Remove Microsoft Reserved Partition

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.

PAGE CONTENT:
System Reserved Partition Overview
How to Deal with System Reserved Partition - Check If It's Deletable
How to Delete System Reserved Partition

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?

Remove Microsoft Reserved Partition

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.

Can I Delete Microsoft Reserved Partition

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. What about Windows 10 Delete Partition or Remove Partition. Microsoft provides several tools in Windows 10 for managing disks & partitions. Users can get them to delete partition or remove partition if it's not needed anymore. How to Delete Partitions Windows 10. Please delete the partition directly if all files in it are not needed. Most users may never notice that the system reserved partition exists - until they launch disk management tools. The removal of the system reserved partition should be done with great care. Bear in mind that it hosts the startup files. Windows may not function properly, and the computer by extension once you remove the system reserved partition. In a moment, the Partition will become unallocated space. Select the system reserved partition and click “Extend” to extend the partition with the unallocated space. Click on “format” to format system reserved partition. Then you can select this partition to install Windows.

How To Delete Reserved Partition

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.

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.

Summary :

Many people said they need to delete a useless partition on their computer running Windows 10 (or other systems). What methods and tools should they choose? What happens when a partition is deleted? How to delete protected or recovery partitions on Windows 10? Please follow MiniTool Solution to get answers to those questions one by one.

Quick Navigation :

It’s an easy and normal task to delete a file or folder on a computer. When you don’t need an item saved on your Windows 10 computer, you usually delete it by following ways:

  • Locate the file or folder -> right click on it -> choose Delete.
  • Locate the item -> select it -> press Delete or Shift + Delete on the keyboard.
  • Locate the item -> drag and drop it to the Recycle Bin directly.

However, what about deleting a partition on Windows 10? Can you delete partition Windows 10? How to delete partitions Windows 10? What if you can’t delete partition Windows 10?

Don’t know how to retrieve deleted files on PC? The following content will show you how to get them back from devices in different situations.

Remove or Delete Partition Windows 10

If your disk is running out of space, you may consider deleting unnecessary files, folders, and programs to release free space. But actually, it’s more efficient to delete a partition as a whole. When you don’t need a partition on Windows 10 anymore, you should delete it. Windows allows users to manage partitions (create partition, delete partition, extend partition, etc.) by themselves easily.

What Is a Partition (or Volume)

A partition refers to a section (a logical division) of the disk separate from other parts. A partition is also called a volume by a Windows operating system. Each partition has its file system which controls how data can be stored and retrieved.

What Does Disk Formatting Mean

Disk formatting is a necessary process to prepare your storage device (hard disk, SSD, USB drive) for initial use; you can divide a hard disk into several logical parts to store data by category. A storage drive must contain at least one partition before it can be used for data storage.

What about Windows 10 Delete Partition or Remove Partition

Microsoft provides several tools in Windows 10 for managing disks & partitions. Users can get them to delete partition or remove partition if it's not needed anymore.

How to Delete Partitions Windows 10

Please delete the partition directly if all files in it are not needed. Otherwise, you need to transfer your useful data to another place and then start to delete partition Windows 10.

#1. Delete a Partition Windows 10 Using Disk Management

How to delete a partition in Windows 10 (the most frequently used method):

  1. Open Disk Management as you usually do. You can press Windows + X and select Disk Management. (What if the WinX menu is not showing up?)
  2. Navigate to the disk that contains the partition you want to delete. (This step is not necessary if you only have one disk mounted on your computer.)
  3. Locate the target partition and right click on it.
  4. Select Delete Volume from the context menu you see.
  5. A prompt window will show up to tell you deleting partition (removing partition) will erase all data on it so that you need to back up data first. Please click Yes to continue.

After that, the partition is deleted and the space occupied by it is released as unallocated space. You can then use it to extend an adjacent partition.

#2. Remove Partition Windows 10 Using the Command Prompt Tool

How to remove partition with the volume command:

  1. Press Windows + S to open Windows search.
  2. Type cmd into the search box.
  3. Right click on Command Prompt in the search results.
  4. Select Run as administrator.
  5. If you see an User Account Control window, click Yes to allow the app to make changes to your device.
  6. Type diskpart and press Enter.
  7. Type list volume and press Enter.
  8. Type select volume * (* represents the volume number) and press Enter.
  9. Type delete volume and press Enter.
  10. Wait for it to complete.

