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Author Topic: (SOLVED) How to move system reserve partition to one drive  (Read 11803 times)

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Offline enduser

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(SOLVED) How to move system reserve partition to one drive
« on: August 14, 2014, 06:42:57 pm »
I just built a new Windows 7 64 bit PC with two hard drives. Drive 1 is 500GB, Drive 2 is 160GB. Windows installed without any issues but Drive 1 the C: drive only has Windows on it and no System Partition. Drive 2 has a 100MB partition with the System Partition and the rest of the drive is formatted and empty.  What I would like to do is move the System Partition to Drive 1 or Windows to Drive 2, so that both Windows and the System partition reside on one drive. When I try to clone Windows to the other drive it warns me that there is an existing partition that will get wiped out.

Any suggestions on what I can do without having to reinstall Windows again this time with only one drive installed on the PC?   :confused:
« Last Edit: August 18, 2014, 03:48:41 pm by enduser »
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Offline jraju

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Re: How to move system reserve partition to one drive
« Reply #1 on: August 14, 2014, 11:32:05 pm »
Hi,
             See this tutorial and use it to your advantage.
              http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/91339-ssd-hdd-optimize-windows-reinstallation.html
there are article to create a system reserve partition to attempt when you reinstall windows. Please read the instructions carefully.
             When i installed c; and reserve partitions have been shown as separate drives.
              It automatically creates those.
             But when you select open drives option, while installing you could see which partition is reserved and which is c: . I normally format these two drives to attempt any repair and for reinstallation
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Offline Shane

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Re: How to move system reserve partition to one drive
« Reply #2 on: August 15, 2014, 11:27:53 am »
That is a tough one, because windows keeps the hard drive info that the partitions are on. You would have to resize the current drive to make the space for the 100 MB partition (Which is just the boot partition)

I have never had windows install the boot partition onto a different drive before, so odd that it happened to you.

The safest way is a reinstall with the other drive out of the system. Any other way that you try just make sure you backup your data, because one mistake and you will be doing that reinstall anyways lol

Shane
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Offline enduser

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Re: How to move system reserve partition to one drive
« Reply #3 on: August 16, 2014, 08:51:02 am »
Thanks for the reply jraju, and Shane.

Shane, this problem happens a lot with Windows 7 from what I have seen posted on the Internet. Not sure why this happens or why when installing windows you are not given the option to accept or decline this install parameter.

I just got a hold of macrorit disk partion software. I'm going to clone the windows drive then play with the clone by resizing the partition then moving a copy of the system reserve from the second drive and see what happens. I will report back with the results.
« Last Edit: August 16, 2014, 08:53:47 am by enduser »
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Offline enduser

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SOLVED Re: How to move system reserve partition to a single drive
« Reply #4 on: August 16, 2014, 06:39:25 pm »
SUCCESS!

Here is what I did. I made a clone copy of only the original "C" drive to another HD to test out different scenarios. I disconnected my original "C" drive and connected the clone drive in its place. When I booted it came up with an error about the boot sector. Windows told me to insert my Windows 7 install disk. I then rebooted from the DVD, windows started up and I selected "Repair my computer" option. The DVD ran and fixed the problem. I then rebooted and windows started up like normal. Now the new drive is a clone of "C" but still booting up from the second HD.

Next I then ran a partition resizing program. I used Macrorit Disk Partition Expert. I ran the program then selected the "C" drive from the list of drives shown in the upper window, I then clicked Resize/Move Volume. I resized the "C" drive to leave 300MB of free space. You can move the slider at the beginning or at the end of the drive image to create the new partition space, I used the beginning slider. Click on "Commit" to start the process. Follow the program prompts until finished.

When done shut down the PC, disconnect the second drive but leave only the clone drive connected. When windows tries to start up it will fail and ask you to boot from the DVD to fix the boot up issue. Again when windows started up, I selected the "Repair my computer" option. The DVD ran and it fixed the problem, then rebooted. This time windows started up like normal, and now from a single drive.   :cheesy:
« Last Edit: August 17, 2014, 07:59:35 am by enduser »
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Offline Shane

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Re: How to move system reserve partition to one drive
« Reply #5 on: August 18, 2014, 01:42:34 pm »
Good to hear you got it :-)

One of the repair options that the windows 7 repair does when you use it is fix and rebuild the boot manager. :cheesy:

Shane
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