Win 11 Pro, hidden partitions moved - badly?


GracieAllen

Well-known member
Local time
5:56 AM
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97
OS
Windows 11 Pro
Windows 11 Pro.

I needed to add some space to the C (system) drive. Took empty space from the other end of the device, moved all the partitions over and then hit an unnamed partition that was 16MB and said it was full. Neither MiniTool Partition Wizard, nor EaseUS Partition Manager would let me move it. BUT, I could COPY it. So, I copied it to the end of the new free space.
Then I moved the other 2 "unnamed" partitions - one was NTFS, 580 MB and said "healthy recovery partition", and the other was FAT32, 337MB and said "EFI system partition". BUT, the little 16MB partition I moved says 16MB RAW "healthy data partition" in Windows and "unformatted" in the other partition managers.

Is what BELONGS in that 16MB partition ANYTHING I need to care about? The system boots. SHOULD it be RAW? Do I need to format it and put some kind of data in there?
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    i9-12900 overclocked just a touch
    Motherboard
    MSI Tomahawk
    Memory
    64 GB DDR4
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia 4060 Ti
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell 3818 & Dell 2407 on the desktop, Dell 2405 on the laptop, Dell 3014 in the RV for traveling.
    Screen Resolution
    3840x1600
    Hard Drives
    1TB SSD for O/S, 4TB for non-image stuff, 8TB SSD for images, 10TB spinning platters for backups.
    PSU
    EVGA 850 silver
    Case
    Phantek
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless M575 trackball
    Internet Speed
    Varies between 20 and 400 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox, Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Plain ordinary PC.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell 7740 Precision
    CPU
    I9-9880
    Motherboard
    Dell
    Memory
    64GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" 4K and Dell 2405 as needed. Dell 3014 in RV when traveling.
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160, 2560x1600 with connected to 3014
    Hard Drives
    Nothing spinning, 4, 1TB NVME SSD internal.
    PSU
    Dell 240W
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 wireless trackball
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless
    Internet Speed
    Depends on how fast the hotspot is wherever I am.
    Browser
    firefox, Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender...
    Other Info
    Just an ordinary laptop for doing image processing and presentation.
From what I have read on the net, it is best left well alone
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware M18 R1
    CPU
    13th Gen Core i9 13900HX
    Memory
    32GB DDR5 @4800MHz 2x16GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Geforce RTX 4090HX 16GB
    Sound Card
    Nvidia HD / Realtek ALC3254
    Monitor(s) Displays
    18" QHD+
    Screen Resolution
    25660 X 1600
    Hard Drives
    C: KIOXIA (Toshiba) 2TB KXG80ZNV2T04 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD
    D: KIOXIA (Toshiba) 2TB KXG80ZNV2T04 NVMe PCIe M.2 SSD
    Case
    Dark Metallic Moon
    Keyboard
    Alienware M Series per-key AlienFX RGB
    Mouse
    Alienware AW610M
    Browser
    Chrome and Firefox
    Antivirus
    Norton
    Other Info
    Killer E3000 Ethernet Controller
    Killer Killer AX1690 Wi-Fi Network Adaptor Wi-Fi 6E
    Bluetooth 5.2
    Alienware Z01G Graphic Amplifier
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Alienware Area 51m R2
    CPU
    10th Gen i-9 10900 K
    Memory
    32Gb Dual Channel DDR4 @ 8843MHz
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia RTX 2080 Super
    Sound Card
    Nvidia
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Hard Drive C: Samsung 2TB SSD PM981a NVMe
    Hard Drive D:Samsung 2TB SSD 970 EVO Plus
    Mouse
    Alienware 610M
    Browser
    Chrome
    Antivirus
    Norton
That's the MSR (Microsoft Reserved) Partition, best not to be fooling around with that
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro Beta, 11 Dev, W11 Canary
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R6
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 8GB GDDR6
    Hard Drives
    1 x Samsung 980 Pro 1TB
    1 x Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB
Windows 11 Pro.

