Can I combind system reserved and a backup partition

[papagym]

The questions I have below are related to Disk Management Please help me with them.

I've added another HDD to my system. On my older HDD which is 1 TB, 3Gb/s,w/64Mb of cashe. I have two partitions on it called System Reserved (100 Mb) and Back Up Disk (250 Gb). The newer HDD is 1 TB, 6Gb/s w/32Mb of cashe.
My PC will handle the 6 Gb/s transfer rate.

Should I put these partitions on the newer faster drive?
Can I and/or should I combine these partitions?
If I can combine them what size should I make a new Partition @150GB?
Do I need to turn on the hidden file if I move Sys. Reserved?
If I move Sys. Res. do I need to do anything so my PC can find it?
One way or the other I thing Sys. Res. needs to be bigger @300MB?
Can I just Expand the size of the Sys. Res. Partition if I don't move it?

Several of the questions above will also relate to the moving the BackUp files too.
Please let me know if I need to do anything there to make that transfer work. I've estimated what i think the size of the partitions above should be, should I change them?
Down the road I'd like to multl boot with Linux and XP Pro
I'm using Windows 7 64b Ultimate it's on a SSD all by itself

Thanks for the help.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

See comments in bold.

Post a picture of Disk Management if possible.

Why did you buy the new drive? What is its purpose?

I've added another HDD to my system. On my older HDD which is 1 TB, 3Gb/s,w/64Mb of cashe. I have two partitions on it called System Reserved (100 Mb) and Back Up Disk (250 Gb). The newer HDD is 1 TB, 6Gb/s w/32Mb of cashe.


Should I put these partitions on the newer faster drive?

Not necessarily. Depends on your intentions for the new drive, which we don't know.

Why do you need a special partition named "Back Up Disk"?

How did you end up with System Reserved and C on different hard drives?



Can I and/or should I combine these partitions?

Can? maybe. Should? I don't see why yet.

If I can combine them what size should I make a new Partition @150GB?

Why combine them?

Do I need to turn on the hidden file if I move Sys. Reserved?

What "hidden" file?

If I move Sys. Res. do I need to do anything so my PC can find it?

System Reserved is normally kept on the same hard drive as C. Do you intend to reinstall Windows to this new drive?


One way or the other I thing Sys. Res. needs to be bigger @300MB?

Not likely in a normal installation.

Can I just Expand the size of the Sys. Res. Partition if I don't move it?

Why enlarge it? 100 MB seems to work for most people.


I'm using Windows 7 64b Ultimate it's on a SSD all by itself

So, this new drive is for data ONLY?

 

[papagym]

Hello ignatzatsonic,

Well, I don't have much experience with Disk Management so I guess I'm a little paranoid about setting up my system. Could be my engineering background too. I installed Windows 7 on my SSD and it initalized, formatted, and put the System Reserved 100Mb partition on my HDD for me. After windows installed I added the partition to the HDD and calling it Back Up Disk (D:/) and grabbed the 250GB out of the sky. After creating the D:/ drive, I saved a system imaged backup to D:/ . Then I made a repair disk.

Since then I've reading tutorals from this sit, one by "the bare foot kids" say it is a good idea to inctease the size of System Reserved to 200Mb for multi boot systems. I have plenty of disk space and just thought 300Mb would be better.

I have an old HP PC with a IDE HDD that I want to copy to a SATA HDD in this home built and eventually would like to dabble with Linux so I added the third drive. The HP IDE has all my CAD work and programs on it. I was going to install all of this on the slower drive, it has more cashe memory so I figured the CAD drawing might load faster.

Down the line I think I will need these partitions: Window 7, XP Pro, Linux, User, Shared, Drawings, Pictures, music, video. So I might need to buy a 4th drive. I want to add MS office and other programs to my C:/ and I don't want to partition the SSD but I guess I could add Sys. Res. partition to C:/? What do you think?

I also have a external passport USB Drive where I will store backup. (it has data from HP PC that I need to delete before using it) So I can delete or rename the D:/ partision later.

I had no particular reason to move Sys. Res. and D:/ to the new drive. It is faster but I guess your right, there is now reason to move them. I'm not sure this is the way to go, there may be a better way to do this. If you have any thoughts or suggestions please feel free to comment and Thank you for your time.
Jim

 

[karlsnooks]

Let's forget everything you've read, etc.

First, does your system have a problem? Yes/No.

2nd, without proposing how it should be done, tell us your needs.

Incidentally, I'm an EE (retired) but has nothing to do with the situation at hand.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Without knowing if you have any issues, my inclination would be:

SSD: 2 partitions (System Reserved and C)

HD number 1: single partition holding all data

HD number 2: single partition holding backups of data from HD number 1.

I would not agonize over 6 GBS versus 3 GBS. I'd probably use the newer drive as HD number 1 on the assumption it is less likely to drop dead as it's young.

There is nothing wrong with System Reserved not on the SSD as far as I know, but it's not standard. It happened because you had more than 1 drive connected when you installed Windows to the SSD. You can get rid of System Reserved entirely if you care to, but I don't know that I would bother, unless I was going to do a new install anyway.

 

[whs]

I recommend you move the bootmgr from your system reserved on the HDD to C on the SSD. Then you can delete or ignore that system reserved. The 100MB are not worth mucking around with. Just deactivate that partition and make it a logical partition so that it cannot get into the way.

Here is how to move the bootmgr: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/209885-bootmgr-move-c-easybcd.html

 

[mjf]

The newer HDD is 1 TB, 6Gb/s w/32Mb of cashe.
My PC will handle the 6 Gb/s transfer rate.

Should I put these partitions on the newer faster drive?

I'll just point out that for the new spinner don't be fooled into thinking that 6Gb/s will be anything like the transfer rate. It just means it's compatible with a Sata 3 port. I have a 1TB Seagate like this. You may get sequential Read/writes on the order of 130 MB/s or ~ 1 Gb/s on the outer tracks. A Sata 2 port is more than adequate.

I personally would make a partition ~200 GB and put your OS and installed programs + pagefile there. Then you will be running on the fastest outer portion of the disk.

As to the system reserved. If you plan to multiboot or use bitlocker then keep it otherwise I don't think it matters. If you do away with it and include its boot function in the OS partition, just make sure the F8 Safe mode boot still works.

 

[papagym]

Guys,
My system does have some minor issues but it is working and it boot up just fine. I'm waiting for a reply on those issues. I've sent a repliied to zigzag on a ID 56 error and he has not answered my reply post yet.
I guess I'm just being a pest with this thread. I'll take whs suggestion and move the bootmgr to C:
Is there a tutorial on how to do this without using EasyBCD?

Thanks