Hello OldFred, yes. I agree it's easier to let Windows do what it likes, but if there's a reason for wanting to make it do what the computer owner wants then it is possible to force Windows to do the owner's bidding. At least in my computer that is.
I am looking for my notes from my old Windows 7 experiments for the exact details. I do remember I really put Windows 7 RC through its paces and subjected it to every kind of cruelty I could think of. I must admit even if I'm not a Windows fan that the installation disk repair tools did a great job at repairing Windows 7 every time I trashed it. Sometimes I needed to run them a few times though, they would sometimes not always fix everything at once. If I can't easily find those old notes I'll repeat the experiment of making Windows 7 boot and run in a logical partition again myself just for the fun of it and let you know what happens.