System reserved partition made visible by EasyBCD?

F

FBtje

New Member
Hi,

Today I used EasyBCD because I wanted the boot files to be on the same drive as where my OS was installed (from D:\ to C:\). Succeeded!

I already noticed after install that Windows 7 made a partition called 'System Reserved' and it was hidden from My Computer. Now it is visible there (drive letter F assigned).

Did EasyBCD make it visible and why?

One thing more I don't understand is why the System Reserved partition contains the boot files for Windows 7, because Windows 7 was booted from the D:\ drive from the beginning. So what is the need for that 100MB partition? Is it only used to boot Windows 7 and can I safely delete the partition, as I boot from drive C:\ now?
 
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If you install W7 to empty space and let it handle the partitioning itself, it will always do what you found. The purpose of the unlettered "system reserved" partition is to enable you to encrypt your OS partition with bitlocker without making it unbootable because the boot files can't be read.
If you don't want to encrypt your OS you don't need it.
If you don't want it allocated in the first place, don't point the install at empty space. Pre-partition your HDD with the configuration you require and then tell setup to install W7 to the partition you've already made for it.
If your C: disk is now flagged "system" "active", you can safely format the "sys.. res...", but you won't be able to merge it with your C: disk using Windows built in partitioning. That won't allow a partition to be shrunk or extended at the front, only at the back end because the BCD UID describes the HDD and start position of the partition.
If you want to reclaim that space into your OS partition, you'll need a W7-compatible 3rd party Partition Manager app.
 
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