Can I delete the system reserved partition from 100MB

jcimarron;

Without more specific info from you I can not offer more specific responses. The Windows 7 (and Vista) installer automatically creates the 100MB boot partition on any blank hard drive. Creating a partition on a blank hard drive and marking it active will prevent the creation of the 100MB boot partition, as will the presence of any "Active" partition on ANY hard drive connected to the system during installation. I have read countless posts of those who dual booted their old XP by adding 7 without the understanding that when the XP partition was the "Active" partition, Windows 7 boot code was by design placed in the "Active" XP partition. So when they remove XP, they remove their 7 boot code and can no longer boot to anything. The solutions to prevent this unexpected behavior (by the uninformed) are so simple, but the repairs to a trashed system can be complicated.

It is unusual for the 100MB partition to be in between two partitions. As stated previously, if the C: partition is XP and "Active", the boot code will go there and no 100MB partition will be created. To offer specific recommendations, I would need to know the contents of the partitions (data or OS?), how many partitions (internal and external), and their relative positions on the hard drive(s). The Windows 7 Disk Management Utility and the Snipping Tool make this simple. However posting the snapshot here requires you to upload the picture to someplace like Image Shack before using the "Link" in the toolbar above to include it in a post.

The 100MB partition includes a Boot Manager, or Boot Menu to allow you to select which OS to load. If you have only one OS, you do not see the Boot Menu because Windows boots automatically. Because it is THE "Active" partition, the bios looks there to get direction on what to boot. It is the Boot Manager, not the bootable partition with the OS, so it will not be the "boot" partition, but because it contains the "System" files, it is the "System" partition. So you should not be concerned that the boot and system partitions are not the same partition.

I do not believe relocating the 100MB partition will disrupt your booting because it is THE "Active" partition on your system, and as long as you mark the relocated 100MB partition "Active", the bios will still look there for direction. However as I do not know what the partition to the left of your current 100MB partition contains, I cannot say absolutely. If the C: partition is XP, then a simple edit to its boot.ini file will be needed to compensate for it being moved to the second partition on the hard drive when the 100MB partition is placed to the left of it. Booting to the Windows 7 DVD and doing the "Startup Repair" (sometimes more than once) or creating the Windows 7 "System Repair" CD and booting to it will restore booting to Windows 7.

You are wise to be cautious when working with existing partition as data corruption can (but rarely) happen. It is a safe practice to have backups at hand should the worst happen.

Cheers!

Robert

iseeuu -- Many thanks for your comment, link and advice.  I am not very comfortable with partitions, so want to be sure I understand correctly.

My main hard drive has three partitions.  C: is described as Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition.

The System Reserved partition (just to the right of C: and to the left of D:) is System, Active, Primary Partition.

Should I be concerned that Boot and System are not in the same partition?

Will doing what you suggest accomplish the correct moves and not affect booting?  I understand that once C: and D: are again contiguous I will be able to move space between them.

P.S.  I have an external USB drive.  I seem to remember that the System Reserved partition showed up only when I set up partitions in the external drive--not when I was making adjustments to C:.  But maybe I do not remember correctly.

Yes the boot partition can be relocated. In fact, its preferred position is at the front (the far left visually) before any other partitions with OSs. When used as the boot partition, the 100MB "System Reserved" is marked as THE active partition on the boot drive, so the bios has no problem finding it.

There are different ways to move partitions, the third party app Partition Wizard is very helpful. One can shrink the first partition to leave room for the 100MB "System Reserved" partition, then use "Copy Partition" to relocate it to the now empty space at the front of the drive. Once the new "System Reserved" is marked active (make sure the old partition is no longer active) it should be possible to boot to Windows 7 again. If not, use the DVD or the "System Repair" CD and do the "Startup Repair". Once booting is restored, return to Partition Wizard and remove the old 100MB partition and rearrange your partitions as desired.

For reference:  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd799232%28WS.10%29.aspx

Cheers!

Robert