Please help me understand my Win7 SSD partitions - how do I move System Reserved partition from one SSD to another?

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watchingtele

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Hi Tom's,

I'm hoping someone can help me with this.

When I got my PC it had one SSD, but since then I've gotten a bigger one as I was low on storage and I moved windows onto it (by making a complete copy of the original SSD). The original SSD is no longer the system disk but has just been sitting there in my computer not being used, I'm now low on space again and want to format that disk so I can use it as additional storage.

The problem is I don't understand my partitions, specifically the System Reserved partition on the old disk. Do I still need this? Can I even move it over before formatting the old disk or do I need to do something special? I'd assume it is for something if it is System Reserved so thought I'd better be careful.

Here's my partitions:
partitions.png


Thanks a lot for reading, I look forward to any response. :)
Cheers,
watchingtele
 
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watchingtele

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Thanks, Steve.

I can't do it right now (I posted this during my lunch break) but I will try it later and let you know what happens.

As for the 100MB data partition, I have a couple of ideas but I'm not sure about either. I think either it is the same as the System Reserved partition and it got copied over when I copied the original disk onto this one (but I can't remember how I did it or if all partitions or just the main one would have been copied) or maybe it was created as part of upgrading to Windows Ultimate from Pro, which I did at some point after moving to the new drive.

The first theory should be pretty easy to test later by just checking if the content is extremely similar to that in the System Reserved partition... I'm still not sure if it helps though because both are 'Active' according to the partitions screen?

Also, should everything be primary partitions or is that not right? It just sounds odd having multiple primary somethings and no secondary, tertiary, etc. >.<

edit: Just to clarify - I want to format Disk 1 and keep Disk 0. Wasn't sure if I explained that properly before.
 
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watchingtele

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Ok, not sure if you'll see this Steve but hopefully someone will. I didn't realise this forum was so fast paced so posting at lunch and coming back to it didn't seem like an issue earlier.

Anyway - I couldn't figure out what the data partition is for as it doesn't show up as a drive anywhere so I can't look at it? I figured out how to disable the second SSD in BIOS though and my computer has still booted up fine, does that mean it is safe to erase everything on that SSD? I'm not sure where Windows is storing back-ups and so forth right now, maybe it is that 'data' partition?

Here is my partition screen now that I've disabled the second SSD:
Partitions2.png


Oh. Another question as I'm posting these images anyway - is there any reason for all that 'Unallocated Space'? Does Windows use it as swap space or something or should I just extend a partition into it/use it as space to copy the System Reserved partition from the other SSD?

Cheers,
watchingtele
 
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ArtPog

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Forget about the SR partition on the "other" SSD. Under no circumstances should you copy its contents to your 250 GB SSD. You should, however, extend the C: partition of the drive so that the partition will encompass the additional 23+ GB of disk-space.
 
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kenrivers

kenrivers

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The unallocated space (the 23.29 GB) is used for Over Provisioning. It is generally recommended that you keep that at least 10% of the drive free for Over Provisioning.

"Essentially, over-provisioning allocates a portion of the total flash memory available to the flash storage processor, which it needs to perform various memory management functions. This leaves less usable capacity, of course, but results in superior performance and endurance. More sophisticated applications require more over-provisioning, but the benefits inevitably outweigh the reduction in usable capacity."
Source: http://www.edn.com/design/systems-design/4404566/Understanding-SSD-over-provisioning

A white paper from Samsung regarding OP: http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/minisite/SSD/global/html/whitepaper/whitepaper05.html

Regarding formatting of the spare SSD you want to do a "Secure Erase" instead of formatting the drive. A secure erase will wipe the drive.
 
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watchingtele

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Oh, well that isn't what I wanted to read this morning. I backed up the System Reserved partition from the smaller drive to a new partition on the larger drive last night. I called it BkupOfSystemReserved or something, so it doesn't have the System Reserved name if that's important. What are your reasons for saying I shouldn't have done this? I'm guessing I will need to do some cleanup.

I found out what the 'wasted' disk space was for also - it was set that way by Samsung Magician for Over Provisioning. Having looked this up I think it is probably a good idea to keep this space, especially as I now have the second SSD formatted and working.
 
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watchingtele

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OK, cheers Ken, that makes sense. But does it make any difference that the OS I am using is a clone of the one on the original disk? By which I mean with my OS copied over to the newer disk, surely the new disk needs a System Reserved partition too (now that I've wiped the old disk)? Admittedly it doesn't seem to... but it must be for something...

Also, will I have caused any problems by copying the System Reserved partition across or can I simply delete that partition now and forget it ever existed?
 
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kenrivers

kenrivers

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Yes, the new disk needs the system reserved partition and it makes no difference that it was cloned. That partition contains boot information. You can delete the partition that contains BkupOfSystemReserved as it is not needed. It should not have created any problems since you gave it a different name.
 
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watchingtele

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But this is what's confusing me - there is no System Reserved partition on the new drive (or the other drive now) and I've not noticed a problem so far. Do I need to make a new one somehow?
 
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kenrivers

kenrivers

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As long as the computer boots and works without any problem then I would not worry about it. I would only be concerned if you were having issues with the computer booting properly.
 
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