Solved Changing System Reserved information in Disk Management

[mysterygurgle]

Hello all. I have recently done a repair install to fix an issue with Windows Media Player. But before that, I had changed the C drive or partition to active, and have read just now that the system reserved part should be marked active.



Can I switch it back to active without anything bad happening to the computer? Does anything else need to be in the parentheses besides "Primary Partition" and "Active"?

 

[Layback Bear]

Does this computer boot and run as it should? If so I wouldn't change anything. Your repair and install might of moved your MBR Master Boot Record to your C drive.

 

[Golden]

Hi,

You don't need to do anything since the boot files are already on the C: (note the partition shows the word BOOT).

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If you have no need for OEM recovery tools or Bitlocker, you can remove the System Reserved partition, and then resize C: into the un-allocated space.

Regards,
Golden

 

[pallesenw]

You don't need to do anything since the boot files are already on the C: (note the partition shows the word BOOT).

Microsoft likes confusion "Boot" means that here lies Windows. The actual startup/boot files are on the "system" partition - which happens to be the same volume in this case.

 

[gregrocker]

Why would you mark C Active? Were you playing?

System Reserved should boot if you switch the Active flag back to it since it already contains the boot files you unnecessarily also wrote to C during the Repairs.

 

[mysterygurgle]

Sorry I forgot to say, if you don't already know, that I am not very computer-literate. I try to fix my computer from what I read online since sometimes my computer's manufacturer does not give much help.

Layback Bear, yes the computer boots and runs as it should. I just would like to have the computer back to how it was before or how it should be.

Golden, can I still use system restore if I didn't have the OEM recovery tools?

gregrocker, I guess I was playing, in order to soon fix WMP, which did not work until I did the repair install after that then solved my problem.

Would anyone recommend me marking System Reserved Active, removing System Reserved partition and resizing C:, or leaving it as is? Or anything I didn't mention?

Thank you all for the replies.

 

[gregrocker]

If you want it back to the way it was, then mark System Reserved Active in Disk Mgmt, but first have your Win7 DVD or http://www.sevenforums.com/performance-maintenance/51100-repair-cd-system-repair-disk.html standing by so if it doesn't boot you can run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html, and if that fails you can move the Active flag back to C using Option Two in http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/71432-partition-mark-active.html and run Repairs there also if necessary.

If you decide you want to leave it as it is, that's fine too.

I hope this is a lesson that you can't expect Win7 to endure random reckless acts. Now that you know we are here and can help, always ask us first for whatever you'd like to do. For example, you can practice and gain more knowledge about your PC working through these simple http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/220165-troubleshooting-steps-windows-7-a.html to check everything over.

 

[Layback Bear]

mysterygurgle you say you are not computer literate. That is okay. I'm not the sharpest knife in the kitchen either. The good people here can work most people through these kinds of things if they can follow instruction. We like helping people. If you feel comfortable doing as greg has posted in # 7 it will work but it can be some what complicated to some. Read through the suggestions and methods.
Please let us know what you decide and always feel free to ask for help and information.

 

[mysterygurgle]

Thank you gregrocker, Layback Bear, and everyone else. I decided to mark System Reserved back to Active with system repair disk standing by and it turned out to boot up fine without having to use the disk. I ran startup repair 3 separate times anyway(maybe not a good idea) and still, everything was fine. I will be more careful next time.

 

[gregrocker]

Just make sure the System Active flags are back on System reserverd. Then it's all good.

I'd also save a Win7 backup image now to use in place of reinstall if ever needed: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html

 

[Layback Bear]

mysterygurgle I'm glad you got things the way you want them. Good job.
Remember you don't have to have a problem to come back to Forum. Just reading through other peoples post and our Tutorials can be a learning experience.
Happy computing.