Unwanted partition : "System Reserved"

[Lebon14]

Hey guys. I'm back with 7600
But, I have come across some hardship but long story short; I saved all my files from my both OS. Tried shrinking my Vista partition, failed (resulting in loss of the OS) and re-installed both OS. But when I installed Win7 Home Premium x86, I've created a 40GB partition for Vista then took the rest for Win7. Then, tada, another partition called "System reserved", 100MB big, was created. I didn't care at first.

Then, I installed Vista on the 40GB partition again. Then, once it booted, the partition was in Computer. I was like , I wanted to delete it. Installed the drivers, firefox, thunderbird and NOD32. I saw that it was flagged "Active". I decided to put the "Active" flag to Vista's partition because a prompt told me that a running OS was needed to put that flag. OK. Then, I rebooted to go to Win7 and start my looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong install of stuff.

I was welcomed with a "Missing BOOTMGR". I sighted and put my Win7 HP x86 in the CD-Rom drive and repaired twice. On the 4th reboot, both OS was available at the dual-boot screen. Logged onto Win7. Installed the drivers then checked back the Computer Management to see that partition. It was now only labeled "Primary".

So, my question, after all that Wall-O-Text, is : can I safely delete that partition and extend it to one of the two partition? Thx!!

 

[garysgold]

That partition is created when you install 7 to unallocated space. If you create a partition and format it, 7 shouldn't create that partition.

This partition contains boot files and memory test. It needs to be active. Don't know if it will work, but booting from the 7 dvd and doing a repair install might fix. Might have to do it 2 or 3 times to get it all straightened out.

 

[Lebon14]

OK, but, it isn't labeled as active anymore (The J:\ Partition):

(TRANSLATION OF LABELS)
C:\ : Boot, Swap, Crash dump, Principal partition
J:\ : Principal partition
D:\ : System, Active, Principal partition
E:\ : Principal partition
F:\ : Principal partition
G:\ : Principal partition

Can I delete this way?

 

[Barman58]

You could try using partition wizard boot disk to re-set the partition as active

Partition Wizard is a Windows based FREE Partition Manager. It works as partition magic and supports Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008 server and Windows 7. FREE for Home and Business user.

I would personally advise you to keep the 100MB partition as you are in a dual boot - as the boot manager is on the 100MB partition if any of your OS's fail you will still be able to boot the other without jumping through hoops

 

[Lebon14]

Before moving to the RTM, I did NOT have that partition.
I'll just delete it and see what happens.

EDIT

Haha, it did nothing at all lol.
Well, I at least discovered the answer : Yes, it's afe as long as it is not labeled as "Active".

I know that it's maybe not safe if something happen but, I prefer not to have extra stuff I don't want.

 

[Barman58]

The system reserved partition is only created if you are installing to a completely unpartitioned unformatted drive, so if you already have a boot partition or you specify a location for win7 during install, you will not see it

I think it's been around since the Beta in January

 

[Lebon14]

The system reserved partition is only created if you are installing to a completely unpartitioned unformatted drive, so if you already have a boot partition or you specify a location for win7 during install, you will not see it

I think it's been around since the Beta in January

I did not see it at first but on Vista, I did. That's why I wanted to delete it.

 

[MacGyvr]

The system reserved partition is only created if you are installing to a completely unpartitioned unformatted drive, so if you already have a boot partition or you specify a location for win7 during install, you will not see it

I think it's been around since the Beta in January

I did not see it at first but on Vista, I did. That's why I wanted to delete it.

FYI, that partition is actually a good thing to have, as it includes recovery tools in case of disaster. 100MB isn't going to kill anyone.