New Win 7 install created system reserved drive issue

magicia9 · Aug 11, 2013

I just reinstalled windows 7 64 bit (was getting black screen).

There were 2 drives on my computer. C for windows, and another 1TB drive that was partitioned into D and E (500GB each).

I chose to install Windows back onto C. But now there is a system reserved drive of 100MB called D (i have read up on win 7 doing this). My question is twofold:

1. How do I get my real drive D back (the E drive is showing up fine with my data) - because that has 500 GB of data on it? Is it still there? I never told windows to use this or formatted anything.

2. Once I get that back (if i can) - How do I get windows to be only on drive C and leave my other drives alone?

Thanks - this is stressing me out because I need that data

Magicia9

das_stig · Aug 11, 2013

Best way, during install, delete any partitions on both drives, select C: as install, reserved partition and OS will be on C: drive.
Once Windows installed, use disk manager to create partitions on D: drive.

magicia9 · Aug 11, 2013

das_stig :

Before I do that - I need to get that data back.
I cannot currently delete partition on second drive - i need to get the data back from that drive first, will backup it up once I get it back and then can do re-install.
So how do i get that data back - i assume its sitting somewhere - it should not have formatted that drive.

das_stig · Aug 11, 2013

If you need D: to be on 1TB, then delete the system partition and give the missing drive the letter D: using disk manager, although just giving the missing drive a drive letter will also work if you just need access to the files for backup, so the 1TB ends up with E: and F:

magicia9 · Aug 11, 2013

das_stig :

Perhaps I am not explaining this correctly. I have lost my original hard drive D - which has been replaced by the system reserved drive. I am wondering how I can get my original 500 GB drive back because that has data on it. I cannot see the data from that drive anywhere currently. I don't care so much for naming or partition etc..mainly just want to know how I can find my data at this point.
thanks.

John_VanKirk · Aug 11, 2013

Hi there,
Couple important questions first. Is this a home built computer, or a brand name, and what are the manufacturers, model #, size of both HDDs?

When you reinstalled Win-7 did you have both HDDs connected to the MB?
Also look in Disk Management and see if there is a 100MB system reserved partition on the C drive. If not, Win-7 installed the system reserved on the secondary drive and overwrote some of you D data.

With that info, we should be able to give you the best way to get you going again, and recover all or almost all the data previously on your secondary drive D partition

magicia9 · Aug 11, 2013

Thanks everyone for the help - just solved this (woohoo)...posting what happened below and solution so if anyone has similar issue.

Yes i did have the other drive connected when I reinstalled windows. This was a home built computer, both drives were 1TB

I went into the disk management system (accessed through control panel - i googled how to do this), there I was able to see my other partitioned drive. Windows 7 did install system restored on the c drive - it automatically partitioned the c drive into c and d and used the D for system reserved drive. This was the letter (D) I was using for the other drive previously. So I think it deactivated the old D partition (leaving the data on the 2nd drive alone). So in disk management, I changed the drive path for my old drive to another letter (P) and it brought it back. Phew!

das_stig · Aug 12, 2013

John_VanKirk · Aug 12, 2013

Hi again,
The MS system reserved partition is created when you install Win-7 and is used for the boot manager code, boot config database, and bitlocker. It normally is not assigned a drive letter, and is hidden. Sometimes when you have 2 HDDs connected at installation, it s placed on the 2nd HDD, which can become a real problem if you remove that HDD later.

Google "system reserved partition assigned a drive letter" and you will find helpful info from others who had that problem. Here is a pertinent link: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1571931

In essence you don't want the system reserved partition to have a drive letter as it will show up in your drive structure. In Disk Management, you can right click on the system reserved partition, and choose "change drive letter or paths", then choose remove drive letter. That's the way it should be, without a drive letter.

Could you have inadvertently set the secondary drive 1st partition to D manually, since normally windows will assign your DVD as drive D, and secondary HDD partitions as subsequent drive letters.

Do you have a DVD player or burner on this computer, and if so, what drive letter is assigned to it?

As a subsequent step, you could then in Disk Management, reassign your DVD to drive D, and leave your recently re-lettered P: drive partition on the secondary drive as such, or change it to another drive letter, or even D:. If you (or windows) assigns two drives with the same letter, one won't show up, as you noticed. I always call my back-up partition drive K:, my photo partition drive P:, and any compact flash or other USB ports V - Y.

When you do cleanly install Win7 or Win-8 next time, it is best to have only the system drive connected, no secondary drives until everything is working fine, and choose custom install.

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New Win 7 install created system reserved drive issue

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