System Reserved Partition (F)

Yes, I have a stick and I install the Macrium Boot screen too.

TheMystic said:

Macrium USB disk?

I got what you said about the leftover. I never questioned that. I don't know which part of my posts makes you think that I didn't understand what you said.

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Well you kept insisting it was needed and part of his GPT install, when we were all telling you it was not.

AddRAM said:

Yes, I have a stick and I install the Macrium Boot screen too.

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I will check out what Macrium Boot Screen is. Will it help recover the system if the system partition itself gets corrupt?

Go to where it says Create Rescue Media, it will be 1 of the options.

AddRAM said:

Well you kept insisting it was needed and part of his GPT install, when we were all telling you it was not.

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I was talking about the MSR partition of size 16 MB, which gets created on clean install, including on GPT disks. Since he didn't have a partition of that size, I said that the system probably used the 50 MB partition to store MSR files.

But I have found out, that when your system is UEFI and not Legacy, your Rescue Boot Screen is a ugly black and white Bios/Dos looking screen and not the nice Metro Windows 8 looking screen, I will see if I have a picture. You simply Build the Boot screen (just look at the picture) and set the timer to like 3 seconds with the boot tab of msconfig.

TheMystic said:

I was talking about the MSR partition of size 16 MB, which gets created on clean install, including on GPT disks. Since he didn't have a partition of that size, I said that the system probably used the 50 MB partition to store MSR files.

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Right, but he didn`t do a clean install, he did a conversion, so no 16MB partition. His boot files are on the EFI System Partition.
And no 16MB "Other" partition ever gets created on a MBR/Legacy install. It only gets created on a clean GPT/UEFI install.
If you have ever done a clean MBR/Legacy install, you would know this.

AddRAM said:

Yes, I have a stick and I install the Macrium Boot screen too.

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Which means you need the stick to access recovery. What if you don't have the stick when you need it?

AddRAM said:

Right, but he didn`t do a clean install, he did a conversion, so no 16MB partition. His boot files are on the EFI System Partition.
And no 16MB "Other" partition ever gets created on a MBR/Legacy install. It only gets created on a clean GPT/UEFI install.
If you have ever done a clean MBR/Legacy install, you would know this.

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He upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 and switched from MBR/Legacy to GPT/UEFI? Won't the upgrade process create MSR or add those files to an existing partition?

TheMystic said:

Which means you need the stick to access recovery. What if you don't have the stick when you need it?

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I can use either or, and my stick is right in front of me, so there is no "When I don`t have it"

Meet the Keeper of the Stick he holds the Macrium Stick of Recovery. And his never fail Zorin OS 12 Core stick.

TheMystic said:

He upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 and switched from MBR/Legacy to GPT/UEFI? Won't the upgrade process create MSR or add those files to an existing partition?

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The boot files are in the EFI System Partition, look at my shot of Disk Management again.

Not having your stick is like saying "What if your backup drive dies" well then, you are SOOL
The answer my Young Padawan is Redundancy, plain and simple Redundancy.

AddRAM said:

I can use either or, and my stick is right in front of me, so there is no "When I don`t have it"

Meet the Keeper of the Stick he holds the Macrium Stick of Recovery. And his never fail Zorin OS 12 Core stick.

View attachment 13967

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Check out my Disk Management:



In case of a system corruption, where the Windows partition goes entirely corrupt:

1. I can boot into Recovery because it is in a separate partition, unaffected by the Windows partition.
2. I can repair Windows using Command Prompt from Recovery,
3. I can install a fresh copy of Windows using DISM from Recovery using the install.wim file located in E: partition. I use this partition when I want to run Sysprep.

I don't need a separate USB recovery/ install disk, and therefore a safekeeper for it :).

Can you recover your system should your safekeeper lose it?

You`ve got too much going on for Disk 0, what if I threw Disk 0 into the Atlantic ?
Could you still recover it ?

AddRAM said:

You`ve got too much going on for Disk 0, what if I threw Disk 0 into the Atlantic ?
Could you still recover it ?

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Isn't that true for you too?

In my case, I have a better chance since Recovery is sitting in a different partition from Windows. And I have a 2nd Windows too!

I have a fully self-sufficient setup.

Agree, such requirements would be rare. But disasters too happen rarely!

No my 970 only has 2 partitions on it, yours is a mess.
The only thing you should have on Disk 0 is your OS.
And don`t you think I already have windows on another drive too ?

AddRAM said:

No my 970 only has 2 partitions on it, yours is a mess.
The only thing you should have on Disk 0 is your OS.
And don`t you think I already have windows on another drive too ?

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Not many machines (especially Laptops) support dual disks.

I will ALWAYS recommend keeping user files (or Data) separate from the partition containing the OS. It has very important benefits and it would be a mess to put everything in one partition, such as in your case. If disaster strikes, recovery can become much more difficult if everything is in the same partition.

What are you talking about, the only thing I have on my 970 is the OS.
Once again you are not paying attention. Read my Z170 specs, and then go to bed.
Keeping Data on another partition is no different than keeping it on the same partition if you only use 1 drive, you have got a lot to learn my friend.

AddRAM said:

What are you talking about, the only thing I have on my 970 is the OS.
Once again you are not paying attention. Read my Z170 specs, and then go to bed.
Keeping Data on another partition is no different than keeping it on the same partition if you only use 1 drive, you have got a lot to learn my friend.

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You have 2 data disks, in addition to the OS disk. So you are able to use the whole disk for the OS alone.

Do you think this is standard configuration?

Standard or most setups have just one disk, and the only way to separate data from the OS is by partitioning the disk. And it is important to do that because it has some very important benefits:

i. In case of a system problem (software errors, malware, etc.), I can easily wipe (or format) the system partition and do a clean install of the OS (or restore a clean image from backup) without worrying about my files.

ii. System backups are very fast as the file size is much smaller.

The above 2 are good and compelling enough to keep data separate from the OS.

If you disagree, say so with proper explanations, instead of just blanket statements. It isn't sleep time yet.

On a computer with only drive available, such as some/most laptop computers, I would have 4 partitions UEFI, and 3 partitions if it was legacy/MBR.

The first partition would be a 100 MB system partition that the computer boots from. The second partition for a UEFI system only would be a 16 MB MSR partition (useless, but Microsoft likes it). Then it would be followed by a 64 GB primary, NTFS partition holding the OS and apps/programs only. The rest of the drive would be an NTFS partition containing user and data files. I don't do recovery partitions on the main drive, my recovery environment is under C:\Recovery. If I need the recovery environment on a single drive system, it's also available by booting from the Windows 10 installation USB flash drive. I keep data files separate from the OS because it makes the OS easier to re-install if something should happen to it - which could be anything from a bad Windows update/upgrade, power failure.

Users should always have the USB flash drive to boot from - they should have Windows 10 installation USB and their backup imaging program's rescue drive - both can be combined on one USB flash drive. Users should also be doing image backups of their systems.

All of my computers have two drives installed and the only thing that is different is that my user/data files are on the second physical drive in one partition followed by a second, custom recovery partition that has both Macrium Reflect Rescue on it as well as Windows installation files. With the tools I have on dual drive systems, If the primary drive physically failed, I could set up my second drive with the OS and data without even needing to boot from a flash drive. But I still maintain a bootable USB flash drive also.