Guest bill@love.ranch Posted July 13, 2008 Posted July 13, 2008 I'm sure everybody but me got the word. Why, when I install Windows on a clean drive, and create 2 partitions, does it leave 8MB at the top unpatritioned. I partitioned a drive with Paragon HD manager and it did not do that. Does Windoz actually use this or is it just a doz thing? Will it work if I use the Paragon partitions? thx
Guest Carey Frisch [MVP] Posted July 13, 2008 Posted July 13, 2008 Re: unpartitioned space - everyone knows but me. Its for Windows Recovery Console. -- Carey Frisch Microsoft MVP Windows Desktop Experience - Windows Vista Enthusiast --------------------------------------------------------------- <bill@love.ranch> wrote in message news:do1j74hos9ra480r3s40hkak6jdok423hr@4ax.com... I'm sure everybody but me got the word. Why, when I install Windows on a clean drive, and create 2 partitions, does it leave 8MB at the top unpatritioned. I partitioned a drive with Paragon HD manager and it did not do that. Does Windoz actually use this or is it just a doz thing? Will it work if I use the Paragon partitions? thx
Guest Doug Knox - [MS-MVP] Posted July 13, 2008 Posted July 13, 2008 Re: unpartitioned space - everyone knows but me. I've never used Paragon, but instead use BootIt NG. It does not leave the 8 MB at the top, and I've had absolutely zero issues with any OS that's installed. -- Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows Media Center\Windows Powered Smart Display\Security Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes http://www.dougknox.com -------------------------------- Per user Group Policy Restrictions for XP Home and XP Pro http://www.dougknox.com/xp/utils/xp_securityconsole.htm -------------------------------- Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit. Unsolicited e-mail is not answered. <bill@love.ranch> wrote in message news:do1j74hos9ra480r3s40hkak6jdok423hr@4ax.com... > I'm sure everybody but me got the word. > > Why, when I install Windows on a clean drive, and create 2 partitions, > does it leave 8MB at the top unpatritioned. > > I partitioned a drive with Paragon HD manager and it did not do that. > Does Windoz actually use this or is it just a doz thing? > > Will it work if I use the Paragon partitions? > > thx >
Guest John John (MVP) Posted July 13, 2008 Posted July 13, 2008 Re: unpartitioned space - everyone knows but me. It's reserved space for Dynamic Disk conversion, if you want to convert the disk later on this space is needed for the dynamic disk database. John bill@love.ranch wrote: > I'm sure everybody but me got the word. > > Why, when I install Windows on a clean drive, and create 2 partitions, > does it leave 8MB at the top unpatritioned. > > I partitioned a drive with Paragon HD manager and it did not do that. > Does Windoz actually use this or is it just a doz thing? > > Will it work if I use the Paragon partitions? > > thx >
Guest glee Posted July 13, 2008 Posted July 13, 2008 Re: unpartitioned space - everyone knows but me. If you partition the drive using all the disk space, Windows setup will reserve a minimum of 1MB, or one cylinder on the drive, whichever is greater, to be used for the MBR if you later convert to Dynamic Disks. One cylinder is the ~8MB you see. See the explanation under the General Notes in this article: How To Convert to Basic and Dynamic Disks in Windows XP Professional http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309044 Although this article refers to Win2K, it provides applicable info for WinXP also: Setup Reserves Disk Space for Upgrading to Dynamic Disk http://support.microsoft.com/kb/225822/en-us If the partitions were created by other operating systems or by a utility that does not automatically create it, you won't be able to convert to dynamic disks....which does not strike me as any great loss. -- Glen Ventura, MS MVP Windows, A+ http://dts-l.net/ http://dts-l.net/goodpost.htm <bill@love.ranch> wrote in message news:do1j74hos9ra480r3s40hkak6jdok423hr@4ax.com... > I'm sure everybody but me got the word. > > Why, when I install Windows on a clean drive, and create 2 partitions, > does it leave 8MB at the top unpatritioned. > > I partitioned a drive with Paragon HD manager and it did not do that. > Does Windoz actually use this or is it just a doz thing? > > Will it work if I use the Paragon partitions? > > thx >
Guest Ken Blake, MVP Posted July 13, 2008 Posted July 13, 2008 Re: unpartitioned space - everyone knows but me. On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 04:40:03 GMT, bill@love.ranch wrote: > I'm sure everybody but me got the word. > > Why, when I install Windows on a clean drive, and create 2 partitions, > does it leave 8MB at the top unpatritioned. You've already gotten answers to your question, but I just wanted to point out that at today's hard drive prices, when you can buy a 160GB drive for under $50 US, 8MB is well under a penny's worth of disk space. It's a tiny amount, and nothing to be concerned about. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience Please Reply to the Newsgroup