I needed to add some space to the C (system) drive. Took empty space from the other end of the device, moved all the partitions over and then hit an unnamed partition that was 16MB and said it was full. Neither MiniTool Partition Wizard, nor EaseUS Partition Manager would let me move it. BUT, I could COPY it. So, I copied it to the end of the new free space.
Then I moved the other 2 "unnamed" partitions - one was NTFS, 580 MB and said "healthy recovery partition", and the other was FAT32, 337MB and said "EFI system partition". BUT, the little 16MB partition I moved says 16MB RAW "healthy data partition" in Windows and "unformatted" in the other partition managers.

Is what BELONGS in that 16MB partition ANYTHING I need to care about? The system boots. SHOULD it be RAW? Do I need to format it and put some kind of data in there?
That partition is the MicroSoft Reserved partition. It is allegedly for future use but nobody has ever determined what that will be. It has absolutely no functionality at the moment, and it does not affect anything if it is there or not.

It is too small to be important in saving space. So just ignore it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
See this comprehensive article - MS Reserved Partition

EDIT: Have updated for the correct partition!
 
Last edited:

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Self-build
    CPU
    Intel I3-10100
    Motherboard
    MSI H410M-PRO
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Nvidia GT 1030
    Sound Card
    Motherboard default
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Philips 27 inch
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung EVO 970 NVMe SSD 256 Gb
    Samsung QVO 870 SATA SSD 2 Tb
    PSU
    ATX 450W
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Wireless
    Internet Speed
    930 Mb down / 120 Mb up
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Microsoft Office 2021 Plus
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Self-build
    CPU
    Intel i3-8100
    Motherboard
    Gigabyte Z370 D3
    Memory
    16 Gb
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia GT 720
    Sound Card
    Motherboard default
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Philips 27-inch
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung 960 NVMe SSD 256 Gb
    Seagate 2 Tb HDD
    PSU
    ATX 450W
    Mouse
    Logitech Wireless
    Keyboard
    Microsoft
    Internet Speed
    930 Mb down / 120 Mb up
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
The System Reserved Partition (SRP) and the MS Reserved Partition (MSR) are two completely different animals.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10
And what is really interesting about the Microsoft System Reserved (MSR) partition:
If you have an MBR disk, and you use Microsoft's own tool mbr2gpt.exe, it will convert the disk to GPT but it will NOT create an MSR partition! So not even Microsoft thought it was important enough to include it in their own tool!
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Homebuilt
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Crosshair VII Hero (WiFi)
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Education
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 7773
    CPU
    Intel i7-8550U
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia Geforce MX150
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba 512GB NVMe SSD
    SK Hynix 512GB SATA SSD
    Internet Speed
    Fast!
As far as "not doing anything" that ship has sailed. It was, because I couldn't move it, preventing me from adding space to the system disk.

It sounds like the majority response was to ignore it. Unfortunately, since it wasn't formatted it cause all the system backups to fail. So, now it's been formatted as FAT, and the formatting flushed whatever was in there.

I don't care as long as the system boots, which it did when the thing was RAW, so hopefully it'll continue to boot.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    i9-12900 overclocked just a touch
    Motherboard
    MSI Tomahawk
    Memory
    64 GB DDR4
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia 4060 Ti
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell 3818 & Dell 2407 on the desktop, Dell 2405 on the laptop, Dell 3014 in the RV for traveling.
    Screen Resolution
    3840x1600
    Hard Drives
    1TB SSD for O/S, 4TB for non-image stuff, 8TB SSD for images, 10TB spinning platters for backups.
    PSU
    EVGA 850 silver
    Case
    Phantek
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless M575 trackball
    Internet Speed
    Varies between 20 and 400 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox, Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Plain ordinary PC.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell 7740 Precision
    CPU
    I9-9880
    Motherboard
    Dell
    Memory
    64GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" 4K and Dell 2405 as needed. Dell 3014 in RV when traveling.
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160, 2560x1600 with connected to 3014
    Hard Drives
    Nothing spinning, 4, 1TB NVME SSD internal.
    PSU
    Dell 240W
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 wireless trackball
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless
    Internet Speed
    Depends on how fast the hotspot is wherever I am.
    Browser
    firefox, Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender...
    Other Info
    Just an ordinary laptop for doing image processing and presentation.
As far as "not doing anything" that ship has sailed. It was, because I couldn't move it, preventing me from adding space to the system disk.

