Restoring Win7 image w/ a system recovery partition to a drive that doesn't have one
TI 2014
Win7 64bit
MBR drive
UEFI MB (if that matters)
I have a image of a Win7 install (MBR not GPT) that had the 2nd 'System Recovery' partition. My current setup only is using one partition, there is no 100MB recovery partition. I tried to load just the one with the O/S but got an error about a missing boot loader (or similar).
I didn't try to recover the MBR entry since there are two other partitions on that drive with data that I don't want to loose. The current drive structure only has the conventional setup; one partition for the O/S.
Is there a work around for this?
Restoring the MBR doesn't do anything?
'Fraid not. As I said, the 100MB partition is the Active partition and contains the boot files without which Windows will not boot. No getting around that. But it isn't a big issue, its only one tenth of one GB.
Can boot files be added to the system partition?
It may not be a big deal for an expert but it's certainly nothing I would want to try myself. It's frighteningly easy to create a completely unbootable system trying this sort of thing without in-depth understanding of the boot process. I can't see why the 100MB partition is such a stumbling block for you. Can you elaborate?
I don't like the idea of additional partitions since I have done without them for the past 12 years. More complexity and possible confusion especially when another drive letter is assigned to it. Setting up the drive in GPT doubles the problem with another partition.
Though not as bad as these UEFI MB's with two instances of USB & optical drives when GPT is involved.
If I did choose to restore the MBR when I had the system reserve partition, would that affect the other two data partitions of this drive with that extra partition gone?
BTW, thanks for the help.
You don't see the System Reserved 100MB partition in My Computer and it is not assigned a drive letter, so minimal risk of confusion imo. However if you are wanting to convert from MBR to GPT I have to back down as although, like you, I have a UEFI mobo I have no direct experience of GPT disks. I have noticed however that my partitioning program, Partition Wizard 8, does offer to convert disks from MBR to GPT so that is perhaps an easy way to get to where you want to be.
I rather suspect that restoring the MBR and track zero, which contains the partition table, would indeed cause your data partitions to disappear, but they could easily be recovered using Partition Wizard.
But if you are still hoping that restoring the MBR will enable Windows to boot then it won't - 100%.
The problem shows up in programs outside of Windows (bootable CD's).
No, I already have been there. I was determined to go the whole route. 64 bit O/S. UEFI MB and GPT. After struggling for weeks trying to get the drive switched over to GPT, which was after I understood the double entries of each bootable drive in the boot menu that controls which way the O/S is loaded, I ditched doing so. I have no intention of running partitions as large as 2TB, so it really isn't a advantage to me.
Just more confusion.
Half the problem is Win7 wasn't setup for GPT which I did not know initially. Win8 is. The workarounds are confusing.
(I was just wondering about restoring just the MBR for future reference)
You cannot successfully restore the MBR from an image if any changes at all have subsequently been made to the disk layout. There are lots of good articles out there about the System Reserved partition, many of of them critical of it and many others describing how to avoid creating it during setup. But none that I've ever found about dispensing with it once created.
Readers of this thread: Have a look at the supplied link below. The questioned raised here are addressed in this article.
My interest in this thread was primarily because I accidentally created a system reserved partition during a Win 7 reinstall following my first ever failure to recover an image with ATI following a drive failure. I have been looking for a solution for quite a while so thank you for that Robert.
@ BruceH - if it helps I can confirm that the procedure linked to above has worked for me and the system is now booting from the Win 7 partition.
Great link. Thanks.
For the future, if you ever have the interest, there are a number of ways to do a clean install of Windows 7 without the 100 MB partition (I'm not aware of how to add it by itself if the original one was corrupted or deleted and you don't have a back-up). It does mean that you won't have some diagnostic/recovery features that are part of that install method and reside on the 100 MB partition. Also, you won't be able to use bit locker encryption. Anyway, one method is to use a program called diskpart, and another is in using the Win 7 OS install CD itself. I did that and it worked. That said, over the years I've become very hesitant to do things like that, instead of recommended install methods, due to concerns about running into troubles later in time. So I let Windows do its thing and I do have the 100 MB partition on my C drive. Also, a "full" C drive system back-up on TI doesn't seem to have any troubles with that 100 MB partition. The link below with it's screen captures is fairly clear about how to do a clean install without the separate 100MB system reserved. The author displays a number of options, but the very last screen capture at the bottom of the link shows a single partition on the drive, ready for the clean install.
http://www.shivaranjan.com/2009/05/11/how-to-prevent-windows-7-from-cre…