This page includes everything you may want to learn about the System Reserved Partition. On this page, we'll show you:

1. 1. What is system reserved partition?
2. 2. What is system reserved partition used for?
3. 3. How do I check my system reserved partition?
4. 4. What happens if you delete system reserved partition?
5. 5. How to deal with system reserved partition?
6. 6. How to delete system reserved partition?

IMPORTANT: As operations that you are about to make here are very dangerous, and in case if you make any mistake, you might result in a non-bootable PC. Therefore, first of all please make sure that you make a backup of system before making any changes.

Right-click on the System Reserved partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths. From the pop-up menu. Click the Remove button. Click the Yes button to confirm the change. Right-click on the Windows partition and select Mark Partition as Active from the pop-up menu. Microsoft Reserved Partition. A Microsoft Reserved Partition ( MSR) is a partition of a data storage device, which is created to reserve a portion of disk space for possible subsequent use by a Windows operating system installed on a separate partition. No meaningful data is stored within the MSR; though from the MSR, chunks may be taken for.

System Reserved Partition Overview

In this part, we'll explain to you everything about System Reserved partition here:

1. What is system reserved partition?

System Reserved Partition is a partition for data storage which locates before the system C: drive. It is generated during the clean installation process of the Windows operating system so as to reserve a part of the disk space for subsequent use. Windows usually doesn't assign a drive letter to System Reserved partition.

It starts from Windows 7 consuming 100 MB space, and continues to use on Windows 8 and Windows 10 but consuming more space which is 350 MB. Sometimes, Windows OS saves some system components into the System Reserved Partition for booting up PC.

2. What is System Reserved Partition used for?

You can use it as a normal data storage partition. And sometimes, Windows use it as a boot partition to load necessary information for the computer to boot up.

3. What happens if you delete System Reserved partition?

Basically, if the System Reserved partition contains OS information or boot files and you directly delete it, you'll meet OS won't boot issue. In other words, the computer cannot boot if you directly delete the System Reserved partition without checking if it's deletable.

In the next part, we'll show you how to deal with a System Reserved partition.

How to Deal with System Reserved Partition - Check If It's Deletable

It's unlikely for most of the computer users to notice a non-drive letter assigned partition called 'system reserved' until they open Disk Management under Windows 7, 8 or 10.

In this part, we'll show you how to check System Reserved partition and help you to confirm if the partition is deletable. Before you start deleting this partition, it's important that you follow the tutorial here to check the partition and then decide how to deal with the System Reserved partition:

Step 1. Right-click on This PC/My Computer icon on the desktop and select 'Manage'.

Step 2. Click 'Disk Management' on the pop-up window.

Step 3. Check the System Reserved partition and see if it contains 'System' information next to the Healthy state.

Step 4. Decide what to do with this partition:

• If your System Reserved partition contains 'System' information, we suggest you don't delete it as your system will need to load the computer from this partition.

• If the System Reserved partition doesn't contain the 'System' information, you can flexibly delete it.
• If you tend to delete the System Reserved partition and OS partition so as to use the OS disk as a normal data drive, you can also choose to delete it.

So how to delete this partition from your computer? In the next part, you'll learn how to delete System Reserved partition on Windows 10/8/7.

Are you looking for a way to perform Recycle Bin recovery? Follow to learn how to recover deleted files from the Recycle Bin immediately.

How to Delete System Reserved Partition

Albeit it is of great importance in booting up Windows with the System Reserved partition. But if the System Reserved partition doesn't contain any system boot components or information and you don't want this partition on your drive, you can delete it.

However, you cannot use Windows Disk Management to delete this partition as Windows' protection mechanism command the tool not to delete this partition.

In this case, you need the help of the best Windows disk management alternative - EaseUS Partition Master. It's a reliable and powerful free partition manager that helps you safely delete the System Reserved partition with ease.

How To Delete Microsoft Reserved Partition

Note: If you tend to use an OS drive as a data disk and tend to delete the System Reserved partition and other existing drives, make sure that you have installed or migrated OS to a new HDD/SSD. Also, if you have important data saved in this partition, back up them to another drive or location first.

