Recover/install Win7 on multiboot system- too many primary partitions?

I posted this on a Toshiba-specific forum too, but I'm thinking I'll get more responses here...

I have a few questions: (first background questions, and then I'll get to the heart of the issue)

First, on a new Toshiba laptop with factory installed Win7, there are 3 primary partitions - a 1.5GB "MBR-0", a ~10GB "recovery" partition, and the main installation partition. What is the 1.5GB one for, and what's on it? An MBR certainly doesn't need 1.5GB. Does Win7 create that, or is that something unique for Toshiba?

If I'm using a 3rd party boot-manager (BootitNG via an EMBR on its own partition), can I just wipe that 1.5GB partition? And, can the recovery installation be set up to create the Toshiba-Win7 recovery partition (and that 1.5GB one) as extended volumes within the Win7 primary partition, and not to make them as its own new primary partition? But would they function as extended volumes?


And now to the main problem: (the gist of it is, how many partitions will the Win7 recovery disks create? and can I customize it?)

I have a new toshiba c655 laptop that came with Win7 installed. I created the one-time recovery DVDs first thing (it made 4 of them - Disk 1,2,3, and "64-bit environment").

I then wanted to set up a multi-boot system between Win7, and 2 instances of XP (one of which is a fresh install, the other being an image backup off a computer that died). I want each OS on its own primary partition, where each only sees/knows of itself, and each is its own C: . Also, I'll have one small, 50MB primary partition for the boot-manager program.

Of course, a drive can only have 4 primary partitions (if working with standard tools like fdisk, etc). To get around that (if needed), my boot-manager program will support as many primary partitions as I want, provided I use only it alone to manage/create my partitions.

Skipping the background, here's what I have now: I wiped the hard drive, except for that 1.5GB MBR-0 partitition, for now, till I find what it is. (Since XP doesn't recognize Win7, using XP's install cd would overwrite the factory Win7 installation, so I installed XP first on its own primary partition - and it's working fine. Plus, I don't want to use the Windows boot menu anyway, just the boot manager's). I have the boot manager program on a second primary partition, and that 1.5GB partition exists too. I then created 2 more primary partitions - one to place the XP-drive-image into, and one to install Win7. So, the entire drive is now fully utilized and partitioned (5 primaries, via the boot manager).


But here's the problem...

starting with the boot manager program, I'm pointing to boot from the empty Win-7 partition, which will cue it to boot from the DVD, and go on about its installation business. So far so good. At this point, Win7 will only "see" the empty partition reserved for it. However, if Win7 tries to create an extra 1 or 2 new primary partitions (like how it came from the factory), my XP partitions would likely get overwritten.

Having 6-7 primary partitions wouldn't be a problem, as long as I create/manage them only with the boot manager - but in this case the Win7 installation would likely create them during installation instead. If I pre-create those partitions (the 1.5GB one, and the 10GB one) with the boot manager, can I point Win7 during the installation to utilize those? How?

One more side note: When I'm in XP now, XP only "sees" it's own partition, but still senses that there's more room on the drive - it just considers it all as unallocated space. I'm guessing Win7 would do the same thing? And if it does, I'm worried it would start sticking its own new partitions there into what it "sees" as "unallocated space", even though my other partitions are there.


If you made it through this longwinded mess, thanks for what help you can provide! How should I get Win7 on there, through the boot manager program, without damaging the existing partitions?

I'd really prefer to avoid virtualizing XP, since XP running alone on its own installation will run much faster and use far less memory resources than a virtualized version.

Otherwise, I get what you're saying there. And I will have a separate boot partition, but it'll be created/managed through 3rd party software, not through windows. (and so I shouldn't have a Windows boot menu appear in the first place - each OS will boot directly from the 3rd-party boot menu - which will set each partition as 'Active' when I select it). Hence, I shouldn't have to do a repair on that.

If I do your recommendation, and install each XP onto primary partition #2 and #3, and then install Win7 onto Primary #1 (which in theory should work fine), the question still remains... Would Win7's install process attempt to create additional, new primary partitions?

I think this is more of an issue for me because I only have the Toshiba factory reinstallation DVDs, which (I think?) would put Win7 on as Toshiba set it up - with 3 primary partitions. Can I direct it not to make those partitions?

I'm still not sure what that original 1.5GB partition from Win7 is, since XP just shows it as unallocated space, while my boot manager (which shows all partitions/volumes) calls it by default "MBR-entry-0".

I may well follow the tutorial i found here to create a universal Win7 installation disk, and try to utilize that if nothing else. Plus, I'm happy to avoid the extra Toshiba software and misc junk that came with the computer.

Would Windows 7's install process attempt to create additional, new primary partitions?

Only if you use Custom install>Drive Options to create the partitions yourself. Win7 creates no partitions, only asks you where you want to install it. Pre-partition to avoid having to use the Drive Options at all. Screenshots here: Clean Install Windows 7

I would read the Manual for your model on the Toshiba Support Downloads webpage to see what options it presents when you boot the Recovery DVD or partition. I would not assume that it gives you any options other than setting back to factory condition otherwise. If the Manual is unclear I would boot the DVD to see for myself what it offers, or run the Recovery partiition. Back up your files and a System Image even though you likely can bail out before executing any Recovery.

Yay! I finally got Win7 to work! The Toshiba recovery disks only give you the option of erasing all data on the drive and erasing/recreating/formatting the partition it wants to install on - but I figured out that as long as I pre-create a large enough ( >20GB) primary NTFS partition via the boot manager, and place it at the very front of the harddisk (shifting my other partitions further down), the Win7 recovery won't mess up the other partitions. Only the 1st primary partition gets rewritten this way.