Win10 "We couldn't update the system reserved partition"

[david houldershaw]

I am currently running win8.1 and trying to update to win10, but when i start to update i get a message that says "We couldn't update the system reserved partition" .
Any help

 

[Ryrynz]

I went into disk manager and right clicked my C: drive and clicked "Marked Partition as active" or something of the sort and it worked.

1. press win+r and type diskmgmt.msc

2. Right click on your C: drive and click on "Mark partition as Active".

Hit the windows 10 button and try to install again....instead of giving me the error again, it started downloading the files

Worked for me so for

This worked perfectly for me. Such a simple solution compared to the complex one above or having to download and install a third party tool. Thanks!

THIS. I'd say everyone here probably has a reserved partition of at least 100MB which is enough. The problem seems to stem from the fact that Windows can't identify this partition without the OS drive being marked as active. Sorted.

 

[GTO3x2]

I went into disk manager and right clicked my C: drive and clicked "Marked Partition as active" or something of the sort and it worked.

1. press win+r and type diskmgmt.msc

2. Right click on your C: drive and click on "Mark partition as Active".

Hit the windows 10 button and try to install again....instead of giving me the error again, it started downloading the files

Worked for me so for

Caution to this guy's "simple solution". This rendered my computer completely useless. ONLY because I have an exact duplicate, cloned drive was I able to reclone my original disk. I got the same result as Benedict_1, BCD missing/corrupt. Yes it continued to download the update, but completely f'd it after that...Windows installation CD would not even start. So don't leave people hanging with partial, dangerous information

 

[Furinkazen]

I can't even find my System Reserved Partition...

Note drives G: and K: are created by me.
http://i.imgur.com/ipREj9q.png

 

[GTO3x2]

Try showing hidden and system files.
Win10 sequence (7 similar):
Explorer|View/Options/Change Folder and Search Options.
Folder Options|View-Advanced Settings/Show hidden files, folders and drives; uncheck Hide protected...system files.

 

[Furinkazen]

Already done that.

 

[hhgygy]

I went into disk manager and right clicked my C: drive and clicked "Marked Partition as active" or something of the sort and it worked.

1. press win+r and type diskmgmt.msc

2. Right click on your C: drive and click on "Mark partition as Active".

Hit the windows 10 button and try to install again....instead of giving me the error again, it started downloading the files

Worked for me so for

Caution to this guy's "simple solution". This rendered my computer completely useless. ONLY because I have an exact duplicate, cloned drive was I able to reclone my original disk. I got the same result as Benedict_1, BCD missing/corrupt. Yes it continued to download the update, but completely f'd it after that...Windows installation CD would not even start. So don't leave people hanging with partial, dangerous information

Actually, you didn't need to do that.
If you make your C: active and you have a reserved partition, it will paralyze your system so that you can only restore it using a Windows 7/8 original installer disc. You have to start installation and select system recovery which will make your C: bootable and deactivate the reserved partition.

 

[lbrown]

I used the following procedure(see below) that has been available here for sometime. Caveats, the files on the Y: drive were not visible to the OS (windows) initially. Either I did something wrong or a reboot was required. Either way once I rebooted, I could see the language files and I removed all but the English folder. I finally got the upgrade to WIN 10 from WIN 7 done. THANKS, THANKS, THANKS!!!!!!

"1LastNight said:
I found a solution that doesn't use third part tool's because i never trust them; still thanks to the dude who said it.

Here's how you can do it. PS: i got it from reddit.

Press win+r and type diskmgmt.msc
Click on your C: drive
Below the list of drives there will be a partition map, the first partition will be Data or some such, listed at 100MB, right click on it and go to change drive letters and paths -> add -> now choose Y: for the drive letter
Right click the CMD.EXE start menu icon and choose 'Run as Administrator'. Or, to open an admin cmd prompt, in win8 you can press win+x and choose command prompt (admin), in win7 you have to create a shortcut for cmd.exe, then go to compatibility in the shortcut properties, and choose run as admin.
Type: Y: <enter> in the cmd window
Run these commands:
takeown<space>/f<space>.<space>/r<space>/d<space>y
icacls<space>.<space>/grant<space>administrators:F<space>/t
attrib<space>-h<space>-s<space>-r<space>bootmgr
NOTE: for the icacls command you can use your username instead of administrators, to find out your username type 'whoami'
Now open explorer (win+e) go to the Y: drive under computer, Make sure hidden files and system files are visible through folder options. Then go into the Boot folder, and delete all languages other than en-US. Languages are in the form xx-XX. Make sure to shift+delete and not just delete so they don't go to the recycle bin. Empty the recycle bin afterwards just in case.
now go back to the admin command prompt, and type this command:
"for win 8 i think"chkdsk<space>Y:<space>/F<space>/X /sdcleanup /L:5000
"for win 7"chkdsk<space>Y:<space>/F<space>/X<space>/L:5000
this truncates the NTFS log to 5MB, it can be very very big, not leaving enough space for the install. At the end of the output it should tell you that you have at least 50MB of free space on the partition
proceed with the windows 8.1 installation
once booted into 10 and set up, you can go back into diskmgmt.msc and remove the drive letter for the boot partition

hope this helps PS: win10 looks great!"

 

[psc777]

I went into disk manager and right clicked my C: drive and clicked "Marked Partition as active" or something of the sort and it worked.

1. press win+r and type diskmgmt.msc

2. Right click on your C: drive and click on "Mark partition as Active".

Hit the windows 10 button and try to install again....instead of giving me the error again, it started downloading the files

Worked for me so for

Do NOT do this! See others issues after doing this below!! I joined them as well because I did this without finishing reading the thread!!

 

[scubachristopher]

I went into disk manager and right clicked my C: drive and clicked "Marked Partition as active" or something of the sort and it worked.

1. press win+r and type diskmgmt.msc

2. Right click on your C: drive and click on "Mark partition as Active".

Hit the windows 10 button and try to install again....instead of giving me the error again, it started downloading the files

Worked for me so for

This worked perfectly for me. Such a simple solution compared to the complex one above or having to download and install a third party tool. Thanks!

Worked perfectly for me as well!