Windows 7 System Partition

[rich]

I just recently installed W7 and noticed a separate unlabeled partition that seems to contain the boot files. Other disk analyzers don't even see it, but MyDefrag does. Should this be defragged or will this somehow mess up this new OS that I am just starting to familiarize myself with? I had XP for a long time, "upgraded" to Vista, which I thought was terrible, went back to XP, and then heard promising things about 7 so had to try. It seems to be more sophisticated and well thought out, but  that sometimes can also mean that it's precarious. I have been following and using MyDefrag since the first JK Defrag and have utilized this awesome community forum countless times, so I am hoping someone here has some insight. Thanks in advance!

Rich

[jeroen]

It's the first time I hear about a separate special boot partition. All I can tell you is that MyDefrag is used by many Windows 7 users, and no complaints.

[rich]

If I could figure out how to ad a screen shot, I would love to show you. There is a "partition" before C that is labeled "\\?\Volume{178fdfc5-6a13-11f-abc5-806e6f6e6963}" and as "System Reserved". Any ideas?

[BloodySword]

What about just ignoring this partition? It is the Windows 7 Bootpartition. It is intended to protect Windows 7's Bootfiles. Ther's nothing to complain.

[peters40]

its a partition win 7 needs for use with bitlocker drive encription. i would just ignore

[Henno]

Actually it is the Windows 7 restore partition, holding the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), always 200 Mb large.
It is used to boot and repair when the normal active partition has a boot problem.

reg, Henno.

[BloodySword]

Why are such recovery partitions, that are almost never accessed always on the beginning of the drive, wasting fast tracks? Why does nobody think about this?

[Kasuha]

200 MB is not that much today. 0.1% of a 200 GB disk, 0.02% of a 1 TB disk. In MyDefrag's window it's not even one line at full zoom out.

[BloodySword]

Anyway it is unacceptable and stupid.

[quanthero]

Anyway it is unacceptable and stupid.

If recovery partition was at the end of the disk, it could be beyond BIOS limit, which means that this partition could not be used for recovery or for BitLocker encryption. Same argument goes for /boot partition on Linux.

And BTW, Windows 7 uses 100MB partition.

Anyways, I think it is totally unnecessary to defragment this partition because it contains static file which should not fragment. But it is safe to defragment it (I've tried it).

[BloodySword]

I don't care. I don't use a recovery partition. I will try to move the boot files to my regulat c: partition and delete this crap as soon as I get Windows 7.

[quanthero]

I don't care. I don't use a recovery partition. I will try to move the boot files to my regulat c: partition and delete this crap as soon as I get Windows 7.

Are you doing clean install of Windows 7? If so, it will be very easy to remove recovery partition. Here is how:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/08/20/hack-to-remove-100-mb-system-reserved-partition-when-installing-windows-7/
(Note: scroll down to "Method 2: Partition the HDD Before Installing Windows 7").

[BloodySword]

Thank you very much. To be clear: The partition is ONLY useless, if you make your own backup images.

[Kasuha]

Anyway it is unacceptable and stupid.

In fact it's very acceptable and smart solution.

[BloodySword]

It is not, because of the given reason: Wasted fast tracks on the drive. On SSD it might not be a problem. And if you use own backup systems and if you don't use BitLocker, then this partition is totally useless.