I successfully installed W7_64 build 7100 and am really liking it; no issues so far. I'm just curious what's on that 100MB partition the installer creates? Also, Disk Management shows it as a 100MB NTFS partition but Windows Explorer doesn't see it. How can I see it? Can I delete it?
No. It's reserved and MUST remain. MS says so.
Actually, it can be avoided entirely by pre-partitioning and pre-formatting your drive. Deleting it is a very bad idea because the partition does not use the standard sector zoning format. When deleted with the partition tool (which does not support non-standard partition type) the Partition Table will be corrupted.
In other words, if you don't want it there, don't let Win7 do it for you and it won't be created. If it is there, leave it alone.
It contains bootable files to boot your computer in recovery mode. I'm sure you could delete it but that ability would be lost.
Hope this helps. :)
Hello michaeld,
Welcome to Seven Forums.
It contains boot files and recovery info. If you delete it you will no longer be able to boot you computer. If you want to see what's in there you need to go to Disk Management and give it a letter. It will then appear in explorer. This is for Vista, but it's the same if needed: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/11...ge-remove.html
Hope this helps.
Gary
As far as I can see, it's not essential. if you install from a DVD/Image on to a clean disk, it will create a 100mb partition for you. This will contain all the boot folder and associated files.
If you pre-partition your disk the the installation will install everything into you boot partition (usually C:\...)
Thanks very much, everyone. I had no idea I could skip the creation of the partition entirely just by preformatting the drive. It's no biggie though...100MB is nothing these days..."a floppy disk", if you will.
I appreciate the detailed replies; this forum has a calm, professional demeanor about it.
michaeld, 100 may be nothing, but using 1/4th of your primary partitions on this nonesense...
cancelling install and going into gparted to pre-partition. thanks for the info
This small partition contains the boot manager (file "bootmgr" and folder "/boot/") and these files are missing on the Windows 7 partition.
It is possible to delete this small partition. I boot with Linux, delete the partition and merge the free space to the Windows 7 partition. After this Windows 7 will not boot. But I boot from Windows 7 installation DVD and do a system repair. This installs the boot manager IN the Windows 7 partition and after this Windows 7 boots fine.
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