Tutorial on How to Delete System Reserved Partition on Windows 10/8/7

Let's start the process of removing your System Reserved partition from your drive now:

Step 1. Right-click the partition you want to copy, and choose Clone.

Step 2. Choose your the target partition and click Next to continue.

• If you clone partition to the exsiting partition, you should transfer or back up data before cloning to prevent it being overwritten.

Step 3. Click Proceed and wait for the clone to complete.

The following video tutorial shows you how to delete, create, and resize partition on Windows 10/8/7. You can learn how to delete system reserved partition.

Besides this, EaseUS Partition Master also helps to:

• Clone System Reserved Partition
• Fix low System Reserved partition error
• Fix we couldn't update System Reserved partition issue

Conclusion

On this page, we explained that is System Reserved partition and what it is mainly used for. If you tend to delete the System Reserved partition, we suggest you check if this partition is delectable first.

If it contains system data, don't delete it. Otherwise, you'll meet Windows or PC won't boot issue. If it doesn't contain system data, you can delete it.

As for the partition deleting tool, take powerful partition manager software - EaseUS Partition Master as your first choice. It always works to help.

Important: This article covers removing the System Reserved partition created when installing Windows 7/8.x/10 on a MBR drive. Do not attempt to perform this procedure on UEFI systems where Windows is installed on a GPT drive.

Problem:

Windows setup created a System Reserved partition and installed the booting files on it. As a result, booting directly from the Windows partition is not possible.

Cause:

During the installation of Windows, a previously created primary NTFS partition was not specified as the destination. Windows Setup created the System Reserved partition containing the booting files and a second partition containing Windows. The size of this partition varies depending on the Windows version, but is usually 100MB to 500MB.

Solution:

Copy the Windows booting files and Windows RE (Windows 8.x/10 only) to the Windows partition, apply the necessary BCD file corrections, and (optionally) remove the System Reserved partition.

Important: The Windows booting files must reside on a partition with a NTFS cluster size of 4K (the default size). If your Windows partition does not have 4K clusters you will not be able to move the booting files to it. An example would be that you've formatted the Windows partition with 8K clusters. More information can be found in this Microsoft KB article.

Note: If you are using a version of Windows that supports BitLocker (e.g. Windows 7 Ultimate/Enterprise, Windows 8 Pro/Enterprise, Windows 10 Pro) and are currently using or plan to use BitLocker, do not remove the System Reserved partition.

Note: These instructions assume that the Windows partition is a primary partition. If Windows is installed to a logical partition, removing the System Reserved partition will most likely result in a non-booting system unless using a boot manager such as BootIt BM.

Instructions:

Part 1 - Copy the Booting Files and Configure the Windows Partition for Booting

1. Boot into Windows. If Windows boots to the Start screen (e.g. Windows 8) go to the Desktop.
   
2. To allow access to the System Reserved partition, use Disk Management to assign a drive letter to it:
   
   1. Press WinKey+R (press and hold the Windows key and press R) to open the Run dialog.
   2. Type diskmgmt.msc into the Open box and click the OK button. The Disk Management window will be displayed (may take several seconds to scan the drives).
   3. Right-click on the System Reserved partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths... from the pop-up menu.
      Note: If the System Reserved partition is hidden the label won't be shown (it will be blank) and the option to change the drive letter will be disabled. The partition will most likely be displayed as '100 MB Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)' (the size shown will vary depending on the version of Windows) and be located at the start of the drive, prior to the Windows partition. Please see Appendix A at the end of this article to unhide the partition.
   4. Click the Add button.
   5. An available drive letter will automatically be selected. You can keep it or select a different one. When finished, click the OK button. In this example, E: will be assigned to the System Reserved partition.
   6. Leave the Disk Management window open (it will be needed again in later steps).
   
   Note: If an AutoPlay window or pop-up appears, just close it or ignore it.
   
3. Press WinKey+E to open Explorer.
   
4. Make note of the drive letter assigned to the System Reserved partition and the letter assigned to the Windows partition. In this example, C: is the Windows partition and E: is the System Reserved (booting) partition.
   Note: It's a good idea to give the partitions meaningful labels. This can help you tell them apart more easily. For example, the label for the Windows 7 partition might be Win7. This can be especially helpful when trying to tell which partition is which from the Command Prompt.
   
