Using Aomei Partition Assistant to prepare Win 7 for Win 10

Thought I'd comment on my experiences with this. Eventually successful but some problems.

My 1TB HDD is partitioned (round numbers) into 200GB C: drive, 800GB D: drive. And of course there's a 100MB system partition (SP) at the beginning.

Decided to increase SP to 400MB so decided to move and shrink the D: partition up 300MB; move the C: partition up 300MB, then expand SP by 300MB to 400MB.

For such things Aomei uses what it calls a PreOS function to manipulate things before Windows gets going.

So I set up to do all the changes at once on the reboot. PreOS failed, with a message which read
operation abort - information code 12, disk environment has changed - please reboot.

Rebooted back into Windows.

This time tried the D: partition change on its own, that worked with no reboot needed.

Then tried the C: partition change, reboot needed. The PreOS failed as above. Tried one more time and it still failed. I'd stopped various Start Up functions to minimise Windows activity but that had no affect.

I then created an Aomei WinPE boot disc. Loaded from that. And it then all worked fine.

Thinking about it I'm not entirely surprised that it needed a non-Windows boot to avoid Windows making changes to the C: drive. Perhaps it would be more helpful - assuming my experience is not unusual - for Aomei to advise the use of a boot disc.

Anyway, task done for desktop Win 7 PC, laptop Win 7 yet to do. But at least I have that boot CD now

I like mini partition tool but there are many tools available.

Interesting that you had these problems, but pleased that it's now AOK and ready for Win 10.
I too had a 1TB HD, but in one partition. I just shrank the C: drive by 338mb from the front end (very difficult to pick an exact amount) and then expanded the System Reserved partition to add the unallocated space. This operation was done in one go and required a reboot to make the changes prior to loading Windows. It worked 1st time. However I was using Windows 8.1 so don't know if this made any difference.
Aomei also produce another excellent free utility called Backupper, which you can use to clone/copy/backup the hard disk or a partition through Windows on the fly. I use it to image my hard disk to another external HD connected via a USB cable. It has to be a USB cable that is compatible. I use a Startech USB 3.0 to 2.5" Sata 111 HD Adapter with UASP, around £9 off Amazon. I do this every month or so just as a precaution on my main PCs. Any problems or failures (or Ransomware lockout) and you can just pop in the cloned drive and off you go again.

Edited by deleted (Wed 05-Aug-15 22:24:51)

Yes, I'm happy it's now worked. As you say it may be a Win 7 / 8 issue, who knows.

In hindsight I should have pre-empted any issues and gone for the WinPE approach from the beginning. Though until I got the problem I didn't know about WinPE.

Now I've got the CD I'm sure it'll be useful in other situations. I have a number of friends and neighbours who are looking to me to help them move from to Win10, mostly from Win 7 though 1 or 2 are on Win 8.

I don't know how many of the the other partition manipulation tools can change that system partition size, maybe most of them , I really don't know.

Anyway, perhaps this little tale may help someone else out there.

I don't know the pros and cons, but I don't use a separate system partition.

It's not a partition that you've explicitly created.

Win 7 and Win 8 have a hidden System Reserved partition at the beginning of the disc with the C: drive on it. This partition is, as mentioned earlier in this thread, 100MB in Win 7, 350MB in Win 8. It needs to be 350MB for Win 10. So if upgrading from Win 7 to Win 10 it needs increasing else the Win 10 upgrade will fail.

The easiest way to check is Start, right click Computer, Manage, then choose Disc Management and see the structure of Disc 0.

You don't need one, (a hidden drive) you can have the system drive & boot drive on same partition.

Edited by deleted (Thu 06-Aug-15 09:06:11)

But it's not one I created, Windows install on a virgin disc created it.

In reference to 4sysops.com/archives/what-is-the-system-reserved-partition/:

As it happens, the System Reserved partition is an unlettered system drive that is automatically created by Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008, and Windows Server 2012 during a clean installation.

In Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008, the partition is 100MB. In Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, it is 350MB.

The three crucial functions provided are as follows:

Boot Configuration Store
BitLocker Drive Encryption
Windows RE

I'm not saying it can't be removed, though why bother for a mere 100-350MB.

Totally agree for such a small size. Plus most likely Windows 10 upgrade will fail if it can't find one!

Looks like you don't get one if you already have a partition on the drive that you install Windows onto.

One benefit on not having one is you don't have to mess about resizing it, but a downside is Bitlocker on the system drive need it.