Extra 8 MB Unused Partition

[cssadmin]

Hi,
I recently installed Microsoft Windows XP Professional on my new built computer, and I'm wondering why it has created an extra small unused 8MB partition. When I use Partiton Magic, it displays the XP NTFS partiton and then a small unused partition next to it.
Is it safe to enlarge the XP partition so that it takes over this unused space?

Thanks.

 

[jcortes]

that is just an extra partition for booting the mother board. just leave it there it doesnt show up as a drive.

 

[cssadmin]

thanks for your post.
the reason I'm asking this is because I want to dual-boot another operating system and I am wondering whether I can use this space for the operating system, or whether I NEED to keep the partition free

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

that is just an extra partition for booting the mother board. just leave it there it doesnt show up as a drive.

??? Are you on crack, this have nothing to do with the motherboard.

XP for some reasons awlways leaves 8 meg of ununsed space, dunno why.

 

[Inaris]

I believe it's for NTFS caching or something. Might be error checking too. I found it once. Now I have to go look again.

 

[cssadmin]

Thanks for your posts.
I found this on the web which may be the reason

Dave asks - When doing a clean install, I deleted all previous partitions and created a new one. For some reason, XP wants to create an 8 MB partition instead of allowing me to use it for my partition.

mtruitt answers:
That 8 meg partition is autocreated to handle dynamic disk information. When a disk is converted to dynamic in 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.

Larc inquires:
Wonder what the reason is for that, Mike? Why make default preparations for something most people don't use? If anybody is going to be inconvenienced, it should be the minority!

mtruitt comes back:
The reason is that the space needs to be there should a user decide at any time during the life of the Operating System that they want to enable dynamic disks. The 8 meg is there for so that the option to enable dynamic disks does not mean an Operating System reinstall. On the down side, it does mean that users lose 8 meg of the drive.

what are dynamic disks?

 

[EricB]

that 8mb part is the MBR (Master Boot Record)

it's where they (MS) keep little info about things such as partition and other stuffs. they can also put stuff there to stop you from doing things, like when install xpsp2 it won't let you reinstall sp1 on a fresh format.

they also lock people computer in the past, for having certain bootleg keys on their machines. and you couldn't reinstall windows on that locked computer.

if you get a boot sector virus and reinstall windows, you will have the same problem

but powermax can alway clean the bootsector. fdisc and the xp cd can't

 

[Law]

Sorry Eric but I disagree with that. The MBR is always at the begining of every harddrive and is only about 512 bytes long. Beside how is it going to work if it's unallocated?

I don't have that 8MB on my harddisk, because I did not use windows formatter instead I use partition magic. When you use windows to format your harddrive it will put 8mb of unallocated partition so you can retain the ability to convert the drive to a dynamic volume. Without it you may not be able to.

What's dynamic? check this site kind long to explain

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkb_cnc_whjq.asp

 

[EricB]

Sorry Eric but I disagree with that. The MBR is always at the begining of every harddrive and is only about 512 bytes long. Beside how is it going to work if it's unallocated?

I don't have that 8MB on my harddisk, because I did not use windows formatter instead I use partition magic. When you use windows to format your harddrive it will put 8mb of unallocated partition so you can retain the ability to convert the drive to a dynamic volume. Without it you may not be able to.

What's dynamic? check this site kind long to explain

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkb_cnc_whjq.asp

you don't have to agree with me.

everybody else it's the mbr. with xp it is 8mb long. now it can be at the beginning or at the end of your hard drive. one of the tools included in it, is the abilty to convert those discs to dynamic.

if you have more than one drive you canformat that part. you can format that part with just one drive. however, you will lose the abilities to do certain things like running a dual boot system.

instead of arguing with me, look it up

 

[Law]

I did look it up and theres nothing about the 8mb being used as the MBR. As I know the data to configure dynamic volume is the last 1mb at the end of the hard drive. Windows allocate 8MB of it. Sorry but BIOS is program to search for the MBR at the begining of an active partition.

Not trying to be rude but can you back up your claim with a reference? I already google it and nothing.