100 MB Partition

gregrocker, I only wanted to let you know that I am one of those people who refuses to have the 100MB partition. I have had three different win 7 machines with the System Reserved that caused me all kinds of grief. For some reason, the system reserved would fill up and therefore I could not do a system image or backup in control panel.

Microsoft has known that it has been a problem for numerous people but has not done anything to correct it. According to MSFT, you have to have a minimum of 40MB free space in sys res. in order to do a backup through control panel. They told me that control panel uses sys res to build a temp folder to store info for the sys image. when it gets a certain amt, it then transfers it to your backup location. but, if you do not have the 40MB backup will fail by telling you there is not sufficient space in your backup location! The correct reason is there is not sufficient space in the system reserve. I have never had a problem without the 100 MB partition. I will not deny that the sys res. has its advantages, but the disadvantages it causes me, far outweighs them.

I am not an MVP or anything close, but I have investigated this issue to the end, and am very familiar with what is happening. I know many who like it and want it and that is fine for them, just not for me.

FWIW, I am only angry with microsoft. They have known of this problem for over two years that I know of. It should be very simple for them to solve. But, they have made no attempt to try a fix. To an average person like me, the price they charge for the OS and their finicky rules about how many machines I can put it on ( for something I Bought) and them not fixing a problem that they are aware of, is inexcusable. Just my opinion.

I am not a friend of the 100MB partition. But I think they have a reason to go down this route. They are preparing for EFI (an Intel developed standard to replace the BIOS). Extensible Firmware Interface - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

gregrocker, I can personally assure you that Microsoft is aware of the issue, as I have made such an issue with it I kept getting pushed up the ladder. They are quite aware of the issue and have done nothing to correct it. Mine did not have a letter. I can tell you my personal opinion on this issue. For some reason, by talking with others with the same pronlem one name kept popping up. Acronis. Acronis uses control panel( in fact takes over CP) for their backups. There are a few other image programs that use the 100MB partition to do their job. I think those are the culprit. I also believe from discussions that some AV programs do similar things. I guess that is their job, but it causes issues. The part I don't understand is I have helped people(with some of your tutorials here) to increase the size of the partition to as much as 350MB ( according to Microsoft I think 380 is the max). Whatever program was in there just grew with the increased size and you still could not do a system image.

Just yesterday here a Dual Boot couldn't be established using SysReserved. Unlettered SysReserved was almost full so I had OP enlarge his 100mb to 200mb and it was able to update the boot files.

A while ago it was at 200MBs. I wonder why the reduced the size.