The 100MB Partition in Windows 7

As you might already know Windows 7 default installation creates a 100MB partition during Setup.
The function is not really documented on the Internet, however reading this you should already know what it is for.

The partition in question is the System Reserved Partition.

So lets compare the Windows 7 installation with and without the 100MB System Reserve Partition.

Firstly lets take a look at the root drive of the Windows 7 with the 100MB:

Next lets take a look at the root drive of the Windows 7 without the 100MB:

So what is the the difference? It is the presence of file and folder required for booting like bootmgr etc...

Open up the 100MB partition and what do you know we are right!

So what does this means?
It means in actual fact the extra partition is optional has 0 effects on system operation.

So lets take a logical approach and think of possible reasons for this change.

1)Prevent Noobs from accidentally killing their Windows Installation by moving the boot files off C:\ to a partition they can't touch? Possible Very Likely
2)Optimize boot performance by moving boot files to the first partition(front part of the drive)? Possible as well.
3)Modularize the OS file layout? Very possible a much more elegant solution than cramping all the files into C:\.In fact it could mean you could multiboot multiple Windows OS on volumes without having repeated Boot files in each and every installation.

What does this means to end user? It means for those Dual Booters like me it is 4 - 2 primary partition left instead of 4 - 1.
Does it matter? No because you can create logical/extended partition to bypass the 4 primary partition limit in legacy Master Boot Record (MBR).
It doesn't affect GUID Partition Tables (GPT) on EFI systems.
Unfortunately Windows 7 doesn't do GPT volume installation.

So remember the 100MB is just a rearrangement of boot files. Period.

Acer Phoenix BIOS Emergency Recovery

This is for people who don't listen and interrupt the flashing BIOS for unknown reasons.

This will work provided the BIOS BootBlock isn't screwed up while your Main BIOS Image is gone so remember when flashing DO NOT FLASH the bootblock.

The bootblock is to initialize emergency BIOS recovery for some reason the BIOS screwed up.

Download the CrisDisk here.

Do the following on a spare working computer to prepare the BIOS Recovery Drive:

Rename a working copy of the BIOS to bios.wph.

UnZip & Extract CrisDisk to a folder called CrisDisk.

Copy and Paste the bios.wph inside the folder
(Remember to replace the sample bios.wph in the folder with your working BIOS!).

Plug a USB Floppy Disk with a Floppy Disk inside.

You can try using a Thumbdrive but the chances of working with a Floppy Disk is higher.

Right Click and run and WinCris.exe with Admin Permission.

It will format the floppy, copy the MiniDOS files inside with the bios.wph to create a emergency BIOS Recovery Disk.

I have tried this with Aspire 4530.

Do the following on the Computer which BIOS you need to recover:

Plug in the prepared USB Floppy Drive to the machine you need to recover the BIOS from on the left USB port which is the motherboard main USB (There are 2 such ports on the same side).

Remove battery and AC Adapter.

Press and hold Fn+Esc then plug the AC Adapter in while holding Fn+Esc.

Press the Power Button Once and release while holding Fn+Esc.

You should see the lights flashing meaning the laptop is in BIOS Recovery Mode.

The USB Floppy drive should be lighted up and you should hear the floppy drive reading after that you can release Fn+Esc.

After a while you should see either it power off itself or the laptop lights stop flashing.

Remove the AC Adapter, USB Floppy Drive.

Plug back the AC Adapter your laptop should be working again.

Insyde BIOS recovery is different.
1)EFI doesn't need a bootable thumbdrive because EFI uses GUID Partition Tables just a normal partition will be ok (I think).
2)You need to rename the EFI to the correct name so recovery bootblock will identify the correct firmware.

Windows 7 Boot Optimization Error

I am not sure if you guys know you can manually invoke Windows 7 defragmentation Tool to do boot optimization by using the /b flag.

When you run defrag.exe, you get the following

Microsoft Disk Defragmenter
Copyright (c) 2007 Microsoft Corp.

The parameter is incorrect. (0x80070057)

Description:

Locates and consolidates fragmented files on local volumes to
improve system performance.

Syntax:

defrag | /C | /E [/H] [/M | [/U] [/V]]
defrag | /C | /E /A [/H] [/M | [/U] [/V]]
defrag | /C | /E /X [/H] [/M | [/U] [/V]]
defrag /T [/H] [/U] [/V]

Parameters:

Value Description

/A Perform analysis on the specified volumes.

/C Perform the operation on all volumes.

/E Perform the operation on all volumes except those specified.

/H Run the operation at normal priority (default is low).

/M Run the operation on each volume in parallel in the background.

/T Track an operation already in progress on the specified volume.

