Windows 7 - 100MB Boot partition

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by mokaz, Dec 7, 2009.

  1. mokaz

    mokaz MDL Novice

    Nov 26, 2009
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    Hi guys,

    Just a small question, is that 100MB boot partition really needed ?
    I've been messing around yesterday and did trillions of manipulations (Imaging, Windows Boot Repair, Bootsect.exe etc etc etc...) and today, my OS booted
    up with all the boot environment on C:\ and with a totally empty (no partition) 102mb hdd space at the beginning of my sys HDD.

    So is that partition really needed ? and do you might have documentation
    onto the Windows 7 boot process ?

    Thank in advance,
    regards,
    m.
     

    Attached Files:

  2. Lich King

    Lich King MDL Addicted

    Sep 24, 2009
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    #2 Lich King, Dec 7, 2009
    Last edited by a moderator: May 23, 2017
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  3. vdl68

    vdl68 MDL Junior Member

    Sep 11, 2009
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    You cannot boot up without the 100MB partition, because it contains boot files and it is created during installation.

    If you want to take back that partition, reinstall windows and when it make that partition, deleted the partition that you want to install Windows on, then extended that 100meg, it will merge both partition together.
     
  4. mokaz

    mokaz MDL Novice

    Nov 26, 2009
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    Hi there,

    1st thanks for the link; been reading the post, interesting stuff there.

    2nd reply, that sounds wierd to me because if you look at the JPEG attached, this is the OS i'm writting this message from. So as you can see the 1st 100MB partition is UNALLOCATED, which means its empty of any partition.

    I gonna seek further but i think i shall be perfectly able to have boot environment as well as windows installation on the same partition.

    My only real concern is why did they implement a 100mb hidden boot partition and what are the consequences of not having it...

    Take care,
    m.
     
  5. gentoo

    gentoo MDL Senior Member

    Oct 6, 2009
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    It actually contains the Recovery Environment "WinRE" which will allow recovery of the system if a problem is detected at startup.

    "WinRE" is accessed using the line "Repair your computer" in the advanced boot options (activated by pressing F8 at startup).

    Once this partition is created, better not remove it because it contains system files and boot the Master Boot Record (MBR) that will be damaged or lost.

    Note that the WinRE environment can also be loaded from the installation DVD of Windows Seven or from any recovery disk created.
     
  6. ttmax

    ttmax MDL Member

    Oct 27, 2009
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    WinRE.WIM, the recovery environment resource file, is not located on the 100Mb partition. It's on C drive, in folder "c:\Recovery\xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" with xxx....xxx depending on your installation.
    This folder is hidden, and protected from user modification (you need to take ownership of it to modify it).

    100Mb partition is exclusively dedicated to BOOT stuff, but can be avoided during installation (through a zap to module "sources\WINSETUP.DLL" as described before), and can be removed after installation if you have moved all the BOOT stuff on C drive or another place.


    ....
     
  7. gentoo

    gentoo MDL Senior Member

    Oct 6, 2009
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    #7 gentoo, Dec 7, 2009
    Last edited: Dec 7, 2009
    Thanks for the correction.
     
  8. Flipp3r

    Flipp3r MDL Expert

    Feb 11, 2009
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    According to your Disk Manager it's unallocated. It DOES NOT have boot files or Recovery, it's unallocated space! What if you boot a util cd like Hirens & use Acronis to move the 1st Partition to the start of the drive then extend it...
     
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  9. vdl68

    vdl68 MDL Junior Member

    Sep 11, 2009
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    if that was that easy, then there would not be a lot of people asking about this...:D
     
  10. MasterDisaster

    MasterDisaster MDL Expert

    Aug 29, 2009
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    The System Reserved is mainly used for BitLocker encryption. The other good thing of having this partition, consider the following scenario

    You have both System and Active on the same partition and you check 'Compress this drive to save disk space' (bad idea). This will compress your bootmgr and you will not be able to start you OS.

    It is better to have the boot files in a separate place where it is hidden and nobody would care.
     
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