How to delete a partition with partition command?

Remove microsoft reserved partitions
  1. Run Command Prompt as an administrator.
  2. Type diskpart and press Enter.
  3. Type list disk and press Enter.
  4. Type select disk * (* represents the disk number) and press Enter.
  5. Type list partition and press Enter.
  6. Type select partition * (* represents the partition number) and press Enter.
  7. Type delete partition and press Enter.
  8. Wait for a moment.

How to recover lost files using CMD (the Command Prompt tool):

This page will show you how to recover files using CMD easily. You can recover data from USB pen drive, hard disk or other storage devices by command line.

#3. Delete Partition Windows 10 Using PowerShell

How to delete partition on your computer by using PowerShell:

  1. Right click on the Start button in the lower left corner of your PC screen.
  2. Select Windows PowerShell (Admin) from the pop-up menu.
  3. Click Yes when you see the User Account Control window.
  4. Type Get-Volume and press Enter.
  5. Wait for a few seconds and the partitions list will appear.
  6. Type Remove-Partition -DriveLetter * (* stands for the correct DriveLetter in the list) and press Enter.
  7. Type Y and press Enter to confirm the action.

Well, how to delete partitions if they’re not assigned with a drive letter?

  1. Run Windows PowerShell as an administrator.
  2. Type Get-Disk and press Enter.
  3. Type Get-Partition –DiskNumber * (* stands for the number of the target disk) and press Enter.
  4. Type Remove-Partition -DiskNumber * -PartitionNumber * and press Enter.
  5. Type Y and press Enter to confirm the deletion.

#4. Delete Volume or Partition via Settings

  1. Open Settings by pressing Windows + I or in other ways.
  2. Select System from the Settings window.
  3. Shift to the Storage option in the left panel.
  4. Click on the Manage Disks and Volumes link in the right panel.
  5. Browse the disks and expand the one containing the partition/volume you want to delete.
  6. Select the partition and click on the Properties button appeared.
  7. Go to the Format section and click on the Delete button under it.
  8. Click Delete volume to confirm your action.

That’s all about how to remove a partition Windows 10 using different tools.

Note: There’s also another method for deleting partitions on any Windows system: using third-party disk managers like MiniTool Partition Wizard. It offers the Delete Partition feature to help people delete a partition or delete all partitions Windows 10 in simple steps.

Bonus Tip: What Happens When You Delete a Partition Windows 10

If you delete a partition (or volume) on a disk, the space occupied by it will be released and marked as unallocated. You could then use the unallocated space to create new partitions or extend another partition on the same disk.

Can you delete a partition without losing its data?

Of course, no. Though deleting a partition is very similar to deleting a file or folder (you select the file/folder -> click Delete -> all contents are gone), they are very different actions.

  • Files or folders deleted from the hard drive will be sent to Recycle Bin and you can recover them easily.
  • All the files saved on the deleted partition will disappear; you lose access to all files. But you can still recover them with a powerful data recovery tool; the steps to recover data from a deleted partition will be shown to you later in this article.

Can You Delete a System Protected Partition

Generally speaking, the above methods are enough to delete a partition on Windows 10 (or other Windows operating systems). But when you attempt to delete some “special partitions”, you’ll end up in failure. You still have some system protected partitions on your disk, in addition to the ordinary data partitions. You can’t see them in Windows Explorer since they are hidden by default.

  • EFI System Partition: referred to as ESP, it is a small partition (usually around 100MB) you can find on a hard disk drive or solid-state drive. It is formatted with FAT32 and used by computers adhering to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). The UEFI firmware will start to load files saved on the ESP to initialize the installed operating systems and various programs & applications whenever the computer boots up.
  • Recovery Partition: the recovery partition is a partition you can find on the system hard drive; it’s able to help you restore the factory settings of your operating system (OS) when a system failure occurs. No drive letter is assigned to the recovery partition, so you can’t see it in File Explorer. (How to fix the operating system not found error?)
  • OEM Partition: the OEM partition is considered as the factory default recovery section; the OEM partition is similar to the recovery partition, they are both designed for system recovery or factory restore. If system failures occur, it can help you restore your system to its original state without using the OS installation disk. You can usually find this partition on an HP, Dell, or Lenovo computer.
  • System Reserved partition: the special “System Reserved” partition will be created when you install Windows on a clean disk. Also, it’s not assigned with a drive letter. It contains the boot manager & boot configuration data and the startup files used for BitLocker drive encryption. (What about the BitLocker drive encryption recovery?)
  • GPT Protective Partition: the GPT Protective Partition is a hard drive partition protected by the GUID partition table, not a system related partition. You are not allowed to access the GPT Protective Partition or perform any operations on it.

