We couldn't update the system reserved partition.

[Brian Stirling]

I updated an older Win7 laptop a few days ago and decided to update my newest laptop, running Win7 Pro, to Win10. I downloaded and ran the 'Media Creation Tool' 64bit and after downloading the approximately 3GB upgrade it failed with the message in the title.

So, I go into Disk Management and see that I have two physical drives:

Disk 0 --> is a new 1TB drive I added for data storage

Disk 1 --> is the main drive and consists of two partitions: Data = 100MB, and OS (C) = 931.41GB.

I have heard that the data partition needs to be larger but I can't seem to extend it from within Disk Management. I can shrink OS (C) by 250MB but it won't then let me extend Data.


Brian

 

[Puffnstuff]

I would advise against tampering with the partitions as windows creates them. Since you've only got two of them I'd hazard a guess that you have a mbr install of windows instead of uefi since that usually has 3 if not 4 partitions. My windows 10 is uefi and I have 4 partitions: 1 efi, 2 recovery and a ntfs where the os is installed.

Exactly where did the installation fail at? I would suggest that you use the media creation tool and create the dvd iso and install the upgrade from the disc. I had issues with upgrading my tablet and ended up creating a bootable thumb drive to do the job with and it worked well. This is another option you could do instead of using a dvd but I like having physical media put away that isn't prone to failing.

 

[Ketchup]

Well, if it is anything like mine, try this:

Reduce your primary partition (c) by at least 350 MB. Leave this space empty (no partition or anything). If you must make a partition, don't assign a drive letter.

Try the upgrade again.

If you are having trouble getting Disk Management to play nice, EaseUS Partition Manager does a nice job.

 

[Eug]

Well, if it is anything like mine, try this:

Reduce your primary partition (c) by at least 350 MB. Leave this space empty (no partition or anything). If you must make a partition, don't assign a drive letter.

Try the upgrade again.

If you are having trouble getting Disk Management to play nice, EaseUS Partition Manager does a nice job.

Hmmm... Would that work for Windows Backup too? Windows Backup refuses to backup my SSD, because of an error having to do with my 500 MB System Reserved partition. Also, Macrium Reflect refuses to backup this partition (which is why I bought Acronis True Image 2015).

Out of that 500 MB, almost 350 MB are already used. My understanding is that needs to be less than half full or else Windows Backup will fail.

Also, I'm confused as to why these partition sizes are of such different sizes. My previous Win 7 install had no System Reserved partition (probably because I had pre-partitioned the drive), but my last Win 7 install which was a fresh install last week, gave me a 500 MB System Reserved partition by default. OTOH, I see others with 100 MB or 350 MB sizes.

Furthermore, almost 350 MB on my 500 MB partition is already used, and obviously that wouldn't fit on a 100 MB partition that somebody else might have.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Well, if it is anything like mine, try this:

Reduce your primary partition (c) by at least 350 MB. Leave this space empty (no partition or anything). If you must make a partition, don't assign a drive letter.

Try the upgrade again.

If you are having trouble getting Disk Management to play nice, EaseUS Partition Manager does a nice job.

I reduced C by 400MB and tried again -- same problem.

Again, I used MediaCreationToolx64 and after downloading about 3GB it then 'prepares' and then 'looks for updates' and then shits itself with the "We couldn't update the system reserved partition." message.


Brian

 

[Ketchup]

Here is an image if it helps.

This is from a clean virtual drive. I haven't looked at my laptop yet to see how it's configured, and I haven't tried Windows Backup on 10 yet, so YMMV.

System reserved shows up on all the Windows installations that I recall, it just doesn't have a drive letter.

 

[Underclocked]

Use Minitool Partition Wizard to reduce the size of the C partition by an amount equal to enough to increase the size of the System Reserved partition to 350MB. You will probably have to manually enter the amount of size reduction BEFORE the C partition but that works just fine. Then increase the System Reserved partition to fill the now open space.

