aside for boot and diagnostic info. It is there for a reason, and should be left alone. It is only 100 MB, it isn't robbing you of very much hard drive space, and isn't even entered into mind except when going into Disk Management.

The best tweaking advice for Windows 7 also applies to this: Leave it alone.

I think Greg is right. He is explaining how to correct a somewhat unusual setup. If you have the OS and the MBR spread over 2 physical disks, that can lead to all kinds of unexpected situations.
I am not sure though whether our new friend will be able to do that switch at this point in time. But it is certainly a very useful guidance once he has accustomed himself with the OS.

profdlp · 18 May 2010

Having the System Reserved partition on a second physical drive doubles your chances of having a non-booting computer due to HDD failure. I think whs's advice about moving it once the user feels comfortable doing so (and is sure he knows what he's doing!

) is sound. :)

desktop · 19 May 2010

Thanks for the great replies everyone. Greg's advice sounds interesting - "In the past year, we have learned enough about the SysReserved partition that we have confidently helped many who don't want it to remove and recover its functions into Windows 7."

I'm not sure how to do that, but if someone could explain to me how in detail I might feel confident enough to try it. If, that is, you all feel it is something I "should" do.

All I wanted was for the drive to actually show up in My Computer so I could access it to store stuff on. My second HD was mainly purchased to be used as a scratch disc for Photoshop, but now that I have Win7 and Adobe CS3 it doesn't seem to need a scratch disc anymore. The option is still there in the preferences of the program, but I'm not getting a nag screen anymore about having PS and the OS on the same disc.

Thanks again for all your helpful replies.

whs · 19 May 2010

All I wanted was for the drive to actually show up in My Computer so I could access it to store stuff on.

I think you are still living with a misunderstanding. Physical Drives do not show up in computer unless there are formatted partitions on it that have an assigned letter. There was earlier advice on how to define a partition in this huge free space on the drive. If you do that, you will see it in Computer.

gregrocker · 19 May 2010

desktop said:

I'm not sure how to do that, but if someone could explain to me how in detail I might feel confident enough to try it. If, that is, you all feel it is something I "should" do.

Posted previously here:

gregrocker said:

You will not be able to remove DISK0 HD from your computer and still boot Win7.

If want to recover the System MBR into Win7 so that DISK0 can be removed or SysReserved partition can otherwise be deleted, the procedure is to mark Win7 partition active, remove DISK0 or mark System Reserved partition Inactive, swap HD cables or set Win7 first HD to boot in BIOS setup (after DVD), then boot Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD, click through to Recovery Tools to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to write the System MBR to Win7 partition.

When you are ready to do this, post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map as it exists then and we will give you more exact steps.

The data partition you created on DISK0 should show up in Computer if you followed this tutorial and it was assigned a drive letter:
Partition or Volume - Create New