/U Print the progress of the operation on the screen.

/V Print verbose output containing the fragmentation statistics.

/X Perform free space consolidation on the specified volumes.

Examples:

defrag C: /U /V
defrag C: D: /M
defrag C:\mountpoint /A /U
defrag /C /H /V

Notice there is no /B flag but it is there.
However on a fresh Windows 7 installation when you try to do this with Administrative Permission in a Command Prompt Window.

C:\Windows\system32>defrag C: /B

You get some message saying it cannot be done like the following:

Microsoft Disk Defragmenter
Copyright (c) 2007 Microsoft Corp.

Invoking boot optimization on (C:)...

Analysis: 100% complete.

Some registry entries were missing from the boot optimization section of the reg
istry. (0x89000017)

How to resolve this?
The issue is the idle tasks Windows is scheduled to run hasn't run once yet hence it cannot initialize boot optimization.
So to resolve simply open a Command Prompt Windows with Administrative Permission again and run the following commands to invoke the idle task.

C:\Windows\system32>Rundll32.exe advapi32.dll,ProcessIdleTasks
After that the error message will be gone and you can run boot optimization manually.

Why doesn't this happen sometimes?
Because RunIdle task is scheduled to run eventually after sometime of idle usage
if you do boot defrag immmediately after installation,
RunIdle task hasn't got a chance to run at all so you have to invoke it manually
if you want to start the operation immediately.

Optimize Windows Vista Boot

What you should do to conserve and optimize disk space and boot time.

1) After download software like Firefox, after installation please delete the installer.

eg. Setup.exe

New Versions will come out and internet download speeds are so fast, so there is no point keeping it.

2) Do this weekly:
Start>> All Programs>> Accesories>> System Tools>> Disk Clean Up

Check Everything Except for Hibernation File.

Or download and install a autodiskcleanup script I created

CCleaner is a extra ware that does the same thing it uses System Resource hence I don't use this.

3) Open Control Panel >> Administrative Tools >> Services

Disable "SuperFetch"

Stop "Superfetch"

Reason being Superfetch isn't very efficient, very often it overfetches Programs you rarely use, increasing boot time as a result.

4) Clean temporary Directories.
They are:

C:\Users\{Your User Name}\AppData\Local\Temp
C:\Windows\Temp
C:\Windows\Prefetch (Delete the ReadyBoot Contents before ReadyBoot folder)
I have created a batch file to kill superfetch.
Download and run with Administrator permission here (Superfetch Killer)

5) Here is a Windows Batch File that clears useless file recursively in all directories.

Batch file is provided by mydigitallife

Open in Notepad to see the script content.
To Run, Right Click "Run as Admin"

Next run sdelete to zero the harddisk space and return all unused space

Use the command:

sdelete -c

After that do a Disk Defragmentation and Reboot

Using this method my Acer Aspire 4530 now boots in 5 Rolling Bars instead of the previous 18 &

My 5 year old Desktop has the following specification:

Intel Pentium 4 HT 2.8GHZ 512KB L2 Cache (NorthWood)

4GB DDR RAM 400MHZ

250GB WD 16MB Buffer Cache

875P Motherboard

Currently the dinosaur is running Windows Vista rather speedily so try it!

Acer Aspire 4530 Boot Screen

Acer Aspire 4530 Boot Dianogostic Screen

PhoenixBIOS 4.0 Release 6.1

Copyright 1985-2008 Phoenix Technologies Ltd.

All Rights Reserve

1.052.A6 NVIDIA NFORCE

CPU0=AMD Turion(tm) X2 Dual-Core Mobile RM-72

CPU Stepping = B1 2100MHZ

MemClk = 333Mhz Tcl = 5.0 Trcd = 5 Tras = 12 Trp = 5

CPU<->MCP:LDT Frequency = 1800Mhz LDT Width = 16bit DOWN - 16bit UP

No TPM or TPM has a problem

2815M System RAM Passed

1024KB L2 Cache per Core

System BIOS shadowed

Video BIOS shadowed

Fixed Disk 0: WDC3200BEVT-222CT0

ATAPI CD-ROM:HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-T50N

Mouse initialized

System Configuration Data updated

Press F2 to enter Setup

HyperTransport (HT), formerly known as Lightning Data Transport (LDT)

MCP (Media and Communications Processor)

Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is both the name of a published specification detailing a secure cryptoprocessor that can storecryptographic keys that protect information

ATAPI (AT Attachment Packet Interface) is an interface between your computer and attached CD-ROM drives and tape backup drives

Closest I can get to 2817 = 4096 - 1087 - 256 + 64

Or it could be some BIOS Programming legacy