5. Close Explorer once you've determined the drive letter assignments.
   
6. Start an Administrator mode Command Prompt. To do this in Windows 7, click on the Start button, then All Programs, then Accessories. Right-click on the Command Prompt item and select Run as administrator from the pop-up menu. In Windows 8.x/10, press WinKey+X (or right-click the lower-left corner of the Desktop) and click Command Prompt (Admin) on the pop-up menu.
   If a UAC prompt is displayed, click the Yes button.
   
7. Windows 8.x/10 only: Disable the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). Run the following command:
   reagentc /disable
   Verify that the winre.wim file was correctly moved to the C:WindowsSystem32Recovery folder by running the following command (if your Windows partition is not C:, use the letter that's correct for your system). You should see the file in the directory listing.
   dir /a C:WindowsSystem32Recovery
   Note: This step is necessary because WinRE also needs to be moved from the System Reserved partition to the Windows partition. Leaving WinRE enabled will result in a broken/unusable WinRE after this procedure has completed. If the above command does not report success, you may need to manually copy the WinRE files (in the hidden Recovery{GUID} or RecoveryWindowsRE folder on the System Reserved partition) to an alternate location.
   
8. Unload the BCD registry hive by running the following command:
   reg unload HKLMBCD00000000
   
9. Copy the bootmgr file from the System Reserved (booting) partition to the Windows partition (make sure to use the drive letters as assigned on your computer). Run the following command:
   robocopy e: c: bootmgr
   
10. Copy the Boot folder from the System Reserved (booting) partition to the Windows partition. Run the following command:
    robocopy e:Boot C:Boot /s
    
11. The booting files have now been copied. If you wish to verify that they were copied correctly, run the following command (make sure to use the drive letter of the Windows partition):
    dir c: /ah
    If the bootmgr file and the Boot folder show up in the list, the procedure was successful.
    
12. To update the copied BCD file so it will boot correctly, run the following command:
    bcdedit /store c:bootbcd /set {bootmgr} device partition=C:
    Update the Memory Diagnostic entry by running the following command:
    bcdedit /store c:bootbcd /set {memdiag} device partition=C:
    Note: If your Windows partition is assigned a letter other than C:, make sure to use that value instead.
    Note: If you are using BootIt BM, you can use the BCD Edit feature to update the BCD file instead of running the above commands. See Part 2 - Step 3 for details.
    
13. Close the Command Prompt window.
    
14. Remove the drive letter assignment from the System Reserved partition and set the Windows partition as the Active (booting) partition.
    
    1. Return to Disk Management (reopen, if not left open in Step 2).
    2. Right-click on the System Reserved partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths... from the pop-up menu.
    3. Click the Remove button.
    4. Click the Yes button to confirm the change.
    5. Right-click on the Windows partition and select Mark Partition as Active from the pop-up menu.
    6. Click the Yes button to confirm the change. You should see the Active tag move from the System Reserved partition to the Windows partition.
    7. Close the Disk Management window.
       
15. Windows should now be configured to boot properly from its own partition. Restart the computer.
    Note: If you receive an error message upon booting, the boot sector of the Windows partition may need to be repaired (see How to Rebuild the Boot Sector for Windows Vista and Windows 7/8.x/10).
    
16. Windows 8.x/10 only: Enable the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). To do this, open an Administrator Command Prompt (if necessary, refer to instructions in Step 6) and run the following command:
    reagentc /enable
    The command should be successful if the previous disable was successful. On systems where TBWinRE was used to update WinRE it is not necessary to rerun TBWinRE after enabling WinRE (the TBWinRE configuration will be retained).
    

Part 2 - Update BootIt BM to Boot Windows

Note: If you are not using BootIt BM as your boot manager, you can skip this part of the instructions.

1. Reboot to BootIt BM.
   
2. Edit the relevant Windows Boot Menu entry. Select the Windows partition as the booting partition. Save the change.
   
3. If you didn't run the BCD update commands in Part 1 - Step 12, go into Partition Work and select the Windows partition. Click the BCD Edit button. Select the Boot section. Configure the appropriate entry (e.g. Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10) by following the instructions under the Important BCD Settings section of the article How to Use the BCD Edit Feature of BootIt BM.
   