Can I Delete EFI System Partition

4 main components are included in the EFI system partition: boot loaders, system utilities, device drivers, and data files. The EFI system partition is where the Windows operating systems can start from, so you shouldn’t delete it unless you’re in 2 special cases:

  • You want to delete the EFI system partition from an external hard drive or backup hard drive.
  • You have installed two or more operating systems (two or more ESP have been created) and you plan to delete one of them.

Is It Safe to Delete Recovery Partition Windows 10

As mentioned earlier, the recovery partition only stores the files necessary for restoring the computer’s factory settings and it is not needed unless any system failures or problems occur. So it’s safe to delete a recovery partition without affecting the running OS. (How to recover data from disk without OS?)

Is It Safe to Delete Healthy OEM Partition

The OEM partition that usually comes with HP, Dell, or Lenovo is only created by computer suppliers to store some software or one-click factory restore settings. This partition is often not useful, so users can delete it to release more disk space. Thus, the answer is yes, you can delete a Healthy (OEM Partition) without causing any computer issues.

How to Delete a Protected EFI System Partition

If you really need to delete system protected partitions, you should follow the steps below.

Delete a protected EFI system partition using DiskPart:

  1. Right click on the Start button or press Windows + X to open.
  2. Select Run from the WinX menu.
  3. Type diskpart into the textbox.
  4. Click OK or press Enter.
  5. Click Yes in the User Account Control window to continue.
  6. Type list disk and press Enter.
  7. Type select disk * (* stands for the disk number) and press Enter.
  8. Type list partition and press Enter.
  9. Type select partition * (* stands for the disk number) and press Enter.
  10. Type delete partition override and press Enter.
  11. Wait until you see this message: DiskPart successfully deleted the selected partition.
  12. Type exit and press Enter to close DiskPart.

DiskPart related issues:

Recover Deleted Data or Partition on Windows

Can I Delete Reserved Partition

This part teaches you how to recover the lost data from a deleted partition and how to recover all deleted partitions on a disk.

How to Recover Data from a Deleted Partition

Step 1: download suitable data recovery software like MiniTool Power Data Recovery.

Step 2: double click on the setup program to start installing the software.

Step 3: follow the on-screen instructions to finish the installation process.

Step 4: run the software and select Hard Disk Drive from the left pane.

Step 5: specify the disk that contains the deleted partition. Double click on it or select it & click Scan.

Step 6: wait for the scan and browse the scan results.

Step 7: check the files and folders you want to recover. Then, click Save.

Step 8: specify a storage path for the selected items and click OK.

Step 9: wait until all the files you need have been recovered to the appointed place. Now, you can close the recovery software.

Remove Microsoft Reserved Partition Windows 10

The content involved in this essay can help you restore deleted files from SD card without any obstacles.

How to Recover Deleted Partitions on Disk

Step 1: download MiniTool Partition Wizard.

Remove Microsoft Reserved Partition Mac

Step 2: install and launch the software.

Step 3: select the disk that contains the deleted partitions from the right panel.

Step 4: click Partition Recovery Wizard from the left sidebar.

Step 5: click Next and follow the wizard to select disk -> set scanning range -> select scanning method. Then, wait.

Step 6: select all the partitions you need (both deleted partitions and existing partitions) from the scan results and click Finish.

Step 7: you can assign a letter for the recovered partition(s) by using the Change Drive Letter feature if you want to see the partition in File Explorer. (This step is optional.)

Step 8: click Apply in the upper left corner of the main window and wait for the operations to complete.

Conclusion

This post first introduces partition/volume to you. Then, it tells you how to delete partition(s) Windows 10 by using different methods. After that, it displays some special types of system protected partitions you may encounter and tells you whether they can be deleted or not. Finally, it provides 2 methods to help you get back lost data from the deleted partitions easily. Hope this can help you get out of the woods.