How to Delete System Reserved Partition in Windows 10?

When you do a fresh install of Windows 10, the process automatically creates an additional partition in the operating system disk. This partition is called System Reserved Partition (SRP) and is situated before the operating system partition.

How big is it? What files are in there? Can it be removed? Should you remove it?

There are just some of the common questions about the System Reserved Partition. In this post, we’ll answer those questions and show you how to remove system reserved partition in Windows 10.

What is the System Reserved Partition?

The System Reserved Partition is a small partition on a Windows operating system disk created during installation. It is typically 50 MB in size on a Windows 10 installation. On Windows Servers (2016 and later), its size is 500MB.

The System Reserved Partition serves several vital functions:

1. Booting the operating system: The partition contains the necessary files for booting Windows, including the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store, which is responsible for locating and launching the operating system.
2. BitLocker encryption: If you use BitLocker Drive Encryption to protect your system drive, the System Reserved Partition stores the files needed to boot the system and unlock the encrypted drive.
3. System recovery tools: The partition may contain diagnostic and recovery tools that can be used to troubleshoot and repair issues with the operating system.

By separating the boot files from the primary system partition, the System Reserved Partition helps ensure the integrity and stability of the Windows operating system. It also enables features such as BitLocker encryption, system recovery, and the ability to use multiple operating systems on the same computer using different partitions or disks.

Note that in some Windows installations, particularly those performed on UEFI-based systems, the functionality of the System Reserved Partition is integrated with the EFI System Partition (ESP) rather than having a separate partition solely dedicated to the system files.

Consequently, the System Reserved Partition can only exist on drives using the Master Boot Record (MBR) partition style. This is also why you will not see this partition in Windows 11, which requires the GUID Partition Table (GPT) partition style.

Can You Delete the System Reserved Partition?

The short answer is NO because the SPR contains critical files that make your operating system boot properly. Even if you try to delete the System Reserved Partition, Windows will not let you.

But if the SPR is on another drive that isn’t your boot disk (not your OS), you can delete it using the usual tools in Windows. That’s because the SPR on another drive is not the active system partition that the OS requires.

How to Remove System Reserved Partition in Windows 10 using Disk Management

One way to remove the System Reserved Partition on a non-OS disk is through the Disk Management console.

1. Press Win+X and click Disk Management.
   Alternatively, press Win+R to open the Run dialog and enter the diskmgmt.msc command.
   
2. On the volume list, locate the System Reserved partition whose status does not include System.
   
3. Select the partition, click the Delete button, and click Yes.
   

How to Remove System Reserved Partition in Windows 10 using DISKPART

DISKPART is a command-line tool built-in to Windows that lets you manage disk partitions. Follow these steps to delete the System Reserved Partition using DISKPART.

1. