Solved Can the system reserved partition come after OS?

[adrius]

When I installed W7 I left two drives attatched, one of them has the system reserved partition and I wanted to move it to my SSD. Im hesitant however as I don't know if I would have to use a tool to move the OS partition on the drive to be after SYS RES or if I could just reduce the space for windows and put it after.

 

[RolandJS]

easyBCD, or even better, windows install DVD's startup repair can fix this, however, have no ext HDs attached during the process.

 

[Megahertz07]

As I understood, the OS is on the SSD and the boot loader is on the HDD.
First question:
Is your disks Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT?
To find out, open disk manager. On top menu - View - Top - Disk list. On the right column (partition style) it will be GPT or MBR.
If your SSD is Legacy-MBR it's quite simple, all you have to do is to set the Windows partition as Active using Disk manager. Then shutdown detach the HDD and leave on only the SSD. Try to boot.

 

[RolandJS]

mh7, thanks for that info, I'll try to remember mbr and gpt

 

[SIW2]

You will also need to create the boot critical files on the ssd active partition. Use bcdboot command for that.

If your SSD is Legacy-MBR it's quite simple, all you have to do is to set the Windows partition as Active using Disk manager. Then shutdown detach the HDD and leave on only the SSD. Try to boot.

 

[adrius]

As I understood, the OS is on the SSD and the boot loader is on the HDD.
First question:
Is your disks Legacy-MBR or UEFI-GPT?
To find out, open disk manager. On top menu - View - Top - Disk list. On the right column (partition style) it will be GPT or MBR.
If your SSD is Legacy-MBR it's quite simple, all you have to do is to set the Windows partition as Active using Disk manager. Then shutdown detach the HDD and leave on only the SSD. Try to boot.

Both disks are GPT

 

[Megahertz07]

Boot windows with both disks, open Disk manager (C:\Windows\System32\diskmgmt.msc), Expand the window and the columns so we can read them. With the snipping tool take a snapshot of the hole window and save the image to your disk.
On the Quick reply, hit the paper clip (top right menu) Browse to your image file - upload.

 

[adrius]

Disks as requested

 

[Megahertz07]

Your boot loader is on the first partition on disk 1 (Fat32 - EFI) and your OS is on disk 2, C: partition.
The boot loader should also be on disk 2.

I never moved a EFI partition from one disk to the other, but this is what you can try as it's not a destructive task.
If you don't have, install pw11-free to do the following tasks:

- Disk 5 (F is Active, so it one day it was a boot able disk and now it's only a data disk. Set it non active.
- Shrink your C: partition (disk 2) in 100M. It will create an unallocated 100M space
- Copy EFI partition from disk 1 to the unallocated 100M space on disk 2.
- Detach all disks (power cable) except disk 2.
- Boot the installation disk as UEFI and do a boot repair.
- See if it boots (without disk 1)
Report

 

[dg1261]

This is one of those situations where Macrium Reflect Rescue Media (bootable USB stick) comes in real handy.

Follow Megahertz07's steps 2-3-4:

- Shrink your C: partition (disk 2) in 100M. It will create an unallocated 100M space
- Copy EFI partition from disk 1 to the unallocated 100M space on disk 2.
- Detach all disks (power cable) except disk 2.

Then you'd boot from the Macrium USB stick, use it's "Fix Windows Boot Problems" function, and reboot. That's it.

It's quite likely even Windows Disk Management will be able to shrink the partition a measly 100 MB, but if it has trouble you may need to resort to a real partition manager like Megahert07's "MiniTool Partition Wizard" suggestion.

Here's some screenshots from an experiment I just did:

 

[Vineet Garg]

Hi All,
Greets,
The things are really critical & lack of knowledge about UEFI + GPT is coming crucial.

I would suggest :

(1) Install dg1261's Macrium on current installation. Make a System Image with all the disks connected & also make a Macrium Rescue Disk.

Macrium Reflect Free

If you can share a screenshot of what is selected automatically by Macrium Reflect when you proceed for System Image, will be very helpful.



(2) You are having too many disks that your screen shots are not showing all the disks. Scroll & Share!

(3) I would advise you to take disk screenshots with Megahertz07's Partition Wizard (free ) The things will change from the in-built Disk Management. Some more partitions will show.
( A portable version is listed here : Minitool Partition wizard portable )

(4) Have a look here as well : Default Configuration: Windows RE Tools, System, MSR, and Windows Partitions

Let us know.

Thanks & Regards. ...

 

[adrius]

Defaults from Reflect and disks from Partition Wizard


Edit - Attempted to use the Macrium bootable disk, mouse and keyboard aren't powered while thats being used though so its unusable.


Edit 2 - Tried the windows disk repair as suggested by mega, fixed it. Ty.

 

[Vineet Garg]

adrius & Megahertz07 : Congrats!

And yes If you can share the final disk snapshot from partition wizard ? It will be helpful for me to understand the things better.

Thanks & Regards. ...

((( Just To Mention :

It is still possible that the boot data is not being picked from Disk 3 ( The Real OS Drive ) in first place!

)))