This has worked well for me for similar issues.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Interestingly, I have no partition called "System Reserved". I do have one called "Data" that's 100MB in size and is part of my main HD (SSD actually) it shares with the OS partition called "C".

So, to repeat, I have two physical drives as follows:

Disk 0 is called "New Volume (D) and is a HD of 1TB size

Disk 1 has two partitions with the first one of 100MB called "Data" and the second one of 931GB is called "OS (C)" and is an SSD.

When originally purchased the laptop only had a 500GB HD with OS etc. I upgraded to a 1TB mSATA SSD and replaced the 500GB HD with a 1TB HD after first cloning the original HD to the SSD. Once the original HD had been cloned to the mSATA SSD using the Samsung utility I removed the HD and installed the mSATA SSD then booted up to make sure all was working. After that was verified I added the new 1TB HD and plugged it into the slot the original HD was plugged into -- the only available slot -- this is my main data drive. Lastly, I added another SODIM module to increase RAM from 8GB to 16GB. The OS was and is Win7 Pro and the laptop is a Dell Precision M3800 with 4K display.

So, I'm not sure what to make of the differences in HD/SSD partitioning but a quick Google search for this error message reveals this to be a common problem many others are facing. At this point I'm inclined to wait a while until M$ pulls there head out of there a$$ and improves the upgrade process or the tools and process to address this issue. The work around's I've seen on the Internet are a little too hands on with tools must folks should avoid.


Brian

 

[Underclocked]

Is the data partition before the main partition? The System Reserved partition is generally created as a 100MB partition exactly as is your Data partition. I'm guessing they are one and the same. Although I've not done so, I would think renaming a system reserved partition would make it no less functional. I would also think increasing it to 350MB using Minitool just as I suggested would fix your issue.

But if you are content not to "upgrade", I'm not going to be the one to encourage you to do so. I'm not at all certain that it would qualify as an upgrade other than in name only.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Yes, "Data" is before the main OS partition.

The main reason I'm looking to upgrade is because Win10 handles text/icon scaling better and with a 15 inch 4K display Win7 just isn't cutting it.

I do have an external 4K monitor I often use at home but away from home it's the 15 inch screen and 4K over that size means things are small. My eyes aint what they use to be...


Brian

 

[Underclocked]

Brian, if you download and install Minitool Partition Wizard, you can make a boot disk from that program that will allow you to make the changes I propose. In the event something goes amiss (which I can't really see happening), you can again boot to the Minitool boot disk and reverse the changes. But it will work.

I have lead the horse to water, but it's up to him to drink.

 

[Brian Stirling]

I just put the original 500GB HD into an external enclosure and plugged it in via USB and Disk Management shows that the original HD was partitioned as follows:

Disk 2:

The first partition has no label but is 39MB. It also indicates as "Healthy (OEM Partition)"

The second partition is labeled "RECOVERY" and is 11.73GB and listed as "Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)"

The third and final partition is labeled "OS (E)" and is 454GB and listed as "Healthy (Primary Partition)


So this OEM drive has three partitions but only the main OS partition is larger than 12GB.


Brian

 

[Ketchup]

Windows likes to have a glimpse of all your drives (and can even use more than one) for a Windows install/upgrade. This usually isn't needed.

Now that we have a better glimpse of what your configuration is, I would recommend that you actually remove the extra drive for the time being, and upgrade with only the main drive (Disk 1) installed.

Another way to go about this: since we are testing scaling, appearance, etc, put the original drive only into the laptop and perform the upgrade. If it goes well, get a copy of the key, in case you need it later. With your original drive back in, if you still encounter problems with the upgrade, you now have the option to put the OS installer on a flash drive and just do a fresh install.

 

[Underclocked]

If windows 7 or newer is installed to an already properly created and formatted partition, it will make no new partition. The boot files and the os will be installed on that one partition.

If that same windows is installed to unallocated space, it will create the system reserved partition as well as the operating partition.

In some circumstances, Windows 10 will also create a partition at the end of 450MB that is a recovery partition (it is not clear to me exactly why and under what circumstances the OS creates that one).

