System Reserved Partition (F)

cereberus · Nov 17, 2021

The funny thing about the MSR partition is that it is supposedly for future compatibility purposes but nobody at MS has ever explained why or what it is for. Even more oddly, it used to be 128 MB (smaller if small hard drive), the MS reduced it to 16 MB.

Some claim it is for bitlocker encryption but since that works with or without that partion, this does not seem to be justified.

Wwhat is even really annoying is that partition managers wven get stumped being unable to move it. You can move it using Macrium Reflect when doing a drag and drop restore activity.

I think MS will never use this but developers are scared to remove it without losing face LOL.

AddRAM · Nov 17, 2021

TheMystic said:
The partitions are created based on the Motherboard.

No they are not.

TheMystic said:
The MSR partition on my disk is NOT visible in Disk Management. I can only see it via Diskpart or using my favorite AOMEI Partition Assistant.

We all already know this.

TheMystic said:
It is formatted as 'Other' and is apparently empty.

It is not empty. You are just not looking at it with the right program. All of those partitions have data on them that Disk Management does not show.

AddRAM · Nov 17, 2021

kuyenmotdivad said:
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?

If and when you do a clean UEFI install, make sure you delete all the partitions on the destination drive. And make sure all and any other drives connected to the system are unplugged (just the Sata power cable). This will give you a perfect partition layout. As I show here.

AddRAM · Nov 17, 2021

I made my EFI System Partition 500 MB after I did the conversion, because 102 was a silly number and I just wanted it bigger.

@kuyenmotdivad, I do not know if the installer will let you play with the size of the EFI System Partition during the install, I did it afterwards with Partition Wizard. It will take you some time to master Partition Wizard, but you will learn and get it.

Deleted member 952 · Nov 17, 2021

AddRAM said:
I made my EFI System Partition 500 MB after I did the conversion, because 102 was a silly number and I just wanted it bigger.

View attachment 13939

ya noticed your EFI partition was 500mb, is it fat32 format by any chance as mine is and my os is ntfs, no idea why the fat32 is not ntfs as well. fat32 is old tech?

AddRAM · Nov 17, 2021

That is just the format UEFI uses for certain partitions.
I would just let the installer do its thing, then you can play with partition sizes and what not after the install.
After you do the clean install, come here and start a new thread, put a full shot of Disk Management and a full shot of Partition Wizard in your opening reply and we`ll go from there.

:) Have a Great and Safe Day
Brian

cereberus · Nov 17, 2021

kuyenmotdivad said:
ya noticed your EFI partition was 500mb, is it fat32 format by any chance as mine is and my os is ntfs, no idea why the fat32 is not ntfs as well. fat32 is old tech

It is not actually mandatory under the UEFI standard to use FAT32 but unfortunately many (most?) PC vendors implement UEFI such that a fat32 partition is required.

AddRAM · Nov 17, 2021

@TheMystic

Sorry if I came off sounding a bit harsh and I apologies for that if I did. But you were just not grasping the idea that his drive was a conversion from a MBR/Legacy install to a GPT/UEFI install. When you do a conversion, you do not get the 16MB Other partition, and you may or may not get a Recovery partition. I cleaned up my drive after I did the conversion, that is why it looks like this now.

AddRAM · Nov 17, 2021

Here is a full shot of Partition Wizard of my Z170 layout. C is at the bottom because that`s where it goes when you use the Samsung NVME driver.
Totally normal.

AddRAM · Nov 17, 2021

And a full shot of Disk Management.

Deleted member 952 · Nov 17, 2021

AddRAM said:
Here is a full shot of Partition Wizard of my Z170 layout. C is at the bottom because that`s where it goes when you use the Samsung NVME driver.
Totally normal.

View attachment 13948

It's a shame Macrium does not have a partition manager, is minitool worth a buy, or is there better partition managers?

jvickers · Nov 17, 2021

kuyenmotdivad said:
It's a shame Macrium does not have a partition manager, is minitool worth a buy, or is there better partition managers?

I use Paragon Drive Copy, but it's pretty old. Still works on Windows 11, so that's fine with me. There is now Paragon Hard Disk Manager:

Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Windows | Paragon Software

Data safety made simple for novice users and experts alike. Manage your disks and systems, protect your data and ensure operability of your computer.

www.paragon-software.com

AddRAM · Nov 17, 2021

I just like Partition Wizard the best :)
Everyone has their opinion about what they use and why.
Just try it out first.

Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

As an all-in-one free partition manager and disk manager software, MiniTool Partition Wizard Free helps manage disk space safely on Windows 11/10/8/7.

www.partitionwizard.com

ThrashZone · Nov 17, 2021

Hi,
Yeah free minitool rules
Older version is better don't update it when it asks.

MiniTool Partition Free mbr2gpt 9.1 Filepuma.com

AddRAM · Nov 18, 2021

Yes getting use to the new GUI can be challenging, but I have version 12 on the X299 and it works great.
You just have to spend some time with it, then master it.

TheMystic · Nov 18, 2021

AddRAM said:
@TheMystic
Sorry if I came off sounding a bit harsh and I apologies for that if I did. But you were just not grasping the idea that his drive was a conversion from a MBR/Legacy install to a GPT/UEFI install. When you do a conversion, you do not get the 16MB Other partition, and you may or may not get a Recovery partition. I cleaned up my drive after I did the conversion, that is why it looks like this now.

View attachment 13946

View attachment 13947

That's okay. Small misunderstandings can happen during discussions.

I thought that you meant to say the MSR partition is unnecessary and shouldn't be present, I was trying to tell you that it should have some purpose that we are unaware of, and that's why it gets created during a clean install. While it isn't required for boot, it can contain some information that would useful in specific circumstances (earlier I thought it could be to support Legacy).

That said, why would you not have a recovery partition on your device itself, since you have plenty of free space on the internal disk?

TheMystic · Nov 18, 2021

kuyenmotdivad said:
It's a shame Macrium does not have a partition manager, is minitool worth a buy, or is there better partition managers?

I have had best experience with AOMEI Partition Assistant.

AOMEI Partition Assistant | Partition Manager Software for Windows PC and Server

As alternative to partition magic software, AOMEI Partition Assistant is an easy partition manager and complete hard disk management tool for Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP and Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019.

www.diskpart.com

It once saved me from a major disaster. I used Diskpart 'clean' command to clean just a partition (that's what I thought would happen). It turned out that it cleaned the whole disk and the most important folder, my Camera Roll, which was over 500 GB was gone.

After 2 days of nightmare (including daymare :)), I found this software after trying several others. It helped me recover almost everything back. This was some 7 years or so ago. Partition recovery was free then. Now it is a paid feature above a certain size.

As with MiniTool, I had a bad experience as recent as last week. I had 3 partitions, lets call them A (NTFS), B (exFAT) and C (NTFS), in that order. A was empty and I wanted to add that free space to B. So I used MiniTool (instead of AOMEI, big mistake) to move A to the right of B, so I can expand B. It managed to move it, but in the process corrupted B. B had about 350 GB data (again Camera Roll) and it was gone!

Fortunately, this time I had a backup. So I decided to uninstall MiniTool and stick with AOMEI :).

Apart from the above experience, AOMEI has ALWAYS worked for me. It is a superb software.

Also, I see that neither AOMEI, EaseUS, MiniTool can expand an exFAT partition. The only software that can do that for exFAT partitions is DiskGenius. I haven't tried this feature yet, so that will be my 2nd choice.

AddRAM · Nov 18, 2021

Because I use Macrium, so I have no need for Recovery partitions.
The small 50MB System Reserved partition he has at the beginning of the drive is leftover from his MBR install after doing the GPT conversion, it is useless and serves no purpose.
So it can be deleted. It has nothing to do with his new GPT system. I seriously hope you are understanding what I am saying. This is a conversion from a MBR install to a GPT install.
It is not the 100MB System Reserved partition that gets made when you do a clean GPT/UEFI install, it was carried over from his MBR install. I hope you understand now.

AddRAM · Nov 18, 2021

I have AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro and Partition Wizard Pro installed on my Z170 system, both are good, I just prefer using Partition Wizard because that`s what I learned to use first.

TheMystic · Nov 18, 2021

AddRAM said:
Because I use Macrium, so I have no need for Recovery partitions.
The small 50MB System Reserved partition he has at the beginning of the drive is leftover from his MBR install after doing the GPT conversion, it is useless and serves no purpose.
So it can be deleted. It has nothing to do with his new GPT system. I seriously hope you are understanding what I am saying. This is a conversion from a MBR install to a GPT install.

Macrium USB disk?

I got what you said about the leftover. I never questioned that. I don't know which part of my posts makes you think that I didn't understand what you said.