which hard drive do i image.

[whs]

You apparently do not want to do anything because you are afraid something may happen. Well, then I am afraid you will have to live with the mess - or run back to your computer guy with each individual disk and have him screw it up completely.

 

[bayflyer]

I am truly sorry that I wasted your time whs. I stated that I am trying to learn but without internet access I would be
dead in the water on a failed boot. If I delete the partition and I need it then I'm screwed. Why is that so hard to understand.
I am happy that you took the time to help and I appreciate it but I don't think it was necessary to speak to me like that. I am not a "gold member" like you, only someone trying to learn about computers.
I will leave the computer as it is.

Thanks,

 

[whs]

That is not what I meant. I suggested you deactivate it first with the bootable CD of Partition Wizard and then reboot. Then you know whether that partition is needed for booting or not. If it fails to boot, you reactivate it with the CD and nothing is lost. Then we go and try something else.

But I am pretty certain that this partition is not needed for booting (as per your last screenshot of Disk Management). But you do as you please. For us 'helpers' it is only a bit frustrating if you try to give good advice and the OP is sitting on his/her hands.

BTW: Gold member you become after 2000 postings. That is not necessarily an expression of skill and knowledge. But you will get there too one day and then you will know enough to help others.

 

[wanchoo]

I totally agree with you that the System Reserved Partition is a superfluity and should be done away with. But I ensure that on a few computers that I manage for others by properly partitioning the hard disk and leaving no unallocated space in the first place and then only installing Windows 7.

But there must have been valid reasons that Microsoft created this partition at all that I don't know about at present.

Shouldn't the creation of an image of C Drive automatically include an image of the System Reserved Partition? I wonder if there are any Imaging Managers that do just that.

It looks to me like you have to image System Reserved partition on Disc 0 and C partition on Disk 1.

Is that what you think you did---and later restored?

Normally, you wouldn't restore to some other drive in anticipation of a failure of the existing C.

Windows7 imaging does that and Macrium V5 in some sorts too because by default it checks all partitions on a disk to be imaged.

But the 100MB system partition is just in the way as far as I am concerned. I think it is cleaner to keep the bootmgr on C. There may be exceptions - e.g. with double booting.

 

[whs]

But there must have been valid reasons that Microsoft created this partition at all that I don't know about at present.

I think it is in preparation for the new ReFS file system.

 

[mjf]

Your system is very messy at the moment and I sense you are not very technically confident about this stuff yet.
We may be able to guide you through but I think you would be best have someone else who is prepared to explain face to face what's going on.

I don't know your circumstances but maybe another service shop, computer club or stick around here.