Can I safely delete "System Reserve" partition in W8.1


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As you can see from my attachment I have already moved my boot files to the "C" drive using EasyBCD.  Because W8.1 is on my "C" drive. which is a SSD of only 250GB, I want to save as much space as possible.  I see no use for the "H" drive and would like to delete it to save space. Can this be done safely?  I do have several backup/image files in case of Catastrophe.  The W7 you see on my "E" drive is not dual booted and will be deleted now that I've switched entirely to W8.1. post-69547-0-28375200-1384223895.png

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It can be done, but I wouldn't recommend it.

 

If you really want to, there are plenty of guides to be found on your search engine of choice.

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I don't think you are ever supposed to delete the system reserve. Also, 350MB isn't a lot of gain either on your hard drive.

 

 

 

Read this

http://helpdeskgeek.com/help-desk/hdg-explains-what-is-the-system-reserved-partition/

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As you can see from my attachment I have already moved my boot files to the "C" drive using EasyBCD.  Because W8.1 is on my "C" drive. which is a SSD of only 250GB, I want to save as much space as possible.  I see no use for the "H" drive and would like to delete it to save space. Can this be done safely?  I do have several backup/image files in case of Catastrophe.  The W7 you see on my "E" drive is not dual booted and will be deleted now that I've switched entirely to W8.1. attachicon.gifCapture.PNG

 

Just out of curisity; Why would you even consider doing this?

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Just out of curisity; Why would you even consider doing this?

 

Because I want as much space as possible on the C drive.  I realize 350mb is nothing with todays drives but my C drive in on la SSD of only 250GB.  Plus, it just bothers me!

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It is possible to setup and run Windows Vista/7/8 without it being created from the very beginning so it actually isn't required.  Once there however I probably wouldn't mess around with it since the space gained in the grand scheme of modern HDD sizes probably isn't worth it.  It used to only be 100MB but grown to 350MB now with 8 iirc.

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There appears to be a lot of confusion both in this thread and elsewhere online regarding the answer to your question. However, the canonical answer is not as complicated as the level of confusion might suggest, nor as simple as a one word answer, such as "yes" or "no". In short, Windows 8.1 requires the 350 MB "System Reserved" partition to boot if your system firmware is UEFI (which is an integral part of the Secure Boot mechanism most Windows 8 machines ship with), but it is not necessary if your computer's firmware is the more traditional BIOS.

 

While I agree with the other posters who have said it is probably not worthwhile to remove the "System Reserved" partition just to reclaim the minuscule space it occupies on disk, I will try to guide you through the procedure anyway. I searched for other guides documenting this procedure before I decided to create one myself, but, unfortunately, the only accurate guides I could find (or, at least, the only ones with no blatantly obvious flaws) make this procedure out to be far more complicated than it actually is. Therefore I present my guide for removing the Windows 8.1 "System Reserved" partition on installations with the MBR partition table.

 

WARNING: This is an advanced procedure. It has the potential to render your system unbootable or cause data loss. Make a backup of all critical data, or your system as a whole, before proceeding. (Clonezilla is a good disk imaging solution.) I am not responsible for any damage your cause to your system. You have been warned!

 

WARNING: Only attempt this procedure if your computer's firmware is BIOS (not UEFI/Secure Boot) or Windows 8.1 was installed in BIOS compatibility mode!

 

PREREQUISITES: Before attempting this procedure you will need two boot discs on hand. If your computer supports booting from USB flash drives, you may prepare a bootable flash drive for each each of these discs, otherwise burn them to optical media. This guide does not detail either procedure. You can easily find this information elsewhere online.

 

1. GParted Live

2. Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 install disc

 

SYSTEM RESERVED REMOVAL: The following steps walk you through removal of the "System Reserved" partition that was created automatically during the Windows 8.1 installation, and adding the disk space it previously occupied to your primary partition. This guide assumes the typical partition layout on your primary disk. That is, the first partition is the small, "System Reserved" partition, and the second is your Windows partition. However, even if other partitions exist on the boot disk, they will most likely only require trivial modifications to this procedure (in GParted, specifically).

 

1. Boot into GParted Live.

 

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2. Delete the "System Reserved" partition on your boot disk.

 

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3. Move your Windows partition to the beginning of the disk.

 

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4. Expand your Windows partition to the right into the unallocated (free) space.

 

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5. Write your changes to disk. (WARNING: This will take a while!)

 

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6. Reboot into your Windows 8.1 installation disc. (Windows 8.1 will no longer boot at this point!)

 

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7. Use "Startup Repair" to automatically repair your boot sector and associated files.

 

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8. Reboot into Windows 8.1!

 

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You can as xorangekiller says but is doing all of that really worth 350mb? Just run disk clean up and you'll probably recover more space

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I never had the system reserved partition in Win7. It was fine. All I did was make the partition bigger so setup couldnt create it. And with this mobo, for some reason (P5Q SE/R) it tried to boot from it, when setup did create it.

 

And that was the only way I could get the thing to boot. I dont have it in 8.1 either. But this doesnt support UEFI either

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