I have recently deployed a series of Windows Server 2008 Enterprise SP2 x64 installations via Windows Deployment Services. I am using the 2008 R2 boot.wim to save me having multiple versions. It is my understanding that the 2008 R2 boot.wim will install 2008/Vista without an issues. This is correct for the most part, until I realised that a system reserverd partition was created. I have no problems with those partitions, because they mostly go unnoticed. Until 2008 sees it and decrees that it must have a drive letter. It is a system volume, I cannot remove the drive letter via normal methods. There must be some way to leave the partition as it is and remove the drive letter. I'd prefer not to use DISKPART to disable automount, I haven't tested that to see if it works either. How can I force 2008 to remove the drive letter and just the drive letter? I'd rather not have to redeploy. Any insight to this issue would be appreciated, thanks.

Hi, Why would you like to remove the drive letter for the System Reserved partition? I am afraid that we cannot remove it since it is a system/boot partition. A Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 boot image will create a System Reserved partition automatically during the installation. If we would like to avoid creating this System Reserved partition, usually we can use the following methods: 1. Create partitions prior to installing Windows. 2. Create partitions at the disk management screen within an elevated command prompt using the DISKPART tool. NOTE: Only one partition needs to be created to disable the creation of the partition, the setup engine will not use free space on a drive even if it exceeds 100MB. 3. Use an unattended installation method that creates and partitions the drive during installation. Regarding your issue, you may use different boot images to deploy different systems: Use a Windows Server 2008 boot image to deploy Windows Vista/Server 2008 and use a Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 boot image to deploy Windows 7/Server 2008 R2. Or you may use an unattend file to avoid creating the System Reserved partition. Tim Quan TechNet Subscriber Support in forum If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please remember to click “Mark as Answer” on the post that helps you, and to click “Unmark as Answer” if a marked post does not actually answer your question. This can be beneficial to other community members reading the thread.

Thanks Tim. I just wanted to know for sure what my options were. I will use the information you provided to tweak our deployment. Thanks again!

I have many 2008 R2 servers and for whatever reason I have about 8 of them that keep getting the System Reserved partition assigned a drive letter. Any reason this keeps coming back and how to I make it stop? The way I remove is via Disk Management > Select Drive > Select Change Drive Letter and Patch > Select Remove > Select Yes > Yes again. It does not state I have to reboot. If I do not reboot (which I have not) why does it keep getting a drive letter assigned?

It's quite funny that the second line of the answer in this thread is "Why would you like to remove the drive letter for the System Reserved partition?" Well seriously. No Seriously. Who WANTS a drive letter assigned to a 100MB partition that contains system boot files? I can't see anybody putting their hand up for that one. As I understand it, the system reserved partition stores the essential boot files and also has something to do with bitlocker. Outside of that, nobody at Microsoft can tell me how to remove a drive letter from a partition designated as "system", even using Microsoft premium support. That's the best answer we are going to get I'm afraid. Don't let the system reserved partiton be created. This partition creation is particularly annoying when using MOE/SOE deployment methods like Symantec's Altiris or StorageCraft's ShadowProtect. The real answer is: If you don't want a drive letter assigned to the system reserved partition, do WHATEVER you have to do to make sure that the system partition is NOT created. If that means using a Linux USB distro to create the partition, then so be it. Windows cannot assign a drive letter to a partition that doesn't exist.B

Hey, you got a good point ! why has the system reserved partition a drive letter. For me it happened after i created a new virtual machine. So now my data.vhd what before the Drive was got the E: drive and I have to change the links to my databases :-( if i could just change the drive letter of the system reserved partition it would all work without anu problems.

Hi, just tested it out. You can change the driveletter of the ' system reserved partition' without any effect for the server. The server will start without any problem.