Fix we couldn’t update the system reserved partition: This problem will likely happen if you try to update or upgrade your PC to a newer version of Windows. Insufficient free space on your hard drive’s EFI system reserved partition is the primary cause of this issue. To comply with the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), Windows uses the EFI system partition (ESP) on your hard disk or solid-state drive (UEFI). An operating system and other applications are loaded from an external storage device when a computer is booted using UEFI technology.
Expanding the EFI system reserved partition size is the fastest way to fix this problem, which is exactly what we shall illustrate in this piece.
We couldn’t update the system reserved partition [SOLVED]
If something goes wrong, you should create a restore point.
Method 1: Using MiniTool Partition Wizard
- Obtain and set up MiniTool Partition Wizard.
- After selecting the system reserved partition, click “Extend Partition.”
- Using the Take Free Space, select a partition from which to allocate space for the system reserved partition. Once you’ve found the ideal free space quantity, click OK.
- Please click “Implement” to apply these changes to the system reserved partition, which has expanded to 7.31GB from the original 350MB (This is only a demonstration; you should only enlarge the size of the system reserved partition by 1 GB). You can use the command prompt in place of the third-party application to remedy this issue.
Method 2: Use Command Prompt
Before continuing, first, determine whether you have a GTP or MBR partition:
- After pressing Win+R to open the Run dialog box, type “diskmgmt.msc” and press “Enter.”
- Right-clicking on your Disk will bring up the Properties menu (Disk 0).
- Make sure you’ve checked the partition style under Partition Style on the Volumes tab. GUID partition table and MBR are both required (GPT).
- The next step is to select the suitable partitioning method for your needs.
- If you have a GPT partition
- Use Command Prompt by pressing Windows Key + X (Admin).
- Press Enter to execute the following command at the command prompt: mountvol y: /s to access the System Partition, the Y: drive letter will need to be added.
- After typing taskkill /im explorer.exe /f and pressing Enter. Once you’ve typed explorer.exe, press Enter to restart Windows in Administrator mode.
- By pressing Windows Key + E, type Y:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\ into the address bar of File Explorer.
- Then, select and delete all language folders other than English.
- Also, remove unused font files at Y:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\Fonts.
- Reboot your PC to save changes. If you have a GPT partition, the above steps will fix “We couldn’t update the system reserved partition,” but if you have an MBR partition, follow the next method.
- If you have an MBR partition
- Make sure you have at least 250MB of free space on an NTFS-formatted USB flash drive.
- Windows Key + R, followed by diskmgmt.msc and Enter.
- Change drive letters and paths by right-clicking on the Recovery Partition and selecting Change Drive Letters.
- Select Add and press OK after typing Y for the drive letter.
- Use Command Prompt by pressing Windows Key + X (Admin).
- cmd: Enter the following command:
- Y:
- takeown /d y /r /f . (Make sure you put a space after the “f” and also include the period)
- whoami (This will give you a username to use in the next command)
- icacls . /grant <username from whoami>:F /t (Do not put a space between the username and “:F”)
- attrib -s -r -h Y:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim
- Next, open File Explorer and write down the drive letter of the external drive (in our example, F:).
- Enter the following cmd commands and press Enter:
- mkdir F:\Recovery\WindowsRE
- xcopy Y:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim F:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim /h
- C:\Windows\System32\Reagentc /SetREImage /Path F:\Recovery\WindowsRE /Target C:\Windows
- del Y:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim /F
- Select Refresh from the Action menu in Disk Management.
- Step 2 is necessary if the System Reserved Partition has grown in size.
- You must return the wim file to the Recovery Partition, and the location remapped after finishing everything.
- Enter the command by typing it into the command line:
- xcopy F:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim Y:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim /h
- C:\Windows\System32\Reagentc /SetREImage /Path Y:\Recovery\WindowsRE /Target C:\Windows
- Open Disk Management once more, then right-click the Recovery Partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths from the menu. After selecting Y: and deleting, you can proceed.
We were able to complete the fix we couldn’t update the system reserved partition; however, if you have any further questions, please share them in the comments section below.