reserved partition...help

nuverian · 15 Jan 2010

Hey,
I had win7 on a hard drive but things went realy wrong and I decided to make a clean install on my seccond drive..
So i boot up on my dvd select the new drive, create a new partition and install away.
Now I want to format my first drive but ...... the system reserved partition is still there and it seems that even my new clean install need that very partition from the OTHER drive.

.Thats insane isn't it?

What shall I do??

Thanks

-edit
Also at boot I see both the previus windows 7 and the new one..I dont want that. I just want a pure clean install in my new drive

surfasb · 15 Jan 2010

The reserve partition contains your boot files. If you want the bootfiles in the same partition as your OS, you need to delete the OS partition during Setup and extend the system partition(reserve) to fill the whole drive. To delete the previous entry, you can either use Setup's repair install tool or manually do it through the recovery console.

Saltgrass · 15 Jan 2010

Possibly another solution. Make the new install partition active, only one per drive is allowed. Then put that drive first in the Bios disk priority, boot to the Win 7 DVD and do a startup repair. It will probably take 2 maybe 3 runs of the repair to make the drive bootable.

Boot files are always placed on the active partition on the primary hard drive, which is why your second install boot files were placed in the System Reserve partition on the first drive. By the way, you can always assign a drive letter to the unlettered system reserve partition.

gregrocker · 15 Jan 2010

Since you want to format your old HD, delete the 100mb System reserved partition then recover the MBR into your new Win7 installation.

First boot the Win7 DVD, select Repair My Computer, then click through to recovery tools, open a Command line and type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (for disk you want to format)
CLEAN
EXIT

To mark the new Win7 installation active so you can write the MBR to its partition instead, again boot into Win7 DVD Repair console, open a Command Line and type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (for Win7 disk)
LIST PARTITION
SELECT PARTITION # (for Win7 partition)
ACTIVE
EXIT.

Now boot the Win7 DVD, select Repair, click through to Startup Repair and run up to 3 separate times with reboot to write MBR to new Win7 installation.

surfasb · 15 Jan 2010

gregrocker said:

The easiest way to avoid the 100mb System Reserved partition is to pre-partition the HD.

To delete a 100mb sys reserved partition which will not delete in Disk Mgmt due to being a System partition, boot into Win7 DVD Repair console, open a Command Line and type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (for which one you want to delete)
CLEAN
EXIT

To prepartition a drive so 100mb is not offered, open a DVD Command Line and type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (for Windows 7 disk)
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
assign letter=c:
active
format
exit

Keep in mind that the reserve partition normally contains critical bootfiles. So best not to delete it unless you know what you are doing.

ignatzatsonic · 15 Jan 2010

Surfasb:

I don't understand your comment.

Suppose someone issues the commands posted by Greg to delete the partition:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (for which one you want to delete)
CLEAN
EXIT

What is the result if they know what they are doing?

How does that result differ from the result if they don't know what they are doing?

Saltgrass · 15 Jan 2010

Greg's instructions wiped the entire drive, not just the selected partition.

The fact the OP said there were major problems with the original install and a new install had been accomplished seems to be important to me.

ignatzatsonic · 15 Jan 2010

Yeah; you would need to insert list partition and select partition in there after select disk.

The gist of my question remains:

Does it remove the "system reserved" partition or doesn't it?

What are the negative consequences assuming you have a valid install disc?

Saltgrass · 15 Jan 2010

Your question is irrelevant, a new install has been accomplished. The post by surfasb was probably to illustrate removing the System Reserve partition would make the install unbootable.

We really need to focus on the OP............

gregrocker · 15 Jan 2010

OP said he wants to format his previous Win7 HD. That's what the commands given above are for, to wipe the whole drive so he can format it.

After wiping first HD, set second HD as first HD to boot in BIOS, after DVD.

then boot into the Win7 DVD Repair console to mark new Win7 partition active by opening a Command Line, type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (for Win7 disk)
LIST PARTITION
SELECT PARTITION # (for Win7 partition)
ACTIVE
EXIT

Now boot the Win7 DVD, select Repair, click through to Startup Repair and run up to 3 separate times with reboot to write MBR to new Win7 installation and start it up.