• System Reserved Partition-How to delete?

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    #482243

    After my local technician installed a new processor, motherboard, graphics card,and more memory, and then installed Win 7 Pro 64 bit instead of the 32 bit version I had before, I found that my C drive has 2 partitions, a System Reserved partition and Local Disk (C:). How do I delete the System Reserved partition? I don’t believe I need it as I keep up to date images of all my drives with Macrium Reflect. (If I right click the System Reserved partition in Disk Management and select delete volume I am told Windows cannot delete the active system partition on this disk).

    Advice would be appreciated.

    Thanks and regards, Roy

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    • #1325337

      If you decide to use Bitlocker you’ll need this partition. Pluse, it is very small and not worth worrying about. But, if you insist see How to delete the system reserved partition.

      NOTE: Be very careful and follow the directions or you’ll end up with a system you can’t boot.

      Joe

      --Joe

    • #1325376

      the system reserve partition contains the MBR boot files so if you delete it you will not be able to boot up. But you can use your windows 7 disk to do a start-up repair that puts the MBR onto the “C” drive and allows you to boot once you make “C” drive “active” (which you should do before deleting the reserve partition).

    • #1325388

      Hi Roy,

      I had been investigating on how to do a clean install using an upgrade copy of Win7 H Prem without installing the ‘System Reserved Partition’ as its only needed if the ‘BitLocker Drive Encryption’ utility is used, and I don’t. I have done it successfully and am in the process of making a PDF for future reference.

    • #1325395

      What size is the system reserved partition?

      On my PC (Windows 7×64 HP) it is only 100MB and personally I would not even try to reclaim that space because Windows has put it there for a purpose.

      Also, the amount of time spent reclaiming 100MB could be spent on better things!

      • #1325486

        Thanks for all the replies. I have decided to leave the partition alone. (For what it’s worth, when I had the 32 bit version of Win 7 Pro there was no system reserved partition).

        Regards, Roy

    • #1325565

      Good decision as I believe removing it will prevent proper install of win8 consumer review if you want to try it. I have removed the reserve partition and repaired boot so MBR now is on main C: drive. The win8 consumer review will not complete the installation and boot up as think it missing something from the reserve partition that is no longer there.

    • #1325571

      Not!!! I removed my 100 MB system reserved partition months ago and have Win 8 CP installed in a dual boot scenario without a problem without the System reserved partition. I do not use Bitlocker, never intend to and getting rid of this little nuisance was easy.

      • #1359257

        If you don’t need ‘BitLocker Drive Encryption’ , a good reason to delete or not to create the ‘System Reserved Partition’ is to prevent problems with creating a ‘system image’ (backup of Windows). If this partition is more than 50% full and you try to create a ‘system image’, you’ll get a message that there is not sufficient space to create the image.

        • #1359261

          Can hardly believe that 100MB would make much difference to image backups.

      • #1359262

        @ Medico

        Sorry was only commenting on my own experience (it probably works for others). I cannot try Win 8 as it will not complete upgrade for some reason. But It did complete on my laptop where I had not touched the reserve partition. It may not have anything to do with the failed win 8 upgrade but is the only difference between the desktop and laptop as both were running win 7 HP 64 bit. Unless it was hardware but the compatibility check showed no problems.

    • #1359264

      There are some PCs that will not allow installation of Win 8. It does not matter what the underlying OS is, but the hardware.

      One thing you could check is if NX is enabled in the Bios. This generally gives a failure error that CPU is not able or something like that, but not every time.

    • #1359333

      I have removed the system reserved partition on both my desktop and laptop. Both upgraded to Windows 8 Pro without difficulty.

      Always create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates; you may need to start over!
      We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do with our systems; we don't need anyone's approval, and we don't all have to do the same things.
      We were all once "Average Users".

      • #1359541

        Dear curiousclive – I think your statement about 100 MB not making much difference for a image backup is of course correct concerning the space the image itself takes. Notice that I said when the system reserved partition is more than 50% full, the insufficient space message may come, the problem is with the amount of free space on the 100 MB partition. Try searching for 0x80780119.

    • #1359596

      I also have 2 laptops that do not have the System Reserved partition any more. I used Partition Wizard to delete this space the reclaim it into the C Drive. Both had Win 7 installed over the original Vista OS. Both now have Win 8 Pro installed and are running wonderfully without a single problem to date. Both were installed within one day of the official release date, so both have one month and counting.

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