Removing 100MB system partition - no re-install needed

sup3rsprt said:

or you could simply use the bcdboot command to create the boot manager to the Windows drive and set it "active" using the diskpart command. Although that one only works if Windows is on a primary partition.

Good job on the guide though.

Great suggestion! I just tried this last night and it worked:

1. inside Windows 7, open command prompt with administrator privileges

2. type "bcdboot c:\windows /s c:" (should return that boot files were successfully created)

3. once again inside Win7, open Disk Management GUI, locate the main C:\ partition and mark that active instead of the hidden system partition.

4. reboot to confirm that everything is ok.

5. back in Disk Management you can now freely delete the hidden system 100MB partition which is no longer being used.

6. After this I used Partition Manager (free version) to expand the C:\ partition to use up all the unallocated space. I'm guessing similarly you can make a ghost/Acronis true image and then restore it back to fill the empty space as well.

Just delete the 100mb using bootable Partition Wizard, Resize/Move Win7 into its space, boot into the Win7 DVD and run Startup Repair 3 times.

This is not the repair offered when you first boot DVD Repair console, but click through to Recovery tools list and choose from the list Startup Repair and run it 3 separate times as it attempts to repair and then rewrites MBR to Win7 partition.

gregrocker said:

Just delete the 100mb using bootable Partition Wizard, Resize/Move Win7 into its space, boot into the Win7 DVD and run Startup Repair 3 times.

This is not the repair offered when you first boot DVD Repair console, but click through to Recovery tools list and choose from the list Startup Repair and run it 3 separate times as it attempts to repair and then rewrites MBR to Win7 partition.

hmm.. was fine after first startup repair?
Should I run 2 more times anyway?

Thank you :)