TeraByte Unlimited

KB: How to Remove ... "System Reserved" Partition *

I found this Knowledge Base TeraByte article in a Google Search or "system reserved". This is about removing a special partition in Windows installations, 7 and above.

I did my installation of Windows 7 Ultimate a little differently. I installed the System Reserve partition on a drive different from the one for the Windows installation. I would like to remove this drive since I don't use this huge drive for anything but this little 100MB partition.

I've tried the procedure as outlined in the KB article and it looked like it was successful, except for a few parts.

First at step 7 (and 16), I spooked and decided that I needed to do this despite the fact that my installation is Windows 7 and step 7 is supposed to be for 8.x/10 only. I got all the same responses as if it were 8.x/10, and I still got no boot when trying to boot from the Windows drive. I went through the whole procedure again and this time omitted this step and still no boot.

Another problem I saw on both attempts was steps 9 though 11. When I tried the command "dir c:\ /ah", the C:\Boot folder did not show up. It did show up in a simple "dir c:\" search.

In addition I tried repairing the Boot Sector using the KB article "How to Rebuild the Boot Sector ..." ** by applying bootsect.exe from an install disk boot. Still no success. I also tried Startup Repair on the install disk. No success.

I've tried a couple of permutations of the above after completely disconnecting the System Reserve disk and relocating the Windows disk to the 0 disk position in the motherboard. No luck.

Is there something else I can do the get rid of this System Reserve disk. Is this actually a novel situation requiring a different procedure?

Any and all tips or clues would be appreciated.

*https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409
**http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=556

What happens when you try to boot? Any error message?

When I try to boot from the Windows installed disk, all I get is a little underline cursor in the upper left hand corner. If I wait long enough, sometimes, a message pops up, "Read error". But not always, I've tried leaving it with the cursor up for about 15 minutes with no change. I've also noticed that in a normal startup from the System Reserved disk, the cursor also shows up briefly before Windows successfully boots up.

I've tried disconnecting the System Reserved disk from the motherboard and just booting up the Windows installed disk alone and then using the installation DVD to try the Startup Repair. I just get a message, "If you have recently attached a device to this computer ... ". I've checked the report that goes with that and it says at the end, "Root cause found: Boot status indicates that the OS booted successfully."

best bet would be to remove the unneeded drive and make the OS drive the
boot drive.

"TeraByte Support (PP)" wrote in message news:11174@public.tech.misc...

What happens when you try to boot? Any error message?

You may just need to repair the MBR on the Windows drive. Then make sure the Windows partition is set active. If it starts to boot you should get an error message from the boot loader if there are issues.

TeraByte Support(PP) wrote:
> You may just need to repair the MBR on the Windows drive. Then make sure
> the Windows partition is set active. If it starts to boot you should get an
> error message from the boot loader if there are issues.


A quick search of "repair MBR windows 7" turns up "bootrec.exe". I may have tried this already, but I'll do it again, unless you had something else in mind.

What I'll do is remove the System Reserved drive and boot up with the install disk and apply "bootrec.exe" from the command line in the Repair Tools option to the remaining Windows install disk. I'll get back tomorrow with results.

I am following this MS article on bootrec.exe

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/927392

Success!

I followed this article here in the Windows 7 part,


It says to run in order,

bootrec /rebuildbcd
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot

After I ran "bootrec /rebuildbcd", I got a response, "scanning ... total identified Windows installation : 0". And the same thing for "bootrec /scanos". I guess "/rebuildbcd" runs that first.

But, I then ran "bootrec /fixmbr" and "bootrec /fixboot", both completed successfully and when I reboot, I got a boot to Windows. So I am working now independent of the old HD with the System Reserved partition. The System Reserved partition has been removed. After all this time with other fixes attempted, I still assume the work I applied in the TeraByte Knowledge Base article formed the basis of the success.

Please feel free to comment.

I suspect it was the MBR. Isolating the drive often helps since the Microsoft repair tools don't always select the correct drive.

All the other changes (those in the KB article) were still necessary. There would have been other issues/errors if those steps weren't done.

TeraByte Support(PP) wrote:
> I suspect it was the MBR. Isolating the drive often helps since the
> Microsoft repair tools don't always select the correct drive.
>
> All the other changes (those in the KB article) were still necessary. There
> would have been other issues/errors if those steps weren't done.

Thanks very much for the excellent Knowledge Base article. It was a good set on instructions. Easy to read and easy to follow.

At step 15, it says, "Note: If you receive an error message upon booting, the boot sector of the Windows partition may need to be repaired (see How to Rebuild the Boot Sector for Windows Vista and Windows 7/8.x/10)."

And if you reference the article, it does have some information on bootsect, but a note on bootrec is included only at the very bottom. I tried the bootsect instruction and it didn't work, maybe more detail on bootrec should be included. I missed the bootrec reference or may have ignored it.