Removing 100MB system partition - no re-install needed

[mac4242]

bcdboot works!

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.

 

[Jonathan_King]

What would happen if I deleted the system partition with GParted? Could I then repair the install with repair tools?

 

[gregrocker]

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.

 

[jav]

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?

 

[Jonathan_King]

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?

No. If it works, you're good.

 

[jav]

Thank you

 

[Jonathan_King]

I found a way to delete the system reserved partition. Simply delete the partition in Diskpart, mark the OS partition as Active, and run Startup Repair.

Not sure if this has been mentioned...