Your original 500GB hard drive has a 39MB partition that is almost certainly where the OEM's diagnostics are found. It is also possible that the boot files are located there or even on the Recovery partition. The recovery partition on that 500GB drive will be mostly filled with some sort of factory image of the original install (it may not include all software that came with the computer).

The way that drive is partitioned has no relevance to how your 1TB OS drive is partitioned. I am guessing you did not install that newer drive yourself? This might explain why the system reserve partition on that 1TB drive is labeled Data instead of the usual name. I'm guessing someone cloned the BCD from where they found it on the 500GB drive (or elsewhere) to a new 100MB partition they had created named Data. They then cloned the operating portion of the drive to the 900+GB ... either that or they did a clean install and just relabeled the System Reserved partition.

By the way, you can assign a drive letter in Disk Management to those odd smaller partitions then explore them from within windows. Be sure to also unhide system files in Folder Options so that you can see what is there. In the case of the System Reserved partition, you might want to just delete all the language files other than En and that might create enough room for the Win10 upgrade to proceed. Be sure to remove the drive letter after exploring it.

 

[Underclocked]

Another thing, when you use the Shrink ability in Disk Management, it always shrinks the end of any partition, never the beginning. That is why you cannot do the shrink and then enlarge the Data partition from within Windows. It has no room to extend.

MiniTool will shrink (resize) a partition from either end or both ends. Very useful free program.

 

[Brian Stirling]

If windows 7 or newer is installed to an already properly created and formatted partition, it will make no new partition. The boot files and the os will be installed on that one partition.

If that same windows is installed to unallocated space, it will create the system reserved partition as well as the operating partition.

In some circumstances, Windows 10 will also create a partition at the end of 450MB that is a recovery partition (it is not clear to me exactly why and under what circumstances the OS creates that one).

Your original 500GB hard drive has a 39MB partition that is almost certainly where the OEM's diagnostics are found. It is also possible that the boot files are located there or even on the Recovery partition. The recovery partition on that 500GB drive will be mostly filled with some sort of factory image of the original install (it may not include all software that came with the computer).

The way that drive is partitioned has no relevance to how your 1TB OS drive is partitioned. I am guessing you did not install that newer drive yourself? This might explain why the system reserve partition on that 1TB drive is labeled Data instead of the usual name. I'm guessing someone cloned the BCD from where they found it on the 500GB drive (or elsewhere) to a new 100MB partition they had created named Data. They then cloned the operating portion of the drive to the 900+GB ... either that or they did a clean install and just relabeled the System Reserved partition.

By the way, you can assign a drive letter in Disk Management to those odd smaller partitions then explore them from within windows. Be sure to also unhide system files in Folder Options so that you can see what is there. In the case of the System Reserved partition, you might want to just delete all the language files other than En and that might create enough room for the Win10 upgrade to proceed. Be sure to remove the drive letter after exploring it.

No, I did all the upgrades myself and the cloning from OEM HD to Samsung mSATA SSD was done by me using Samsung's Data Migration utility.

I've seen many different ideas on how to fix this and many of them appear to be best guess ideas. I'd like to do the upgrade now, but I think waiting a month or so will allow this issue to be worked out and a tested method that works will emerge. So, I'll just wait.


Brian

 

[Underclocked]

Did you at least assign a drive letter to the data partition and take a look at what is in it?

I don't think you are going to get a better solution.

 

[Crunos]

Would post a photo of your disk management? I guess your Data partition is marked as system.
I once had the same problem. I fist tried to free more than 50 MB free on system partition. I ran the Windows 10 upgrade, and this time it got further before failing and failed with a different message .
At this point I drag the OS partition to resize it a bit smaller and then extend system partition before upgrading to windows 10 to make it bigger with AOMEI Partition Assistant. I shrunk my OS partition by 200 MB and increased the system reserved partition to 350 MB. Then, Windows has to be rebooted for the tool to make the change. this time I run the upgrade successfully.