What is this hidden partition on my Hard Drive?

[Moontrash]

I've been toying with the idea of adding an SSD to this laptop and wanted to clone the existing drive to the SSD. I installed the free version of Macrium Reflect and I noticed a partition I've never seen before. Can anyone tell me what this is? Is it a boot partition? If so, will I have to clone that to the SSD also?

[johns0]

Most likely the hidden partition is where your laptop manufacturer put the windows restore/recovery files so its best to include that in your cloning.

[aedipuss]

depending on the laptop maker/model it is most likely the restore partition. most of them have windows install files built in so a format/windows install to original files can be done.

[redwudz]

The small partition (200MB?) you have circled looks to be a Windows partition that is part of the OS. Common on PCs. The recovery partition is likely the larger one. (18GB) If you plan to clone the existing boot drive, best to clone it all. You could probably eliminate the recovery partition, but then if your HDD/SSD dies, no recovery, sometimes not even if you have the recovery discs. (Depends on the laptop manufacturer)

My laptop has a single 500GB HDD and it would cost me more than I paid for the laptop to replace the boot HDD with a SSD.

Is your laptop booting/running slow? Or slower than when you first got it? If you can get drivers for your laptop, really cheaper to get a new copy of W7, wipe your HDD and do a clean install. HP and other manufacturers put so much crapware on a laptop, it's surprising it runs at all.

[El Heggunte]

Yes, that's the boot partition (which the infinite wisdom of Microsoft calls "system partition"). You can make it visible to Windows Explorer by using the appropriate "Administrative Tool"/whatever in the Control Panel. Also, it's the ACTUAL "C:" partition , but as we all know, Windows needs to fool itself and make believe the D: partition is the C: one

[johns0]

Just viewed the picture,i cloned my hdd and didn't include the hidden boot partition when i restored the drive,learned my lesson that time,no boot.

[Moontrash]

The D: and E: drives are the restore and HP tools partition (Diagnostic Tools) so that hidden one isn't either of those.

El Heggunte Re: What is this hidden partition on my Hard Drive?
Yes, that's the boot partition (which the infinite wisdom of Microsoft calls "system partition"). You can make it visible to Windows Explorer by using the appropriate "Administrative Tool"/whatever in the Control Panel. Also, it's the ACTUAL "C:" partition , but as we all know, Windows needs to fool itself and make believe the D: partition is the C: one

johns0

Re: What is this hidden partition on my Hard Drive?
Just viewed the picture,i cloned my hdd and didn't include the hidden boot partition when i restored the drive,learned my lesson that time,no boot.

So it looks like that hidden little partition is the boot drive. So if I were to "clone" the drive with Macrium...make sure I include that unnamed/hidden drive?

Is your laptop booting/running slow? Or slower than when you first got it? If you can get drivers for your laptop, really cheaper to get a new copy of W7, wipe your HDD and do a clean install. HP and other manufacturers put so much crapware on a laptop, it's surprising it runs at all.

Nah it runs fine. Did an error check on it and it's no problem. I just noticed a Crucial 64gb M4 is $25 less($76) at newegg than I got one 6 months ago and thought it would be a nice upgrade from the 320gb I have. Thought I could have this 320gb as backup stored away if I need it. Just an idea. Haven't bought anything yet.

[nic2k4]

Here's what that partition is for. I noticed a couple days ago that if you partition any drive with the drive management tool in administrtive tools, it eats up 200 megs of the drive total space. I doubt windows would re-create that recovery partition everytime you partition a new drive. I guess I could look at the contents with a Linux.

[Bjs]

That partition is created by windows 7 to store files during the install process.

Drive management dose not generate such a partition.

To clone with macurium, backup each partition the restore from first to last ... macurium dose not support restore of more than one partition at a time.

[El Heggunte]

That partition is created by windows 7 to store files during the install process.

