Solved Question on Windows 8 Reserved Partition?

[melabones36000]

My desktop came with Windows 7 and I just recently upgraded to Windows 8. My question is about the Windows 8 system reserved partition that is suppose to be 350mb large. My reserved partition is only 100mb in size so does that mean that the partition that is currently on my drive is actually for Windows 7 and not Windows 8. Also does that mean that when Windows did the upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 that it incorporated the reserved partition that is suppose to be for Windows 8 into the partition that Windows 8 is installed on or did it not create one at all for Windows 8. I've included a snapshot of disk management that shows the System reserve partition which is 100mb and what was on my hard drive when Windows 7 was installed. It also shows the OS partition as well. Please if anyone can give me info on this and a reason as to why this happened I would be thankful. Also if there is a fix for this I would love to know how to. Thank You for your time.

 

[pparks1]

it just means that that partition was created when you had windows 7. during the upgrade the system is not going to rearrange your partitions. therefore you will continue to have the 100mb partition.

 

[SIW2]

It is fine as it is.

 

[znod]

Also if there is a fix for this I would love to know how to. Thank You for your time.

I'd want the 350 MB partition. In this regard, you might want to do a clean reinstall of Win8.

1. In this regard, a useful starting point, for you, could be doing the first 4 steps here: SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation. After doing these steps your install drive will have only unallocated space--which is good if you want the 350 MB partition.
2. Next, you could use Clean Install - Windows 8. In this regard, if you did step 1 above, then you will need to do no more to get the unallocated space needed to provide for the 350 MB partition when reinstalling Win8.
3. Note that you are likely to have to use the refresh procedure covered in this tutorial, Clean Install with Windows 8 Upgrade, in order to activate your reinstalled system.

 

[melabones36000]

One more thing does that mean since the 100mb partition is active that the computer is booting from that partition.

 

[znod]

The main importance of this partition for me is that it contains the system repair tools one might want to use in Win8?

Edit:

I searched a bit. Found (in Clean Install - Windows 8): "The 350 MB System Reserved partition is used for the Boot Manager code, BCD (Boot Configuration Database), System Recovery Options (Windows RE), and start up files for BitLocker (if turned on)."

Also Found (in Advanced "Startup Settings" - Boot to in Windows 8): ".... If Repair your computer isn't listed as an option, then your computer doesn't have the 350MB System Reserved partition normally added during the installation of Windows 8."

 

[melabones36000]

So does that mean the 100mb partition is useless to Windows 8 and is just taking up space on my hard drive. Also I've read that some people have deactivated the system partition and activated the partition with windows installed on and they said there pc wouldn't boot up so I'm confused as to weather the system partition is just for recovery or also allows the pc to boot from it.

 

[znod]

I am not sure, but I think that if it's there you don't want to delete it without a plan. I know that Win7 sometimes gets installed without it. I did a brief search. Sorry, I don't have time to continue the search now. But, search on "100 MB partition Windows 7." I think you will find some useful info.

See the note below in: Dual Boot Installation - Windows 8 and Windows 7 or Vista.

"NOTE:This example has the 100 MB System Reservered partition that Windows 7 creates when installed on a unallocated HDD. If your Windows 7 installation does not have the 100 MB System Reservered partition, then that is fine since this will still work to dual boot with Windows 8. Just do not delete the 100 MB System Reserved partition if you do have one."

 

[Saltgrass]

As SIW2 mentions, it is fine as it is. In Windows 8, the larger Recovery Partition is used to hold the Recovery files, which are kept in C: on a Windows 7 system. In your install, those files are being kept in C: as in Windows 7.

The System partition holds the boot files... It is needed at least until the boot is reconfigured.

The advantage of having the Recovery and Boot files in partitions other than C: is in case of corruption, you can still boot into the recovery environment.

 

[znod]

Would you mind clarifying what you are said in the context of his circumstances and question? I'm having trouble fitting what you said into his circumstances and question.

 

[whs]

As long as the 100MB partition is the 'active' partition, it contains the bootmgr and you cannot live without it. In Windows 7, I always copy the bootmgr to the C partition. That is a lot more convenient - e.g. for imaging. But un less you copy the bootmgr to C and make C the active partition, you will boot from the 100MB partition. The boot sequence is BIOS > MBR > active partition > OS partition - where active partition and OS partition can be the same (C:\).

 

[melabones36000]

Is there a way to copy the boot manager from the 100mb partition to the C drive partition or maybe to just copy all the files from the 100mb partition to the C drive partition or should that be done during the install of the os.

 

[whs]

You can try this, but I am not sure whether it works in Windows 8, so be careful: Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[melabones36000]

Thanks I'll make a backup of my pc and try this out I'll post a response when I've finished

 

[whs]

Thanks I'll make a backup of my pc and try this out I'll post a response when I've finished

Good, I would be interested to know whether that works in /8 - I never tried that because I really don't use /8.

 

[melabones36000]

EasyBCD worked problem with unallocated partition!

So I ran the EasyBCD process to transfer Boot Manager to the C:/ drive partition that has the OS on it all that worked out fine, rebooted to see if it worked and everything was good. But now after deleting the 100mb partition I've got the unallocated partition but can't add it to the C:/ drive partiton, the option on the C:/ drive partition to expand is greyed out and I have no idea what to do cause I pretty much now have 100mb that I can't use. I mean I could format it and use it as storage but that would defeat the purpose of all the work I just did when I could have just left it as was at least the 100mb partiton was being used. Any clue as to how I can merge the too together. I've provided a image of disk management.

 

[znod]

Something like Acronis Disk Director, Norton Partition Magic, or Paragon Hard Disk Manager may get the job done for you. Paragon seems to have "come into its own."

 

[whs]

So I ran the EasyBCD process to transfer Boot Manager to the C:/ drive partition that has the OS on it all that worked out fine, rebooted to see if it worked and everything was good. But now after deleting the 100mb partition I've got the unallocated partition but can't add it to the C:/ drive partiton, the option on the C:/ drive partition to expand is greyed out and I have no idea what to do cause I pretty much now have 100mb that I can't use. I mean I could format it and use it as storage but that would defeat the purpose of all the work I just did when I could have just left it as was at least the 100mb partiton was being used. Any clue as to how I can merge the too together. I've provided a image of disk management.

This is normal because with Disk Management you can only extend a partition if the unallocated space is to the right of the partition that you want to extend. With the bootable CD of Partition Wizard you could do it. But I warn you - it will take a looong time because PW has to shift all the data in C to the left. And there is a big risk that some of the data may get corrupted. I don't think it is worth the 100MBs which are a nit. Just let them sit there.

 

[melabones36000]

Ok so I used a partition program to extend the C drive partition everything went ok and now I have one partition instead of two. Everything seems to be working as it should. Also in the future if I were to decide to do a fresh install of windows 8 will it end up creating an additional partition the way it would normally do or will it just install everything to the single partition I have now.

 

[znod]

Glad the partition program worked. What did you use?

If you do a clean reinstall of Win8 and start with no partition on a drive with only unallocated space, then you should end up with the 350 MB system-reserved partition. You may have to activate using the refresh procedure described here: Clean Install with Windows 8 Upgrade.