How to remove 'system reserved' partition from NEW M.2

[dazlerd]

Hi

I've bought a 250GB 960 EVO m.2 to replace my existing 128GB 850 Evo SSD that has the Windows 10 on it. No RAID.

I used AOMEI Backupper Standard to try and clone the 850 to the 960 but when it had completed i realised that it was just a disc clone of the 850 not a system clone - as that is in the paid product. So i have removed the boot partition from the 960, formatted the main partition, but i still have a 'system reserved' partition on the 960 that I can't delete. The option on the right click in disc management is disabled.

1) How can i delete this partition?

2) When i find software that will actually copy from the 850 and create a bootable drive will it use this same reserved partition or create another one ?

Thanks

 

[Sedivy]

You could try using the partition utility that you get on the windows install drive in case windows won't let you touch the partition while it's loaded. You can do the same with ubuntu live usb.
Create a single empty partition by clearing all the existing partitions, and merging and reformatting them into ntfs.
For copying, you can try one of these:
https://superuser.com/questions/32164/what-utility-can-move-my-windows-boot-partition-over-to-another-hard-drive#32168
though I have not used them myself and can't comment on how easy to use they are.

 

[Colif]

1. boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose command prompt
type diskpart and press enter
type list disk and press enter
this shows all drives available, DVD/USB and ssd/nvme, make note of drive number of disk with system reserved partition
type Select disk X - where X is the number of the hdd you want to wipe, change X to that number and press enter
once the drive you want to install on is chosen, type Clean
2. see above.

 

[dazlerd]

Hi
Thanks for the replies.
Well i'm not sure whats going on here but the computer can longer find an OS.
I used
https://www.backup-utility.com/clone/clone-hard-drive-to-ssd-4348.html
now that ive formatted partitions on the source m.2 ssd (and removed it from the machine) the original SSD is broke.

I took a disc image of C drive. whats the easiest way to get that back and can i put that on the m.2 960 instead of the 850 ssd?

 

[Sedivy]

Did you make sure there was only a single empty partition on the drive you were cloning to? And that all the partitions from the original ssd were copied?
It sounds like you copied your main partition with your OS, but your boot partition was not created. Ultimately I think with an install usb you can create a boot partition possibly, and then find the windows installation that way, but something went wrong in the copy process. Also what do you mean original ssd is broke?

 

[dazlerd]

I mean 'broke' as in no OS can be found on it.

I created both a backup image and a bootable cd using Windows 10.

Yes the 960 only had one formatted NTFS partition, and all partitions were copied as the drive then had 3 partitions on it. The software i used was just disc clone not system clone so i didnt think it would be bootable and basically trashed it by deleting the partitions on it. SOmehow that has affected the 850 SSD.

i'm currently booting from the backup CD so will see if i can copy the image i took back on the 850 SSD. Is that wise? Ive tried running diagnostics but that fails.

Thanks

 

[Sedivy]

Ok, don't have both drives connected at once when you're booting. They'll both have boot sectors and it can't load both. If you have the new drive connected, disconnect the old one temporarily until you're able to boot into new one without issues.
As for copy, if you truly copied, the old image is still on the 850, you didn't erase it. You just shouldn't have it running at the same time as the new drive until you're able to wipe it.

 

[dazlerd]

The m.2 960 is on the table ! i took that out straight away.

Ive booted using the windows bootable cd. In restore option it can see the image i took yesterday but how do tell it that the image needs to go on the ssd, not another HDD or the HDD that the image is stored on.

Thanks again

 

[dazlerd]

In Windows 10 i created:
Create a system image
Create a system repair disc

 

[Sedivy]

Ok so what image are you talking about? Is it like an iso or something? Did you not mount the image onto the new ssd right away? I thought it was a straight copy from disc to disc?
Also, if you put in the install cd, what you need to do is go to repair, open up the command prompt and then follow these instructions:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/repair-master-boot-record-mbr-windows
to re-create a boot record on the new ssd.

 

[dazlerd]

I took an image of the 850 SSD before the 960 evo was even out the packaging. This image is on a 2tb hdd.

The software i used to clone the 850 disc worked and created new partitions on the 960 evo m.2 but i didnt think it would boot as it was a disc clone not a system clone. So I reformatted the partitions on the 960 EVO m.2 but i couldn't remove the system partition. SO i started this thread.

But on rebooting an OS cannot be found on the 850 SSD.

The image was done using Windows 10 in built program. The disc copy was Aomei.

The 960 is reformatted. i wont be recreated a boot record on that !! Ill try for the 850.

 

[dazlerd]

So... the m.2 is back in the box. Using windows startup boot cd and command prompt the C drive is empty !! But the G drive is the 850 SSD.

I dont know how as i reformatted everything on G in disc management.

So I guess if i can rename the G to C ill be working again?

