Windows 7 - Partitions - View Hidden Partitions

whs

How to View Hidden Partitions

Information

I got the idea for this tutorial after reading Greg’s posting # 42 in this thread. The method described there is workable with a running system, but when the system does not boot, the method in this tutorial will work though.

The main interest in hidden partitions is usually for the small (mostly 100MB) active boot partition that comes with Windows 7. It does, however, apply to other hidden partitions like the Recovery partition or the Tools partition that often come with OEM installations.

The hidden active boot partition is the first suspect when the system does not boot - especially if the system was previously run as double boot with another system. To look at it in that case, you need the help of the bootable CD of Partition Wizard. You load this program from the CD reader and you will see a window showing something like this.

Here you see 2 partitions. One is C:\ and the other one is the active boot partition which is hidden. If you right click on this hidden partition, go to Explore. Then you get this screen:

Here you see two folders and the boot manager applicable to your system. You can open the two folders by clicking on the + in the front and then you get this window.

In the Boot folder you have the Multilingual User Interfaces for different countries and languages – I have opened the CN folder which I suppose is China. If your hidden boot partition looks different, you may have a problem.

With the same method you can, of course, explore your hidden Tools partition or the hidden Recovery partition. And if your system is fully operational, you use Partition Wizard that is installed on your system which you can download from the site shown above.

SIW2 · 03-18-2011

zh-CN is China.

whs · 03-18-2011

Thanks SIW - did not know that.

mjf · 03-19-2011

"In the Boot folder you have the boot managers for all different countries and languages – I have opened the CN folder which I suppose is Canada. If your hidden boot partition looks different, you may have a problem."

Strictly there's one boot manager - Bootmgr
the multiple bootmgr.exe.mui's are the "Multilingual User Interface" components for the various languages.
For example the program chess.exe has a chess.exe.mui.

whs · 03-19-2011

Thanks mjf for clarifying that. I will correct the tut.

Dave76 · 03-24-2011

Any idea what's going on with this?

Partitions - View Hidden Partitions-system-reserves-ssd-folder-2.png

whs · 03-24-2011

Quote: Originally Posted by Dave76

Any idea what's going on with this?

Attachment 145297

That looks like it came from some benchmark program.

mjf · 03-24-2011

Quote: Originally Posted by Dave76

Any idea what's going on with this?

Attachment 145297

Doesn't look good if you use Windows imaging.
Only Windows should write to this partition and even then it can screw it up with journal files.

Dave76 · 03-24-2011

whs, AS SSD is a SSD benchmark program.
This is widely used on many SSD benchmark sites, known for it's use of non-compressible files.
OCZ has posted the AS SSD results for their Gen2 SSDs, which was suprising due to the fact that it gives much lower speeds than they publish. They use ATTO, for their published speed numbers, which uses compressible files and gives them the highest speeds possible.

Partitions - View Hidden Partitions-ocz-ssd-benchmarks-posted.png

mjf, I don't use Windows imaging, I'm using the Seagate version of Acronis for my backups.

Will secure erase this SSD and put it in my laptop next week, when I get my new 120GB SSD.

Was suprised to see this folder in my System Reserved partition, it was my understanding that only Windows system files could be written there.

whs · 03-24-2011

Dave, I usually use Atto. Have seen AS SSD but never used it. The other one I used was HD Tune. But that can sometimes produce funny results - especially with Vertex.

Windows 7 - Partitions - View Hidden Partitions

Partitions - View Hidden Partitions

Partitions - View Hidden Partitions problems?