re-installing windows (system reserved boot files)

[movingtables]

got my pc from pc specialist the other day

Just for future refference when i want / need to reinstall windows 7 (64bit).



Windows is currently installed on (C) local.
New volume (J) extra internal hard drive for music / media ect.
seagate (K) is just an external 1tb drive for media backup.

System reserved (I) <----- i beleive this is where my boot manager files are installed when windows was installed to the (C) local drive.

what i want to know is:

"if" i was to reinstall windows would the installation process automaticaly wipe the boot manager "system" reserved partitian and create a fresh one or would it leave it behind and i would end up with 2 boot manager partitians causing me problems when i come to load my fresh install of windows ?

hope i've explained this correctly, cheers.

 

[Frenchy]

just make sure when you wipe to unpartition C: first, the I: is just a seperate partition on the main installation disc (C). Windows will recreate this for you but you do need to wipe it out yourself first.

Technically the I: shouldnt appear in my computer, im guessing u have a P8z68 m/b?

 

[movingtables]

my motherboard is:

Motherboard
ASUS® P8H67-M LX SI (NEW REV 3.0): M-ATX, USB 2.0, SATA 6.0Gb/s, 2 x PCI

when i got the computer my 2nd drive wasnt showing so i had to go into disk management and assign it a letter and format it for it to show in my computer.

so when the time comes for a fresh install will it only ask me to wipe C: drive? then it will wipe the I: drive on its own?
not that clued up on this really lol.

 

[Frenchy]

well it wont call them c: etc, itll show you the actual harddrives with partitions on them, just delete all the partitions on the drive that windows is installed on (deleting a partition will remove all data on it, and its irreversible so be careful).

Windows will then recreate any paritions it needs.

Ahh ok, yeah my I: appears if I plug in a hotswap device. No idea why, some people have the same problem others dont, but dont worry about it, just imagine you never knew about it in the first place lol.

 

[movingtables]

well it wont call them c: etc, itll show you the actual harddrives with partitions on them, just delete all the partitions on the drive that windows is installed on (deleting a partition will remove all data on it, and its irreversible so be careful).

Windows will then recreate any paritions it needs.

Ahh ok, yeah my I: appears if I plug in a hotswap device. No idea why, some people have the same problem others dont, but dont worry about it, just imagine you never knew about it in the first place lol.

ok cheers. but just for the record are the boot manager files installed on the (I) drive?
i went into bios and booted from (C) drive and i got a message saying no bootmger files detected or summert lol.
even though windows is installed on (C). i take it (I) is a partitian of (C)?

sorry i will shut up in a minute lol.

 

[Frenchy]

Yeah windows 7 uses a seperate partition for its bootmanager, although not always. You can opt for it to be on the same partition as the rest of the OS, however I believe this has some sort of performance issue, although not too sure on this.

 

[movingtables]

here is a snapshot of my Disk management.



looks like the (I) is linked to the (J) drive?
oddly enough i deleted the (J) drive yesterday and reformated that and windows still boots so i dont think the boot manager files are on that.

 

[Frenchy]

lol i wouldnt mess around with any drives apart from C: tbh, the rest, created by windows are generally there for a reason.

 

[movingtables]

lol i wouldnt mess around with any drives apart from C: tbh, the rest, created by windows are generally there for a reason.

ok thanks for your help buddy.
and last question i promise. does that recovery partitian look like its part of the (J) drive or is that just how its listed in disk management?

 

[pr1s0ner]

the bootloader takes up the first sectors on the first drive (drive 0). It used to be a windows restriction that this was drive C but the new & improved w'dos isnt quite so fussy

 

[movingtables]

the bootloader takes up the first sectors on the first drive (drive 0). It used to be a windows restriction that this was drive C but the new & improved w'dos isnt quite so fussy

so that screen shot of my diskmanagement looks all correct to you ?

 

[Frenchy]

looks fine yeah

 

[movingtables]

looks fine yeah

cheers i'd give you some rep points but i dont know how hehe.

 

[Frenchy]

cheers i'd give you some rep points but i dont know how hehe.

Click on the star icon on the post you wanna give rep for. (bottom left)

 

[movingtables]

Click on the star icon on the post you wanna give rep for. (bottom left)

ok rep given m8

 

[vanthus]

Your hard drives are messed up in disk management & could cause problems.
For one, some programs may refuse to install if the C drive isn't showing as the first (0) drive.
Best do a clean install now to sort things out before you go any further.
Follow the instructions in the welcome booklet to do a clean install.

 

[Frenchy]

Your hard drives are messed up in disk management & could cause problems.
For one, some programs may refuse to install if the C drive isn't showing as the first (0) drive.
Best do a clean install now to sort things out before you go any further.
Follow the instructions in the welcome booklet to do a clean install.

Mines never shown up as 0 in windows 7, infact the system reserved bit in my experience is always disc 0. This wasnt the case with Vista and previous versions however in 7 if you do have the system reserved parition created during the setup process Im pretty certain it automatically becomes disc 0, purely because it has the boot sector on it.

 

[Frenchy]

Infact re to what I jujst said, I just checked, my system reserved and c: are both disk 1, disk 0 is actually my secondary drive (my cavier black)

But yeah, windows 7 doesnt care which is disc 0, the "main partition" is just whichever the OS happens to eb installed on.

 

[vanthus]

I see what you're saying Frenchy,I know you know what you're talking about & I'm not picking an argument with you,
but movingtables system reserved is not on the C drive which it should be & it has a drive letter which it shouldn't have,don't you think this is a bit odd.

 

[Frenchy]

it often gets assigned a drive letter when external media is plugged in or hotswaps are plugged in, just a bug in windows I guess. Everytime I plug one of my hotswaps in drive I appears on my computer too, without the hotswap though it doesnt have a drive letter assigned. Not sure why, but from reading around quite alot of people experioence the same with usb drives and hotswaps. Stupid windows is what I pout it down to lol.

Partition doesnt have to be on the same drive, infact I think the way windows 7 works (although im not sure) is that the boot sector doesnt even have to be on the same physical drive at all as the OS itself. Not entirely sure on this though, but my system at work has the boot sector on essentially c: along with linux, however the OS itself is installed on my secondary hard drive. Not reall sure why they do ti this way.