Where to put the MBR? On the "System Reserved" 100 MB partition?

[pstein]

Where to put the MBR? On the "System Reserved" 100 MB partition?

As you know in former times the MBR record was always put on the first Primary partition on a hard disc.

With Windows 7 a separate special "System Reserved" partition of 100MB was introduced for this purpose. The MBR is now put on this partition which directs the user finally to the actual target partition to boot.

A possible partitioning could look like this:

40GB partC Primary
100MB SystemReserved Primary, Active
40GB reserve Primary
700GB partD Extended Logical

So if I boot my computer then at first the MBR on the "SystemReserved" partition is started which shows the boot menu. When I select Win7 on partC then this system is booted.

Questions:

1.) Is putting the MBR on the SystemReserved partition now (with Win7) a MUST or do I have the choice to put it on partC as well?

2.) If I put the MBR on the SystemReserved partition: Does this partition have to be visible or can it be hidden as well?

3.) Is a SystemReserved partition only then required if I have MORE than 1 bootable partition? Or can I use it with 1 partition as well?

4.) How can I find out (with a separate easy-to-use tool or cmd) where (on which partition) currently the MBR is saved?

Thank you
Peter

 

[gregrocker]

The MBR is fixed - it's the System boot files represented by the System flag which can be moved if necessary.

Where is the System flag appearing now, SysReserved? I would leave it there and remove any drive letter in Disk Mgmt if one exists.

 

[whs]

I think you mean the bootmgr. For MBR see this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Master_boot_record