Guest Anna Posted July 13, 2008 Posted July 13, 2008 Re: unpartitioned space - everyone knows but me. <bill@love.ranch> wrote in message news:do1j74hos9ra480r3s40hkak6jdok423hr@4ax.com... > I'm sure everybody but me got the word. > > Why, when I install Windows on a clean drive, and create 2 partitions, > does it leave 8MB at the top unpatritioned. > > I partitioned a drive with Paragon HD manager and it did not do that. > Does Windoz actually use this or is it just a doz thing? > > Will it work if I use the Paragon partitions? > > thx bill: While you've probably rec'd enough responses to your query to understand that 8 MB partition Windows creates, let me just add the following... That 8 MB partition is autocreated by the operating system to handle dynamic disk information. When a disk is converted to dynamic (usually through the Disk Management snap-in), information regarding the configuration and any dependencies (e.g. software RAID) are stored on disk at the end of the drive. This is how a drive can be moved from one dynamic disk array to another and be recognized as foreign drive. The reason is that the space needs to be there should a user decide at anytime during the life of the operating system that they want to enable dynamic disks. The 8 MB is there for so that the option to enable dynamic disks does not mean an OS reinstall. On the down side, it does mean that users lose 8 MB of the drive. But it's such a trifling amount considering today's HDDs that contain a rather enormous amount of disk space that for practical purposes it's of no real consequence to the user . Here's a further posting on the subject from a MS rep: "That 8 MB partition is auto-created to handle dynamic disk information. When a disk is converted to dynamic in the Disk Management snapin, information regarding the configuration and any dependencies (e.g. software RAID) are stored on disk at the end of the drive. This is how a drive can be moved from one dynamic disk array to another and be recognized as foreign drive. Best regards, Mike Truitt Microsoft Corporation" There should be no problem re this situation with your system if you've used the Paragon software to multi-partition your HDD. (Virtually all the "experts" recommend *against* creating "dynamic" disks rather than the "basic" disk, except in the case where a RAID configuration might be established as noted above). Anna
Guest bill@love.ranch Posted July 13, 2008 Posted July 13, 2008 Re: unpartitioned space - everyone knows but me. Thank u all so much. since it is a notebook, I guess I will never have a need for dynamic disks - and I have enough issues already without looking for more. On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 10:59:58 -0400, "Anna" <myname@myisp.net> wrote: > ><bill@love.ranch> wrote in message >news:do1j74hos9ra480r3s40hkak6jdok423hr@4ax.com... >> I'm sure everybody but me got the word. >> >> Why, when I install Windows on a clean drive, and create 2 partitions, >> does it leave 8MB at the top unpatritioned. >> >> I partitioned a drive with Paragon HD manager and it did not do that. >> Does Windoz actually use this or is it just a doz thing? >> >> Will it work if I use the Paragon partitions? >> >> thx > > >bill: >While you've probably rec'd enough responses to your query to understand >that 8 MB partition Windows creates, let me just add the following... > >That 8 MB partition is autocreated by the operating system to handle dynamic >disk information. When a disk is converted to dynamic (usually through the >Disk Management snap-in), information regarding the configuration and any >dependencies (e.g. software RAID) are stored on disk at the end of the >drive. This is how a drive can be moved from one dynamic disk array to >another and be recognized as foreign drive. > >The reason is that the space needs to be there should a user decide at >anytime during the life of the operating system that they want to enable >dynamic disks. The 8 MB is there for so that the option to enable dynamic >disks does not mean an OS reinstall. On the down side, it does mean that >users lose 8 MB of the drive. But it's such a trifling amount considering >today's HDDs that contain a rather enormous amount of disk space that for >practical purposes it's of no real consequence to the user . > >Here's a further posting on the subject from a MS rep: > >"That 8 MB partition is auto-created to handle dynamic disk information. >When a disk is converted to dynamic in the Disk Management snapin, >information regarding the configuration and any dependencies (e.g. software >RAID) are stored on disk at the end of the drive. This is how a drive can >be moved from one dynamic disk array to another and be recognized as >foreign drive. > >Best regards, > >Mike Truitt >Microsoft Corporation" > >There should be no problem re this situation with your system if you've used >the Paragon software to multi-partition your HDD. > >(Virtually all the "experts" recommend *against* creating "dynamic" disks >rather than the "basic" disk, except in the case where a RAID configuration >might be established as noted above). >Anna >
Recommended Posts