 

[dazlerd]

C drive
Volume in drive C is system reserved

G drive
Volume in drive G has no label

 

[Sedivy]

I see. Ok so assuming 960 is completely reformatted and has only a single partition on it and nothing on that partition.
Now you want to load up the image from your HDD onto it again but of course you're lacking windows from which to do this.
Try this.
Make a usb of ubuntu live. This is a live linux version that only exists when you plug in the usb drive. Nothing gets installed and as soon as you reboot and take out the drive, it's completely gone. But...while it's plugged in it'll allow you to boot into it, and then to access your hdd and you formatted 960 and to mount the image from the HDD to the SSD. Then unplug the usb drive, and boot as normal and see if it'll recognize the boot and OS partitions on your 960 and boot into it.

 

[Calvin7]

960 EVO M.2 is a NVMe PCI-Express 3.0 x4 drive.

NVME SSDs do not appear within the BIOS until Windows creates the system partition with the EFI Boot Sector. Your M.2 SSD contains UEFI driver information within the firmware. By disabling the CSM module Windows will read and utilize the M.2-specific UEFI driver.

 

[dazlerd]

the 960 is in the box and it still has a system reserved partition on it.

Id rather try and fix the 850 and start again. is there any way to link the G drive back up the C drive?

 

[Sedivy]

If you're installing 850 back in, fix the old boot record then. The copy process shouldn't have affected the original windows install you already have on 850 but I have no idea what shape the boot record is in at this point nor which drive it resides on even.

 

[dazlerd]

The C drive is a system reserves volume.

WIndows is currently on the G drive.

The backup is on the D drive

F drive is my bitlocker usb

H drive has no label - is this the boot for the 850?

I: is the repair disc on CD.

How do i bring C , G and H back together ?

 

[Sedivy]

Which actual hardware is c g d and h on?
I'm assuming D is the hdd.
C, G and H are on 850?
From description C could be the boot record but it could be something else like recovery partition with H being then the boot (or efi system) partition depending on windows version.
You can sometimes tell by the sizes. EFI system partition should be about 100mb in size or so, unless you had dual booting etc. and on windows 10, recovery should be about 500mb.
I'm not sure what you mean about bringing them together? If you merged the partitions, you definitely would not be able to boot into windows on 850 anymore. What I'm recommending is that you repair your boot (or efi) partition which will allow your boot record to list you all the drives you can boot into, so you can select the windows one and boot into it.

 

[dazlerd]

Yes correct on the drives. The D holds some important files so i am currently copying the image taken last night to a usb hdd. i can then remove my 2tb hdd without fear of losing anything.

c is 350MB from memory. Ill confirm after robocopy has finished. This could be a long night!!

Ill try to repair the boot on c. is it normal for each partition to be given a drive letter? ive never known that before.

Thanks for your help much appreciated.

 

[Sedivy]

No no, when you try to repair boot, with the 850 in there, it should find the already existing boot record whichever drive it's on automatically. You do not specify which drive you're fixing. If you go through the link:
http://www.thewindowsclub.com/repair-master-boot-record-mbr-windows
you'll see that when you get to the command prompt that's on the windows install cd, it should find the windows partition and the boot manager by itself and fix it.

 

[dazlerd]

bootrec /RebuildBcd
First time i ran this it said it had found 1. do i want to Update = Y

bootsec /fixMbr
bootsec /fixboot both said ran successfully

I then tried to reboot into SSD. No OS found.

So back into recovery disc, and run the bootsect /nt60 c:. Bootcode was successfully updared

Still cant boot into it.

Now i've got
C: System reserved. Only a Temp folder. 350MB free
D: bitlocker USB
E contains windows. Has no label. 302MB free
F: contains nothing. has no label.

Shall i try to restore from my image?

 

[Sedivy]

Yeah not sure at this point. If it fixed the boot record without issues and somehow still can't find the OS, then the os itself may be borked. Go to install cd and try this:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_10-update/system-file-check-sfc-scan-and-repair-system-files/bc609315-da1f-4775-812c-695b60477a93?auth=1
basically go to command prompt and try the sfc /scannow command in hopes that whatever is wrong with the OS may get fixed. If that doesn't work either, then I don't see what else to do but try to restore from the image. I have little hope that the copy will work if the original it was copying from isn't working either but might as well try at that point.

 

[dazlerd]

I started the image restore before i left for work this morning. During the process the restore app told me that all the drives would be wiped which was a bit scary but then it gives you the option of excluding drives. I excluded my 8gb USB bitlocker key and pressed Go.

Fingers crossed ive got a working system when i get home.

Thanks for all your help Sedivy, shame we couldn't make it work without an image restore but I am very glad I took one !

Cheers

 

[dazlerd]

Update !

When I got home form work tonight the system image had been restored. I now have my computer back.

I've just put the M.2 in the MB and rebooted. The system reserved partition of the C drive was showing in Windows Explorer as f: drive. I went into disc management and removed the drive letter from this partition.

I was then able to right click system reserved partition of the M.2 and delete it. Then I deleted the primary volume and finally formatted the M.2.

So im back exactly where i was Tuesday night.

I emailed AOMEI today about the difference between Disc Clone and System Clone using Backupper Standard. They said :

"If you only have a C: drive there is no difference. If you also have another partition, say D: for data, then this D: is only included in the disk clone, since D: is not a necessary part of the operating system.
Both system clone and disk clone will work."

I still want to get my OS from the 850 onto the M.2. Any advice? !!