Windows 7: System Reserved HD?

I noticed after installing Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) that my second hard drive does not appear in My Computer and when I check it in Disk Management I see the following:





I've read on the Web that you can't format this "system reserved" disc, so I'm wondering how can I use this HD normally and assign it it's own drive letter? Or do I have to leave it like it is?

Thanks.

Any number of third party disk apps (Like parigon disk suite) can assgn a drive letter and allow you to use it. The 100Mb partition isnt doing you any harm so I would leave it alone

Ken

Not sure that I understand the question completely but I see about 232gb on Disk 0 as unallocated space. You need to right click on it, then select format. You can assign a letter to it during that process.

Ken, thanks for the reply. So if I right click on the drive in Disk Management, choose "Change Drive Letter and Paths", then "Add", I can assign it a drive letter and it will appear in My Computer and be usable?

Just want to make sure.

Bill, thanks for the reply. I've been reading that you shouldn't format the "system reserved" HD because then that will erase what's on the disc. Most of what I've read says about the same thing, "The 100MB partition is a system partition and contains boot files. Disk Manager will not allow you to remove this partition because removing this partition could cause the system to not boot."

Desktop,

You need to format the UNALLOCATED SPACE, not the system reserved partition.

I think you are confusing between drives and partitions. The SYSTEM RESERVED is a partition on one of your drives that stores windows boot files. Leave it alone. Formatting the unallocated space will enable you to create a partition there, assign it a a letter and use it normally. It will have no effect on SYSTEM RESERVED.

Yep, you should not erase or use this System Reserved Partition, as it is used for GPT and/or (U)EFI -- machine internals, don't bother about them (or Wikipedia them).

Being a quite small partition, I believe you will not suffer by losing this disk space.

Now, back on your original question, yes, your missing disk is that "Unallocated space" as mentioned above by Bill2. Just create a file system on it, assign a drive letter and you should be ready. Also worth a mention: In case you had any data on that disk, I'm afraid it may now be gone. There is no file system, thus there are no files.

Hope you was installing a clean machine...

When I right click in the Window that says "Unallocated" the only option I get is "New Simple Volume". Is that the one I need to choose?

Yes. Just follow the default onscreen instructions. Heres a tutorial to walk you throgh.

Partition or Volume - Create New

Please take a look at this Tutorial Partition or Volume - Create New