What information is on the new partitians after install

SKUDRIVER · 21 Feb 2010

Kinda new to this.
What is on the OEM partitian that takes up 63MB?
And what is on the System Reserved partitian that uses 100MB?
Just curious, thank you.

Night Hawk · 21 Feb 2010

Hello SKUDRIVER Welcome to the Se7en Forums!

The small 63mb seen at the start of the drive sometimes even smaller is reserved for the Master Boot Record(mbr) and seen on just about drive. As part of partitioning any drive with a primary type partition that space will be reserved automatically.

For the 100mb section now reserved by the Windows 7 installer that contains the files and repair tools also seen on the 7 dvd's repair tools section there as well like the automatic startup repair tool making that available as an option when 7 is first starting to load at startup. When pressing the F8 boot menu key this will be seen along with the safe mode, safe mode with command prompt only, Last configuration that worked, and Start Windows normally options.

alphanumeric · 22 Feb 2010

Hmm, I don't have that OEM partition on either of my windows 7 PC's? My boot loader is in the 100mb System reserved partition. The System Reserved Partition is the windows 7 recovery environment. It's something like the windows 7 equivalent of the windows XP recovery console. My guess is that OEM partition is for launching the factory installed recovery utility that restores your PC back to the way it was when you opened the box. It kind of small though so it must prompt for disks or something. Like I said though, I'm just guessing.

Night Hawk · 22 Feb 2010

The factory recovery partitions typically start off at about 5-7gb or larger in size depending on how is included as far as branded softwares and 3rd apps tossed into the mix. Often that will even be seen at the back end of the drive rather then at the front.

With any drive however a small actually kilobytes not megs in size will contain the mbr itself while the boot loader is at the start of the primary. The prepackaged preinstalled OSs however will often be a bit different explaining the larger 63mb is size for that.

The one question here however to ask is whether this is being seen on a desktop or laptop?

alphanumeric · 23 Feb 2010

Its the size and position of that partition that confuses me. Like you said Night Hawk the recovery partition is usually a lot larger and the last partition on the drive not the first. I would think for performance reasons you would want it on the end of the platter not the beginning. I've seen XP reserve 8 megs of space for the option of creating dynamic disks and that is always at the end. Now I know the MBR is on the first sector of the drive. Its actually before the primary partition. Correct me if I'm wrong but it shouldn't show up as a partition in disk management right? Its not actually a partition its a pointer to the partition(s). If this OEM partition is never used or going to be used I think I get ride of it. If the boot loader is in there though windows won't load after you format it or delete it so caution is advised. More detective work is needed.

SKUDRIVER · 23 Feb 2010

Thanks for the responses. This is installed on a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. It came with XP. Since then I have ran W7 Beta, RC & now Ultimate. When I right click on that partitian I get just a Help option, not the full list. I took a snip of the descriptions. It doesn't show a file system associated with it. What does that mean?

Thanks again.

alphanumeric · 23 Feb 2010

I googled OEM Partition and got lots of hits on how to delete it but nothing really telling me what it was other than its something Dell and Leveno do. I don't know what it is or weather you need it. Maybe is has something to do with the Dell Media Direct thing. Thats supposed to work from a super hidden partition, that maybe isn't so super hidden under windows 7?

1Bowtie · 23 Feb 2010

I think it's what Dell calls Resource tools for Dell pc's only, they are helpful if ever needed. Like if you call Dell tech support they will access that partition

Night Hawk · 23 Feb 2010

Premade systems like Dell have their own reasons for reserving small chunks of drive space for their own wares. Not all preinstalls see the recovery at the end of the drive however. That was simply an example of what Toshiba does on their own laptops.

Dell is definitely a bit different with their stuff. I have a feeling 1Bowtie nailed that one good with the Dell resource tools or whatever else they originally placed on the drive. For strictly 7 at this time since any archived drivers still tucked away there are for XP would be looking up.

When you use the drive tools on the 7 dvd to partition and format as opposed to a 3rd party program even GParted the Windows installer will reserve the 100mb of drive space for the repair tools option seen at startup when you hit the F8 key. When using another 3rd party program you often won't see the 100mb taken up. But you simply end up with some additional drive space you can use for other things.

The MS drive tools of course always reserve 1-8mb front and back of the primary you create for the change to a Dynamic volume from Basic. But 99.99% of desktops and laptops as well will simply be found running a Basic volume as a rule. A 3rd party partitioning program can tighten that up if needed while minor.

As for the extra 63mb taken you can opt to use a 3rd party tool to remove that and simply move the 7 primary 63mb closer to the front of the drive by that much and then expand the C primary into the new space created(63mb again) at the rear of the drive once everything is moved. How large is the hard drive in it? about 60gb or so?

It won't hurt anything the way it is compared to the small gain of drive space you would see with the extra effort for that. At some point you buy a new larger drive or a new laptop even you will solve that entirely.