Windows 7: 200 Meg hidden System partition

Hello all - new to 7 forums. I might have this post in the wrong place

With a default install of Windows 7, it creates a non-lettered 200Meg "system" partition with about 30 Meg of data.
I have been digging around for an explanation as to its purpose but found no clear explanation. Some say it's for bit locker, but then say that it would need to be at least 1 GIg. Some suggest that it's a way to guarantee an amount of free space for updates and backups (VSS needs a place to place snapshots). Some say it's the actual boot partition. Windows 7 starts the bootstrap here then moves the C: drive to load the rest of the OS.



If anybody has a clear explanation as to what it's for, I'd like to know.
Thanks
NickDanger

It's the boot partition.

Hi Nick, and welcome to the Seven forums

As smarty said it's the Boot partition but it's only created if you install to a completely fresh HDD if existing partitions are present then the install follows the form of earlier OS versions, and creates the boot file on an existing partition

Sorry, my post seemed kind of abrupt. It first appeared in build 6801. Odd that it wasn't assigned a drive letter, as 6801 automatically assigned it as D:\

It looks like later builds might be hiding it

Yes, it is normally hidden with no drive letter now. It was that way starting with 6936 I do believe.

If you look in Windows Disk Management you should see it listed as the System partition - this is MS speak for what everyone else calls the boot partition.

I believe it's a safety feature to keep it separate from the partitions your operating systems are on - what MS calls boot partitions.

Think the idea is if you hose any of your o/s partitions, you should still be able to boot up any other Windows o/s as the System partition is undamaged. You should also be able to make an image of it to restore in case of disaster.

Don't recommend trying a registry defrag if you have a separate System partition - you may get BCD issues.

Hope it helps

SIW2

Hello SIW2.

I'll bet this will throw a lot of people for a loop.

Thanks!


Later Ted

Thanks for the heads up SIW2,

As a side note it's good to see M$ thinking of the many users that, for whatever reason, decide to multi-boot operating systems,

A separate "boot" or "system" partition makes so much sense to cover the "OH dear!" situations that all Multi-boot scenarios sometimes cause.

I know it's been an option in Grub for a while now

Hopefully this system will be included in the RTM and later builds of Windows 7 and that they document it properly and perhaps even allow you to set-up this way when an existing partition structure already exists.

I do have a suspicion that this may well stop after the beta builds as M$ will assume that Multi-Boot is not a requirement with anything other than a Beta OS.


As for the use of registry defraggers or cleaners I personally would not advise they are ever used on a Beta operating system. This type of program, tend to be a bit too enthusiastic with what they consider dead links - often deciding that if it is not "normal" then it's not required. with a Beta OS containing many entries that were not "normal" when the Registry program was written it is , in my opinion, asking for trouble

There will surely be folks who want to know if they can delete that partition to recover the space. Probably some that will just delete the space and then....

Gary

Yeah Gary, I can hear them now; but it's taking up a whole 200MB of space ...



















Later Ted