unpartitioned space - everyone knows but me.

[bill]

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

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Its for Windows Recovery Console.

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows Desktop Experience -
Windows Vista Enthusiast

---------------------------------------------------------------

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

 

[Doug Knox - [MS-MVP]]

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.

 

[John John (MVP)]

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

 

[glee]

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.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

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.

 

[Anna]

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

 

[bill]

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.