It sounds like the majority response was to ignore it. Unfortunately, since it wasn't formatted it cause all the system backups to fail. So, now it's been formatted as FAT, and the formatting flushed whatever was in there.

I don't care as long as the system boots, which it did when the thing was RAW, so hopefully it'll continue to boot.
Just delete the partition altogether and be done with it!
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Homebuilt
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Crosshair VII Hero (WiFi)
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Education
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 7773
    CPU
    Intel i7-8550U
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia Geforce MX150
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba 512GB NVMe SSD
    SK Hynix 512GB SATA SSD
    Internet Speed
    Fast!
And what is really interesting about the Microsoft System Reserved (MSR) partition:
If you have an MBR disk, and you use Microsoft's own tool mbr2gpt.exe, it will convert the disk to GPT but it will NOT create an MSR partition! So not even Microsoft thought it was important enough to include it in their own tool!
In part I think that is due to the constraint that you can only convert mbr to gpt if there are only three primary partitions (it has to create the efi first). But the point is well made.

I think everybody knows in MS development that this partition is pointless but nobody has the fluffy bits to challenge it (I really reckon there is a fear factor in MS for stepping out of line - resistance is futile).

But in the end, as you say just delete it.

What really makes me laugh is you can easily create it. Somebody went to effort of programming diskpart to create a pointless partition.

1652117616248.png
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
I'm confused again... Cereberus, are you answering the question I originally asked, or something else?

It looks like the consensus has moved from ignore it to delete it... Long as the system will boot, I'll happily delete it.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Built
    CPU
    i9-12900 overclocked just a touch
    Motherboard
    MSI Tomahawk
    Memory
    64 GB DDR4
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVidia 4060 Ti
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell 3818 & Dell 2407 on the desktop, Dell 2405 on the laptop, Dell 3014 in the RV for traveling.
    Screen Resolution
    3840x1600
    Hard Drives
    1TB SSD for O/S, 4TB for non-image stuff, 8TB SSD for images, 10TB spinning platters for backups.
    PSU
    EVGA 850 silver
    Case
    Phantek
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless M575 trackball
    Internet Speed
    Varies between 20 and 400 Mbps
    Browser
    Firefox, Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender
    Other Info
    Plain ordinary PC.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell 7740 Precision
    CPU
    I9-9880
    Motherboard
    Dell
    Memory
    64GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" 4K and Dell 2405 as needed. Dell 3014 in RV when traveling.
    Screen Resolution
    3840x2160, 2560x1600 with connected to 3014
    Hard Drives
    Nothing spinning, 4, 1TB NVME SSD internal.
    PSU
    Dell 240W
    Mouse
    Logitech M570 wireless trackball
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless
    Internet Speed
    Depends on how fast the hotspot is wherever I am.
    Browser
    firefox, Chrome
    Antivirus
    Windows Defender...
    Other Info
    Just an ordinary laptop for doing image processing and presentation.
I'm confused again... Cereberus, are you answering the question I originally asked, or something else?

It looks like the consensus has moved from ignore it to delete it... Long as the system will boot, I'll happily delete it.
Well, when a user uses the Microsoft tool mbr2gpt in order to convert a disk to GPT and boot it in UEFI mode, Microsoft does not create the MSR partition....to me, that is evidence enough that Microsoft themselves do not consider it to be necessary to be on the disk.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Homebuilt
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Crosshair VII Hero (WiFi)
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Education
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 7773
    CPU
    Intel i7-8550U
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Nvidia Geforce MX150
    Sound Card
    Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    Toshiba 512GB NVMe SSD
    SK Hynix 512GB SATA SSD
    Internet Speed
    Fast!
I'm confused again... Cereberus, are you answering the question I originally asked, or something else?

It looks like the consensus has moved from ignore it to delete it... Long as the system will boot, I'll happily delete it.
I was replying to @NavyLCDR post really, but was pointing out it can be reinstated if MS ever decide to make use of it, making it even safer to delete.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0

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