How do you think the loaders by Daz and others work??? All install the grldr on the 'System Reserved' partition ...reinventing the wheel ?
Try and think a little more before you shoot him down in flames. FS, I think his idea is to set the partition to hidden afterwards so it cannot be mounted or used by Windows.
I noticed the 'hidden' part, but if is Windows is capable of booting from it, it is accessible to Windows, not?
Hmm. Yeah, that's a good point. Unless somehow it cannot be accessed once the OS is booted only when Windows is loading which is unlikeley. Daz's idea was to store it on a linux partition which may need some complex setups but should be undetectable
A linux partition would be a better choice, i can't imagine MS Windows 7 can not access their own filesystem/bootmanager taken from a previous versions besides, formatting the "System Reserved" partition will likely introduce a whole lot 'Windows can not start' topics around here
What about a Mac OS Extended file system? BTW about the hidden partition thing, I have install that GRLDR on my second Harddisk(not second partition). This is my setup: First 160GB harddisk: Windows 7 partition set as Active.(boot-loader is also in Windows 7 partition, un-touch) Second 160GB Harddisk: My First Partition installed with NTLDR with boot.ini. Boot.ini with c:\grldr command. On my BIOS, I set it to boot from Slave(Second 160GB Harddisk). After bios show up, it will start to load GRUB, after that i notice that it seems like to scan for bootable device, even my floppy-drive light-up. Then after a second, it load windows 7. That's all i have notice.
That makes more sense, yes that seems to be possible... My guess is that Linux, or a MacOS partition like you say would be better as Windows has no build-in support to read these (to my knowledge)
I also have and other idea. Booting from Any flash drive(Thumbdrive,SD) Since HP Format tool can make a Bootable USB stick, why not make it boot from removerable drive, Since thumbdrive now almost everybody have.