EDIT:

How to Avoid 200MB Hidden System Partition From Been Created During Windows 7 Installation

http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-to-avoid-200mb-hidden-system-partition-from-been-cre...-installation/

Hack to Remove 100 MB System Reserved Partition When Installing Windows 7

http://www.mydigitallife.info/hack-to-remove-100-mb-system-reserved-partition-when-ins...ing-windows-7/

[Hoser Rob]

Jeez, I had an issue like this a couple of days ago. Tried installing ubuntu 12.04 (new install) and it wouldn't do it. Turned out I had to repartition the drive ... dang hp bloatware.

[sanlyn]

Jeez, I had an issue like this a couple of days ago. Tried installing ubuntu 12.04 (new install) and it wouldn't do it. Turned out I had to repartition the drive ... dang hp bloatware.

Reformatted your HP drive? Interesting. How would you get into HP's restore partition to get your original OS back? Or does Ubuntu handle that automatically?

[sanlyn]

[Attachment 12818 - Click to enlarge]

I've been toying with the idea of adding an SSD to this laptop and wanted to clone the existing drive to the SSD. I installed the free version of Macrium Reflect and I noticed a partition I've never seen before. Can anyone tell me what this is? Is it a boot partition? If so, will I have to clone that to the SSD also?

The partition circled (labeled "1") is the drive's boot partition. "C" is your Windows partition. "D" is your system recovery software. "E" is a utility partition, probably designed so that utilities can be run without starting windows. Many hardware utils won't work if the OS is running, or many work with Windows "on" but run only outside Windows in a separate window.

Why do want to clone that drive? Why not use the SSD as a second drive? Maybe I didn't read your proposal correctly.

[Moontrash]

SSD's drive prices went down so I was thinking about trying an SSD for the heck of it. Right where my left hand sits on the laptop is where the regular hard drive is and it can get rather warm. SSD's don't tend to get that warm so that would be another bonus also. The drive I have now is fine. Thought if I were to ever have an issue I could easily revert back to it.

Thanks for those links nic2k4 and El Heggunte.

Haven't used Macrium yet Bjs. Just assumed you could do all partitions or the ones of your choice.

[TBoneit]

I keep getting the email alerts from Newegg with 128Gb SSDs under a dollar a Gb.

Both of my laptops perform much better with SSD.
It doesn't actually make software that needs CPU any faster. But with the decrease in boot time and program load times they feel like a new laptop.
Windows updates install faster, Virus scans are faster and shut down time is much better.

This little I3 I'm using right now with a 120Gb Intel SSD. I press the power button to shut down and before I've 5 steps it is off. The P.O.S.T. takes almost as long as the actual boot. Everything desktop & laptop has SSD boot drives that I own. Once I bought the first one and used it I started the conversion process.

Before you buy read the user reviews.

The laptop will run cooler to the touch over the area where the hard drive is too. Also I leave the swap file (pagefile) on the SSD, the speed that it gives doing that is well worth the small reduction in drive life in my opinion. Right now 78.1 Gb free out of the 111GB Microsoft drive size , 120Gb Intel SSD

[Hoser Rob]

Jeez, I had an issue like this a couple of days ago. Tried installing ubuntu 12.04 (new install) and it wouldn't do it. Turned out I had to repartition the drive ... dang hp bloatware.

Reformatted your HP drive? Interesting. How would you get into HP's restore partition to get your original OS back? Or does Ubuntu handle that automatically? Maybe you mean you installed ubuntu as a dual-boot?

I repartitioned it, I didn't reformat except for that stupid 'HP-Tools', which was even formatted fat32 for God's sake. Good riddance to that.

No, ubuntu doesn't handle that part. It was a bit frustrating until I figured out what it was, then quite simple (if time consuming). I actually don't think you could set up any kind of dual boot with the system at one end of the drive and that other stuff at the other end.

The restore partition I backed up.

Yes, it's dual boot. For now. I'm kissing Windows goodbye on that machine. Linux is much nicer. I wouldn't recommend it for gamers or serious users of things like photoshop or autocad ... the open source alternatives don't really compare. But almost every windows program I use is a linux port anyway.

BTW repartitioning the hd isn't usually needed to install. I blame HP.