[Navid0]

Access Denied, on Feb 24 2009, 08:09 PM, said:

OK, for what its worth. I have installed 7 twice in the last week or so and here is are my results. First install, no 200mb partition. Second install, 200mb partition created.

No telling what this is caused by.

It is actually very simple:
If an active system partition already exists in the system when you are installing Windows 7, the installer will NOT create a 200MB system partition.
If there is no active system partition when you are installing Windows 7, it WILL create a 200MHz system partition.

You can use another OS or GParted to create and format a new partition on the hard drive you want to install Windows 7 on and set it as active. Then, boot to the Windows 7 install DVD and install into that partition and it will not create the 200MB partition.

[Access Denied]

Makes sense now. thanx

[spacesurfer]

I'm still not clear on the pros and cons of this 200 mb partition.

Pros??


Cons??


It's only 200 mb but still it's 200 mb!

[doomangel.gr]

i think that vista was going to move to gpt instead of mbr but windows 7 is actually moving that way. Some guys even mentioned that this 200mb partition has something to do with the new winfs file system which i don't think that it is included. also someone mentioned something about efi machines, the only efi machines i can think of are the the Intel Macs.

This post has been edited by doomangel.gr: 25 February 2009 - 01:39 PM

[cluberti]

WinFS isn't technically a file system, it's a SQL-based relational engine that runs on top of an NTFS filesystem to help categorize. WinFS partially exists today in ADO.net and SQL 2008, and you can read more about it on MSDN.

Also, the rumor is that the 200MB size on the EFI partition will shrink for Win7 RTM.

[deep debroy]

This has nothing to do with a new File System or windows moving to GPT partitioning. You can draw parallels between the dedicated System Partition on MBR disks created in Win7 and the ESP on GPT disks but this is created on disks initialized as MBR (NOT GPT).

The main reason Microsoft created a dedicated System partition is to have a clean boot architecture for storage drivers that transform the OS partition and is required during booting. So, for something like bitlocker, this simplifies things since the bootmgr can come up in the regular way; load a simplified version of the bitlocker driver that facilitates booting the main OS and go ahead and load the encrypted OS volume. The same applied for VHD boot.

If you already have an active partition from another OS (like Vista) no new partitions are created.

[Legolash2o]

I've never had the 200MB partition, although when i install Win7 on my sister's and her boyfriends laptop... it always creates it, but never on my laptop.

This post has been edited by Legolash2o: 10 March 2009 - 05:29 AM

[spacesurfer]

Legolash2o, on Mar 10 2009, 07:29 AM, said:

I've never had the 200MB partition, although when i install Win7 on my sister's and her boyfriends laptop... it always creates it, but never on my laptop.

If you started with partitions already setup, then it will not create this partition.

However, if you format your drive using the GUI format, then Windows 7 will take the liberty to create the system partition.

See first post on how to avoid this with diskpart.

[cluberti]

Correct - if you pre-partition, Win7 won't create the 200MB (or, 100MB in later builds) partition. However, adding bitlocker later will be more of a pain, for one of the downsides. However, if you never plan on bitlocker for your machine, nor plan on booting with an EFI bios (and you'd know already if you were or not), you don't absolutely need it (the boot data can be stored on the same partition as Windows, but recovery may be harder later if something bad were to happen to the filesystem of the root partition).

[spacesurfer]

cluberti, on Mar 30 2009, 03:02 PM, said:

Correct - if you pre-partition, Win7 won't create the 200MB (or, 100MB in later builds) partition. However, adding bitlocker later will be more of a pain, for one of the downsides. However, if you never plan on bitlocker for your machine, nor plan on booting with an EFI bios (and you'd know already if you were or not), you don't absolutely need it (the boot data can be stored on the same partition as Windows, but recovery may be harder later if something bad were to happen to the filesystem of the root partition).

Great points. I'll link to first post.

[bomjack]

Ok, here's a question. How do I transfer my win7 installation to another hard drive? I have Norton Ghost 14, is it possible to use that?

[ripken204]

i love how everyone is freaking out about this, have any of you used linux before?

[Access Denied]

I have Thats why I'm not freaking out.

[ripken204]

Access Denied, on Aug 8 2009, 06:41 PM, said:

I have Thats why I'm not freaking out.

i mean its like come on ppl.
i purposely partition for certain things and the boot partition is the #1 thing to do.

[Access Denied]

Heck ya buddy. I have 3 disks for just that reason. Partition and set them up so you have all that stuff organized. No worrying about formatting and losing anything.

[pboong]

Since it is recommended by you all to keep the 100/200mb during the partition stage. But is it good to have that protected disk to expand to 100gb for OS to be installed in it? Or, better to leave it as it is?

BTW, since I had deleted that protected system of 100mb during installation stage, can I call back that again without reinstalling the Window?

Now my 500gb have 3 drives:
100mb (non protected because I deleted it off)
99Gb (WIn 7 OS C drive)
400 Gb (E drive)

Please advise

This post has been edited by pboong: 28 November 2009 - 09:28 AM