System Reserved Partition (F)

hdmi · Nov 17, 2021

kuyenmotdivad said:
I tried rebooting and it's fine, is there a way to delete drive F and extend the size of my drive C?

To avoid unnecessary problems, I recommend that you don't try to delete it. What you CAN do is to prevent it from being created in the first place, i.e., if/when you are doing a clean install of the OS.

What Is System Reserved Partition and Can You Delete It? - MiniTool

What is a System Reserved partition? Can you delete it? How to avoid creating it? This post will give you all the answers for these questions.

www.minitool.com

AddRAM · Nov 17, 2021

HDMI, that article is talking about the System Reserved partition that gets created when installing Windows in MBR/Legacy mode, and has nothing to do with the partitions that are created when you do a GPT/UEFI clean install.
And yes you can prevent it from being made in the 1st place by creating a partition for Windows and marking it Active, so you will not have a System Reserved partition in a MBR/Legacy install. Here`s a shot of how it will look. I always use to set up my systems like this, just 1 single partition for windows. Notice how the partition is marked Active and contains the System Files, so no System Reserved Partition gets created in a MBR/Legacy install.

hdmi · Nov 17, 2021

How to fix if Windows can't boot after the system reserved partition was accidentally deleted:

Managing System Reserved Partition in Windows 10 | Windows OS Hub

During a clean OS install, Windows Installer creates a special System Reserved Partition (SRP) on the MBR disk partition table. This is a hidden partition with the NTFS file system,…

woshub.com

hdmi · Nov 17, 2021

AddRAM said:
HDMI, that article is talking about the System Reserved partition that gets created when installing Windows in MBR/Legacy mode, and has nothing to do with the partitions that are created when you do a GPT/UEFI clean install.
And yes you can prevent it from being made in the 1st place by creating a partition for Windows and marking it Active, so you will not have a System Reserved partition in a MBR/Legacy install. Here`s a shot of how it will look.
View attachment 13869

Normally, the System Reserved partition is only present on BIOS computers or UEFI devices that have the Legacy Compatibility Support Module (CSM) enabled. Also normally, on computers with UEFI in native mode and GPT partition table, there is no System Reserved partition (the EFI partition is used instead).

AddRAM · Nov 17, 2021

Exactly

Bree · Nov 17, 2021

kuyenmotdivad said:
When windows 10 was installed it was installed using the old Legacy/MBR then when i switched to windows 11 I switched to the UEFI boot.

Ah, that explains it - it's an unused leftover from a previous incarnation of this system, as would be one of the recovery partitions. That's what I meant in post #7 when I said "...this disk has seen some mileage over its life and may have some 'leftovers' from previous configurations".

Bree · Nov 17, 2021

TheMystic said:
What is the MSR partition created by the installer on a GPT disk? Isn't it there to support Legacy boot?

No, the MSR partition has nothing to do with booting. It is there to perform functions previously handled by hidden sectors on an MBR disk.

Formerly, on disks formatted using the master boot record (MBR) partition layout, certain software components used hidden sectors of the disk for data storage purposes. For example, the Logical Disk Manager (LDM), on dynamic disks, stores metadata in a 1 MB area at the end of the disk which is not allocated to any partition.[3]

The UEFI specification does not allow hidden sectors on GPT-formatted disks. Microsoft reserves a chunk of disk space using this MSR partition type, to provide an alternative data storage space for such software components which previously may have used hidden sectors on MBR formatted disks.

Microsoft Reserved Partition - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

DigitalGoat · Nov 17, 2021

The simplest thing the OP could do is just remove the drive letter from his reserved partition so it doesn't show anymore then forget it exists, is it really worth gaining 50 - 100Mb of space?
As for the recovery partitions I would suggest keeping an up to date one as programs such as Macrium can use the recovery partition (WinRE) files to create it's USB start up drive, this can often be of benefit for including out of box drivers. There are tutorials for Macrium that explain the pros and cons of the different methods for creating the rescue/ start up disk. :)

Bree · Nov 17, 2021

jimbo45 said:
Hi there
@kuyenmotdivad

To make system re-bootable again - probably the easiest is to boot a stand alone version of Macrium and run the "Fix Windows problems".

@kuyenmotdivad's system has always been bootable and fully functional, there's nothing that needs fixing. What it does have are a couple of redundant partitions left over from its previous configuration as a Legacy/MBR install. They play no part in system operations and can safely be ignored.

I agree with @DigitalGoat, just remove the drive letter from F: and ignore it. The redundant recovery partition can also be safely ignored. With a 1TB disk it hardly seems worth the effort (and risk) of trying to reclaim a few hundred MB of wasted space.

ThrashZone · Nov 17, 2021

Bree said:
Actually partition 4 is an EFI partition and on a UEFI system that's the partition it boots from.

