Can I delete the system reserved partition from 100MB

isseuu--

"SOLUTION:  If you are not able to force Windows to make the unallocated space into a 100MB "Primary" partition, you will need to delete the 540GB "New Volume" partition and try again. If necessary, delete the newly created "Logical" (and "Extended") partition and then create the 100MB "System Reserved" partition as a "Primary" partition and proceed from there."

Thanks for the advice.  I think I will leave things as they are as long as they work.  I am not too confident of my ability to "force" those partitions.  It would be easy to Delete D:.  It contains nothing and there is a Delete option.  But then you say "try again".  At what part in your earlier instructions do I start trying?  Would Z: automatically become a Primary partition?  How would I size it to 100MB?  It now only has the option to Shrink Volume. 

" create the 100MB "System Reserved" partition as a "Primary" partition "  Are you talking about the present (and original) System Reserved partition which now is only 99MB?  It already is a Primary partition.

And what does the Extend Volume option mean (not that I have that for any partition now)?  Does it mean "make larger" or something else?

For the record, YOU did not mess up. You followed directions as far as Windows would allow. Well done. See you can do it and not destroy everything.

THE PROBLEM:  The "System Reserved" partition MUST be a "Primary" partition, NOT a "Logical" partition. And it MUST be a min of 100MB. I think it will be when it is a "Primary" partition and not a "Logical" partition.

EXPLANATION:  Windows allows only 4 "Primary" partitions for each hard drive. Because you have 3 "Primary" partitions already, Windows decided to make the forth partition "Logical". The way it works, an "Extended" partition takes the place of the fourth partition and allows for many "Logical" volumes (or partitions) inside the "Extended" partition.

SOLUTION:  If you are not able to force Windows to make the unallocated space into a 100MB "Primary" partition, you will need to delete the 540GB "New Volume" partition and try again. If necessary, delete the newly created "Logical" (and "Extended") partition and then create the 100MB "System Reserved" partition as a "Primary" partition and proceed from there.

After you have sucessfully created your new boot partition, you can delete the old 99MB "System Reserved" partition. You will then be allowed to extend your Windows partition to the right as you wish, and create a new partition in the remaining unallocated space.

Cheers!

Robert

"Your solution is simple and can all be done from Windows 7. First create a simple volume in the unallocated space at the front of the drive. Make it exactly 100MB, give it a drive letter, mark it as "Active", and format it as NTFS."

First thing I did was to create a System Restore point. 

Using Win7 Disk Management.  I created Simple Volume.  Could not make it 100MB.  Max permitted was 99MB.  Did that. Gave it drive letter Z and it was automatically named a Logical Drive.  No right click option to make it Active.  Went ahead and formatted NTSF anyway.  (Still no option to make Active.)  Assigned new drive letter to System Reserved (S:).   Somewhere along the way, drive D on Disk 0 became Active. 

"Now copy all the files from the old "System Reserved" to the new "System Reserved". " 

Win7 gave me a lot of flak on this but it seems I was able to do this.  I now have Recycle.BIN, BootMgr, Boot, BootSec.bak, SystemVolumeInformation, and System Reserved (folder) in former Allocated space. The System Reserved folder seems to hold duplicates of the other files and folders mentioned in last sentence, except not System Volume Information**.**

"When the copy is done, go back and remove the drive letter from the "Active" "System Reserved" partition and reboot."

Did that.  It did not change the ability to change the former Allocated Space to Active.

At this point I was concerned that I had really messed things up.  I used System Restore.  I was relieved that the PC rebooted . T(he System Restore was declared to be successful and there was only a brief black border to the Desktop before icons were displayed).  The old System Reserved partition had returned to being Active.  D: was no longer Active.  The drive letter change to the former Allocated space had remained.  There was still no option to make the old Allocated space Active or to remove the Active designation from the ("old" System Reserved partition. Only C: and D: now have the right click option to Make Active.  I did not do that.  No partition has the option to Extend Volume--only Shrink Volume.

I attach a screenshot of the present situation.

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/2354/diskmanagement423.jpg

Should I just live with the present situation?