I thought I'd pass this along for anyone else that hadn't figured this out: 1) Open a command prompt and type "diskpart" and hit enter. 2) Type "list volume" and hit enter. 3) Among the listed volumes, you'll see the 100mb system partition; in my case it is volume 1. 4) Type "select volume _", (inserting the appropriate volume number). 5) Just to the right of the numbered volumes, you'll see the corresponding drive letter listed. Note the drive letter, then type: "remove letter _", inserting the observed drive letter. Hit enter. That's it.
Normal installations do not assign a drive letter to the hidden partition. In any case you can use the Virtual Disk Manager. Right click My Computer/Disk Management Right click the partition/Change Driver Letter and Paths
Right...I'm not on 7989 right now, but I've installed 7955 a few times, from various source files. In each instance, the reserved partition had been assigned a driver letter. I'd never had that happen with Windows 7, so I just assumed it was a bug with 7955.
+1 Boot and format from your partition utilities DVD, not from your windows installations. If you format from windows installation, it'll assign 100mb system partition...
Aha! That explains it. A long time ago, I had used Hiren's boot disk to prepare my HDD before installing Windows. No reserved partition was installed.
Beg to disagree. I've been doing formatting with win installation and no system partition will be created at least in win 8 7989 and win 7.
When you install Windows 7 on a clean hard disk (without any partitions) it creates this small 100mb partition, you are not supposed to see this, correct me if I am wrong, but I think this is for the BitLocker feature in Ultimate edition, so if you are not using Bitlocker... you can use something like Gparted from a Ubuntu Live CD to get rid of the partition, or use Disk management in Windows and remove the drive letter for a quick fix.
If you let windows installation format your hard drive, even a single partition, it'll create a 100mb partition, nothing to do with bitlocker.
No need to type all codes just run this tiny exe (200Kb). I have made a software (Exe) file which does the same thing. So you can avoid writing code. Try this DRIVE MAGIC adf.ly EZz9j just add a "/" before E in the link
Just a quick note, the hidden partition in windows 8 is 350 MB, That 100 MB partition is a left over from a windows 7 installation.
This HP oem with Win8Core has 400mb recovery hidden and 260mb EFI partition. There isn't a 100mb here hehe
I wonder what the oem partition has in it that the rtm does not ? do you know what is different in it. And I'm just using a legacy BIOS, not a new UEFI unfortunately so i don't have that partition either. But it's good to know Is the UEFI partition hidden ?
If you clean install W8 (remove all partitions) you will get 4 Partitions on UEFI/GPT Recovery (300MB), EFI (100MB), MSR(128MB), Primary
That does depended on the hardware you are installing it on, As i only have two of those the 350mb system reserved (Hidden), and the main Primary.