Hi,
Okay thanks that was confusing to see both

TheMystic · Nov 17, 2021

It is Microsoft that is using partitions and their names very inconsistently with each version of Windows. Moreover, the installer seems to partition the disk based on hardware, because I see that in some cases, everything is merged in one partition. May be there is a reason to it, but I would personally prefer the existing disk structure of atleast 3 partitions: EFI, Recovery & Windows. Having everything on one partition comes with its own risk. The MSR partition is created on my disk automatically, most likely because it is a 2012/ 2013 Motherboard. Newer hardware are likely to see fewer partitions.

TheMystic · Nov 17, 2021

Bree said:
No, the MSR partition has nothing to do with booting. It is there to perform functions previously handled by hidden sectors on an MBR disk.

The partitions are created based on the Motherboard. My disk is a Samsung Evo 860 of 2018, which was already partitioned as GPT.

The MSR partition on my disk is NOT visible in Disk Management. I can only see it via Diskpart or using my favourite AOMEI Partition Assistant. It is formatted as 'Other' and is apparently empty. I know it has nothing to do with booting.

ThrashZone · Nov 17, 2021

Hi,
Seeing every ssd or hdd I've ever bought is mbr it's not unusual to see legacy installs by default I personally use dvd to insure legacy is used

User has to know to create an installer for gpt/ uefi and bios settings have to be uefi only boot so some work needs to be done that isn't common knowledge.

NavyLCDR · Nov 17, 2021

ThrashZone said:
Hi,
Seeing every ssd or hdd I've ever bought is mbr it's not unusual to see legacy installs by default I personally use dvd to insure legacy is used

User has to know to create an installer for gpt/ uefi and bios settings have to be uefi only boot so some work needs to be done that isn't common knowledge.

If the user simply uses a flash drive created by Microsoft's Media Creation Tool, the flash drive will boot in either UEFI or legacy BIOS mode. If the user boots the flash drive in UEFI mode, they get a UEFI install of Windows 10/11 and setup will convert a blank MBR drive to GPT in the process.

If the user boots the flash drive in legacy BIOS mode (which will now be detected by Windows 11 setup and it will fail) they will get a legacy BIOS install on an MBR partitioned drive - Windows 10 only.

It is very odd, however, that Microsoft has left the capability to boot a Windows 11 flash drive in legacy BIOS intact on the flash drives created by the Media Creation Tool. But this does allow the user to manually install Windows 11 in legacy BIOS mode to an MBR partitioned drive if they want to, on a system that does not support UEFI booting.

ThrashZone · Nov 17, 2021

NavyLCDR said:
If the user simply uses a flash drive created by Microsoft's Media Creation Tool, the flash drive will boot in either UEFI or legacy BIOS mode. If the user boots the flash drive in UEFI mode, they get a UEFI install of Windows 10/11 and setup will convert a blank MBR drive to GPT in the process.

If the user boots the flash drive in legacy BIOS mode (which will now be detected by Windows 11 setup and it will fail) they will get a legacy BIOS install on an MBR partitioned drive - Windows 10 only.

It is very odd, however, that Microsoft has left the capability to boot a Windows 11 flash drive in legacy BIOS intact on the flash drives created by the Media Creation Tool. But this does allow the user to manually install Windows 11 in legacy BIOS mode to an MBR partitioned drive if they want to, on a system that does not support UEFI booting.

Hi,
Mounting an 11 iso only red flags tpm and cpu last I did
It seem to ignore mbr and legacy disks being used as you confirm lol
Weird science

Deleted member 952 · Nov 17, 2021

Thanks guys, will reinstall windows 11 in the new year, it seems fine up to now. Think i'll use the way @AddRAM suggested where I have my OS and the EFI system partition does windows when you install ask how big your want the system partition to be as how would I go about making it 500MB, mine at the moment is 100mb and its FAT32? and also how would i go about making the Recovery partition as a boot recovery with macrium?

ThrashZone · Nov 17, 2021

Hi,
500mb is not big enough.

Bree · Nov 17, 2021

kuyenmotdivad said:
how would i go about making the Recovery partition as a boot recovery with macrium?

When you ask Macrium Reflect to make the recovery media it takes a copy of your Windows own WinRE, then customises it to add Reflect. This is then either written to a USB, an ISO that you could burn to DVD, or stored in your C: patition in C:\boot\macrium. It add a boot entry to the BCD table so that you get a choice of OS at start up, either Windows (default after 10 seconds) or Macrium Reflect. At no time is your original Windows WinRE modified in any way, its all done in a 2nd copy that Macrium makes.

Bree · Nov 17, 2021

kuyenmotdivad said:
, mine at the moment is 100mb and its FAT32?

That is the EFI partition which is always 100MB/Fat32. The recovery partition will be larger, size determined by the Windows installer, and uses NTFS format. A recent clean install of 11 gave me a 600MB recovery partition.