Windows 10: Installation Fail "We couldn't update The System Reserve Partition"

Chevysix · Aug 23, 2015

This is the 2nd system (my wife's computer) we want to run Windows 10. Currently that system is running windows
7 Pro. The first system system went without a single hitch and it was running windows 7 Pro as well.. The download was complete so I was ready for the upgrade. I started the installation and the first thing I got the comment "We couldn't update The System Reserve Partition". I cannot find any documentation on this message. Any help would be appreciated.

:)

michaelkindberg · Aug 23, 2015

Windows 10 Couldn't install upgrade from Windows 7

Install Failed Message: "Windows 10 couldn't be installed. Couldn't update the system reserved partition."

MarkKlebig · Aug 23, 2015

Couldn't update the system reserved partition while upgrading to Windows 10

I'm trying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10. The install keeps failing with "Couldn't update the system reserved partition". Any thoughts or solutions?

Ztruker · Aug 23, 2015

That means the System Reserved parition is too small and needs to be expanded. I found this, it's for upgrading to 8.1 but the fix will be the same for upgrade to 10: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...f-d358ba19eb38

Found near the bottom of the thread.

Hello, After 2 months, I finally got 8.1 to upgrade correctly. What I had to do what resize my primary partition. The partition was only 100mb and 93% full. I was very scared to try and do this but was so frustrated at MS doing nothing to help that I tried it. It was all or nothing. If this did not, I was going to ban all MS products for life. What is amazing is that MS does not have a partition program that resizes a partition for what is needed to do this. Seriously MS? At first I tried EaseUS Partition Master 9.3.0 and had no luck. I created a new partition, but not one that was "next" to the primary partition, so it would not work. I then downloaded MiniTool Partition Wizard. What was great about this program is that it does everything for you. I just said I needed the resize the "Active & Boot primary partition" from 100mb to 400mb and it did it all on it's own. It "took" the 300mb from the main "System" partition and automatically added it to the "Active and Boot primary partition". The "Active and Boot" primary partition is the one you need to make 400.00Mb. I went from 100MB to 400 Mb and the upgrade finally took without incident. I now have used 298.11Mb of the Active and Boot Primary Partition with 101.89Mb free. Both file systems are NTFS. After you choose to "Move/Resize Partition" my computer said it could not complete the request until it rebooted. I selected "ok" and the computed rebooted and "MiniTool Partition Wizard" booted up and started the process. Please note it took almost 2 hours to complete the process. I did nothing else. I came back and it then booted right to Windows 8.1.

In conclusion, it was clear that the "Active and Boot Primary Partition" did not have enough free space on it to complete the upgrade. It was not, as MS suggested and I knew, that my computer was not compatible with 8.1. That was insulting for MS to suggest. How can a company worth BILLIONS of dollars not make sure that as part of the installation process, that a used has enough free space available to install the upgrade? How can they cannot come up with a simple process that checks a users computer BEFORE beginning the process? Then of course it would require MS to come up with a simple solution.

Anyway, I hope this helps someone stuck in the same jam I was.

MiniTool Partion Wizard Home Edition was the answer. v.8.1.1 I admit to being very scared to try this as I read some had issues trying this. I can only share what I did and what worked. I did run Malware Bytes and CC Cleaner many times before to make sure there were no issues before trying this solution.
Click to expand...

pvnam95 · Aug 25, 2015

This is the 2nd system (my wife's computer) we want to run Windows 10. Currently that system is running windows
7 Pro. The first system system went without a single hitch and it was running windows 7 Pro as well.. The download was complete so I was ready for the upgrade. I started the installation and the first thing I got the comment "We couldn't update The System Reserve Partition". I cannot find any documentation on this message. Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...

Here Fix MBR - YouTube

NavyLCDR · Apr 4, 2018

Here Fix MBR - YouTube
Click to expand...

There isn't anything wrong with his MBR. That won't help to fix this. He just needs to use MiniTool Partition Wizard, right inside his running Windows, to shrink the operating system partition by 350meg and add it to the system reserve partition.

Windows 10: Installation Fail "We couldn't update The System Reserve Partition"

Installation Fail "We couldn't update The System Reserve Partition"

Installation Fail "We couldn't update The System Reserve Partition"

Installation Fail "We couldn't update The System Reserve Partition"

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