Windows 7: Where's my 100MB System Reserved partition?

I'm running XP Home SP3 and Windows 7 Pro 32 bit in a dual-boot setup. I use Macrium Reflect to image the entire boot drive.

Looking at the graphic for Disk Management in both XP and Windows 7 (shown), I don't see the 100MB System Reserved partition, even though the numbers add up as shown. Shouldn't that 100MB partition be visible? Where would it be located? Between the two main partitions D: and C: ?

If the drive was already partitoned when you installed Windows 7, it will not create a Reserved partiton.
It will put the boot data, etc. on the first partition it sees.

Yes it was already partitioned, via Partition Magic 7.

Hm. Very interesting. Thank you.

Hi ovenmaster,

As pbcopter says, it will only create a System Reserved partition on an unpartitioned drive.

Through past experiences (and headaches) it's no big loss. While it can be handy to have the boot files on a separate drive it can cause problems. It can get filled up and cause errors when trying to create a System Image. I had to extend mine to 300mb to get around the issue. Why Microsoft made it 100mb I'll never understand. It was 200mb in the Windows 7 Beta and they should have kept it at that size.

As long as you have a System Repair Disc or Install Disc then you won't really need it.