Part 3 - Remove the System Reserved Partition

Note: This part is optional. Removing the partition will only gain 100-500MB unallocated space. However, it will free up one primary partition slot.

Important: Windows 8.x/10 users may wish to verify that the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) functions correctly from the Windows partition before deleting the System Reserved partition. If disabling and enabling WinRE (per Part 1 instructions) failed, the winre.wim file may exist only on the System Reserved partition (in the hidden Recovery{GUID} or RecoveryWindowsRE folder). Deleting the partition in this case would result in losing the file (unless a backup image has been created or the files have been copied elsewhere).

Deleting the partition can be done from either Windows Disk Management or BootIt BM.

Using Disk Management:

1. If Windows hasn't been rebooted since the completion of the Part 1 instructions, restart Windows. It should boot normally.
2. Start Disk Management (reference Part 1 - Steps 2a through 2b, if necessary).
3. Verify that the Windows partition is now tagged as both the System and the Active partition. The System Reserved partition should just be tagged as Primary Partition.
4. Right-click on the System Reserved partition.
5. Select Delete Volume... from the pop-up menu.
6. Click the Yes button to confirm the deletion.
7. The space used by the System Reserved partition should now be shown as Unallocated.

How To Delete Reserved Partition

Using BootIt BM:

1. Boot into BootIt BM.
2. Enter Maintenance mode.
3. Click Partition Work on the desktop.
4. Select the System Reserved partition and then click the Delete button.
5. Click the Yes button to confirm the deletion.

If you now wish to resize the Windows partition to use this space, proceed as follows:

1. Select the Windows partition and then click the Slide button.
2. Enter 0 in the Free Space Before box.
3. Click the OK button.
4. Read the warning and then click the Continue button to proceed.
5. Once the slide has completed, verify that the Windows partition is still selected and then click the Resize button.
6. Click the OK button to error check the file system.
7. Adjust the New Size value to what you want. Setting it to the Max Size value will resize the partition to use all available free space.
8. Click the OK button.
9. Read the warning and then click the Continue button to proceed. When the resize and error check has completed, click the Close button.
10. Return to the Boot Menu and boot into Windows.

Appendix A - Unhiding the System Reserved Partition

If the System Reserved partition is hidden you will not be able to assign a drive letter to it until it's unhidden. This can be accomplished in several ways:

Using BootIt BM:

1. Boot to the BootIt BM boot media and enter Partition Work.
2. Select the drive with the System Reserved partition.
3. Select the System Reserved partition.
4. Click the Properties button.
5. Click the Unhide button.
6. Click OK to close the Properties window and then click OK to close Partition Work.
7. Remove the BootIt BM boot media and reboot into Windows.

Using DISKPART:

1. While still in Windows, start an Administrator Command Prompt.
   
2. Type diskpart at the prompt and press ENTER. DISKPART will start and display the DISKPART> prompt.
   
3. Type list disk and press ENTER. Note the disk number of the drive that contains the System Reserved partition. Note that the disk numbers correspond to the disk numbers shown in Disk Management. Disk 0 will be used in this example.
   
4. Type sel disk 0 and press ENTER (make sure to use the correct disk number for your system).
   
5. Type list par and press ENTER. The System Reserved partition should show up in the list (e.g. Primary, 100 MB). Partition 1 will be used in this example. If you have selected the wrong disk just go back to Step 3 and try a different disk.
   
6. Type sel par 1 and press ENTER.
   
7. Type detail par and press ENTER. Assuming the correct partition has been selected, it should show Type:17, Hidden:Yes, Active:Yes, and the offset. It should also report that there is no volume associated with the partition.
   
8. IMPORTANT: Make sure you have selected the correct partition before proceeding.
   
9. Type set id=7 and press ENTER. This will change the partition type from 0x17 (Hidden NTFS) to 0x07 (NTFS) and unhide it.
   
10. Type detail par and press ENTER. Verify that the partition is now type 7 and not hidden. Volume details and the partition's label should be displayed.

Can I Delete Reserved Partition

With the partition unhidden, go back to Part 1 and continue with the instructions.