Does Win 7 create a new HD upon upgrade?

[relic]

On 2/13/2010 7:40 AM, Don wrote:

Hi all!
I decided to upgrade to Win 7 after trying if for a few months.
During the process, it backed up my files to "Windows old" and wiped
my HD before upgrading.
Once finished, I noticed that a new drive called "system reserved" had
been created. Out of the new 100 Mb HD, 28.1 is occupied, yet I don't
see any files.
A hundred megs out of 500 Gigs isn't a lot to worry about, yet I'm
curious to know whether I made a mistake during the installation or
whether this is the way Win 7 installs.
Is that new HD a partition? Can I and should I get rid of it? Is so,
how? (without having to start all over again ;-)
Thanks for any help and enlightenment.
Marcel



Yes it is, that mysterious 100mb partition is new with Windows 7.
It is a system reserved partition at the beginning of the disk. The
remainder of the unallocated space on the disc or partition will be
your
system drive, or C drive for example.
The 100 mb partition is not assigned a drive letter, so you really
won't
see it unless you look in the disk management console, or another low
level utility to look at the disk structure.

The small 100 mb partition serves two functions. It holds the Boot
Manager code and the Boot Configuration database. And it reserves space
for the startup files required by BitLocker Drive Encryption.

So no you did nothing wrong and it is completely normal in Windows 7.



I've been wondering the same thing myself because I recently purchased
a laptop with pre-installed W 7 Home Premium 64 bit. In my case my 500
G drive was divided into a system drive called "Local Disk (C" and a
small 200MB partition named "System (D".

[I've since added a large data partition using 200 GB from the C:
drive].

What is peculiar - and I found confusing - is that in my pre-installed
W 7 system, the small 200MB partition is labeled "System" and has a HD
letter D:. I notice that you wrote the small partition does not have a
drive letter (but mine does). I read somewhere that it contains the
MBR, but then I do not understand why it would be named D:

Also this D: is shown as having 166 MB free out of 198 yet when I open
it it says "this folder is empty" presumably because these files are
hidden. How do I see what is actually in it and does it indeed contain
the mbr?

Thanks.

That's the Manufacturer's Recovery partition. Nothing to do with Window
7's unlettered partition.

Aha. Did not think that a mere 32 MB (198-166) would be enough for a
recovery partition. How do I get to view what files it contains?

Brian raised a good point; 200MB _IS_ too small for a Recovery Partition. I
retract... I don't really know what it might be. Ask the Manufacturer?

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

On 2/13/2010 7:40 AM, Don wrote:

Hi all!
I decided to upgrade to Win 7 after trying if for a few months.
During the process, it backed up my files to "Windows old" and wiped
my HD before upgrading.
Once finished, I noticed that a new drive called "system reserved" had
been created. Out of the new 100 Mb HD, 28.1 is occupied, yet I don't
see any files.
A hundred megs out of 500 Gigs isn't a lot to worry about, yet I'm
curious to know whether I made a mistake during the installation or
whether this is the way Win 7 installs.
Is that new HD a partition? Can I and should I get rid of it? Is so,
how? (without having to start all over again ;-)
Thanks for any help and enlightenment.
Marcel



Yes it is, that mysterious 100mb partition is new with Windows 7.
It is a system reserved partition at the beginning of the disk. The
remainder of the unallocated space on the disc or partition will be your
system drive, or C drive for example.
The 100 mb partition is not assigned a drive letter, so you really won't
see it unless you look in the disk management console, or another low
level utility to look at the disk structure.

The small 100 mb partition serves two functions. It holds the Boot
Manager code and the Boot Configuration database. And it reserves space
for the startup files required by BitLocker Drive Encryption.

So no you did nothing wrong and it is completely normal in Windows 7.



I've been wondering the same thing myself because I recently purchased a
laptop with pre-installed W 7 Home Premium 64 bit. In my case my 500 G
drive was divided into a system drive called "Local Disk (C" and a small
200MB partition named "System (D".

[I've since added a large data partition using 200 GB from the C: drive].

What is peculiar - and I found confusing - is that in my pre-installed W 7
system, the small 200MB partition is labeled "System" and has a HD letter
D:. I notice that you wrote the small partition does not have a drive
letter (but mine does). I read somewhere that it contains the MBR, but
then I do not understand why it would be named D:

Also this D: is shown as having 166 MB free out of 198 yet when I open it
it says "this folder is empty" presumably because these files are hidden.
How do I see what is actually in it and does it indeed contain the mbr?

Thanks.

That's the Manufacturer's Recovery partition. Nothing to do with Window 7's
unlettered partition.

Surely 200MB is far too small to be a recovery partition?

Also a recovery partition should absolutely not ever have a drive letter
otherwise it's just asking to be trashed by unaware users.

A. I agree with you.

B. I got a Vista computer with a drive letter on the recovery
partition. I removed the letter immediately, on the theory that I am
one of those unaware users

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

On 2/13/2010 7:40 AM, Don wrote:

Hi all!
I decided to upgrade to Win 7 after trying if for a few months.
During the process, it backed up my files to "Windows old" and wiped
my HD before upgrading.
Once finished, I noticed that a new drive called "system reserved" had
been created. Out of the new 100 Mb HD, 28.1 is occupied, yet I don't
see any files.
A hundred megs out of 500 Gigs isn't a lot to worry about, yet I'm
curious to know whether I made a mistake during the installation or
whether this is the way Win 7 installs.
Is that new HD a partition? Can I and should I get rid of it? Is so,
how? (without having to start all over again ;-)
Thanks for any help and enlightenment.
Marcel



Yes it is, that mysterious 100mb partition is new with Windows 7.
It is a system reserved partition at the beginning of the disk. The
remainder of the unallocated space on the disc or partition will be your
system drive, or C drive for example.
The 100 mb partition is not assigned a drive letter, so you really won't
see it unless you look in the disk management console, or another low
level utility to look at the disk structure.

The small 100 mb partition serves two functions. It holds the Boot
Manager code and the Boot Configuration database. And it reserves space
for the startup files required by BitLocker Drive Encryption.

So no you did nothing wrong and it is completely normal in Windows 7.



I've been wondering the same thing myself because I recently purchased
a laptop with pre-installed W 7 Home Premium 64 bit. In my case my 500
G drive was divided into a system drive called "Local Disk (C" and a
small 200MB partition named "System (D".

[I've since added a large data partition using 200 GB from the C: drive].

What is peculiar - and I found confusing - is that in my pre-installed
W 7 system, the small 200MB partition is labeled "System" and has a HD
letter D:. I notice that you wrote the small partition does not have a
drive letter (but mine does). I read somewhere that it contains the
MBR, but then I do not understand why it would be named D:

Also this D: is shown as having 166 MB free out of 198 yet when I open
it it says "this folder is empty" presumably because these files are
hidden. How do I see what is actually in it and does it indeed contain
the mbr?

Thanks.

That's the Manufacturer's Recovery partition. Nothing to do with Window
7's unlettered partition.

Aha. Did not think that a mere 32 MB (198-166) would be enough for a
recovery partition. How do I get to view what files it contains?

Thanks.

If you're allowed to, assign it a drive letter. Then you'll be able to
see it in Windows Explorer, unless the file system is non-standard.

Naturally, you ought to remove the letter after you've satisfied your
curiosity.

 

[Gilgamesh]

The files that would have otherwise gone on the 100MB partition instead go
on (usually) the C:\ partition.

But what happens to utilities such as bitlocker.
Without the reserved space containing its config files are you stopped from
using this utility.