Does it matter about the 100 MB partition

[Bare Foot Kid]

People forget a very reliable and easy to use method to remove the new Windows 7 System Reserved partition is outlined in Option Two of this tutorial at the link below.


Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

 

[SIW2]

Yes, that's useful after the fact.

Easier still to stop it before installing.

 

[gregrocker]

I think having the Repair console on F8 Advanced Boot Tools menu alone is enough reason to accept the 100mb System Reserved partition. Most others who I educate about this agree.

SysReserved seems to confound my Acronis and Paragon apps, not wanting to reimage it along with OS, then not successfully reimaging them separately, which is why I stick with Win7 backup imaging.

 

[severedsolo]

Personally, I don't understand the point of getting rid of the Sys Reserved partition.

On a Single boot OS, even with a seperate Data partition, the 100MB doesn't eat into your drive, and you are well within the maximum limit of 4 Primary's.

On a Multi boot OS, arguably this is where the sys reserved partition comes into it's own. It remembers your Boot configuration, even between installs, and even if using Grub as your boot manager, it negates the need to run update-grub every time you reinstall, as grub just reads it from the BCD.

Add into this that many OEM's (stupidly IMO) are linking their recovery partitions to the Repair Console, and if you lose the BCD you lose the recov partition, it seems to me that it is in your interests to keep it.

In short, I don't think there are any advantages of getting rid of it at all, but that's just my tuppence worth.

 

[SIW2]

Greg,

Can't speak for Acronis , but the Paragon 10 and 11 series have no problem with the 100 mb thing.

You might be using apps that were made before windows 7 came out.


Severed,

BTW - oem's are doing it like that because MS asked them to. They help them to make their own custom winre.wim's

You are quite right, the f key winre relies on bcd - if that's not working/accessible it is useless - there is no substitute for external bootable recovery media.

The 100mb partition is not a requirement for having winre.wim on the boot menu, or accessible from a key. They are independent.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

When I wipe my SSD to reinstall Windows 7 I intentially create the SysResv at 200MB while still in diskpart and before I start the install, I think it's a very useful tool to have if needed.

My Paragon has no issues with the SysResv, as a matter-of-fact, I just finished restoring a previous image and Windows booted good without an issue when the restore operation finished.

I would prefer that all create the SysResv for use but I feel it's not really my purpose here to manipulate others to do the way I suggest, that's why I offer all the choices in the copy/paste replies I post about the wipe issue and let them choose what's best for them.

 

[severedsolo]

Severed,

BTW - oem's are doing it like that because MS asked them to. They help them to make their own custom winre.wim's

You are quite right, the f key winre relies on bcd - if that's not working/accessible it is useless - there is no substitute for external bootable recovery media.

The 100mb partition is not a requirement for having winre.wim on the boot menu, or accessible from a key. They are independent.

Thanks for the extra info,

Am I right in thinking though, that if the BCD were stored on C, and you then overwrote C, say on a clean install, that this would negate the recovery partition and the keypress? Or would the OEM installer be intelligent enough to put the custom WinRE back in to the BCD?

 

[SIW2]

These oem installers are hard to fathom - unless you can get hold of one and have a look at it.

I should think it would be fine on a reinstall - but damaging bcd in any other way would be an issue.

It's vital those who have laptops/netbooks/nappybooks/whatever other weird things - run of the recovery/reinstall media externally as soon as they can.

Make a backup copy as well - run it off second time, or just copy it from the original and check it boots up. It's easy to lose or damage these things.

If you have a backup copy stored somewhere - you have nothing to worry about - a blank dvd is only pennies.

Although win 7 installation media is not exactly hard to get hold of.

 

[severedsolo]

Oh I completely agree, external media is always the way to go. The first thing I did when the girlfriend got her laptop was do her a "clean" copy of my Ultimate ISO, and removed the ei.cfg so she could install Home Premium with it (ie without bloatware), there really is no substitute for external media, although recovery partitions do make the process a little faster and more convenient.

The problems of course, arise when OEM's follow the bad practice of simply using the external media created with their programs, to point to the recovery partition. I wonder whether having the recov partition negated by the BCD would not cause issues there.

In fact, I'm not even sure whether OEM's still do that, although I know it was common practice with Vista.

 

[gregrocker]

For the normal consumer who is considering install/reinstall, allowing the 100mb System Reserved partition is how they are going to get WinRe on the F8 Advanced Boot Tools menu.

The number of users capable or willing to build WinRE themselves on a hotkey is infinitesimal.

 

[SIW2]

That's true - and it can be handy - if you are travelling and don't have media with you - try the hotkey - in some cases it works fine - but it won't if you have a bcd problem.

Slightly more adavnced users will find the 100mb mildly inconvenient - like Jimbo - I never use it myself on an mbr install.

You wiil be aware it is causing partitioning issues - add the 100mb to the oem partitions - you already have 4.

Tricky for beginners to get around that - the msr is actually causing problems with many preinstalled machines.

They have to come to a Forum like this and follow (what for them ) is a complex and frightening set of instructions using PW or similar to work around it.

You would use an msr for gpt disk - otherwise it's a nuisance, imo.

 

[gregrocker]

The warning message before conversion to Dynamic needs to be more dire. Maybe a skull and crossbones.

 

[SIW2]

LOL.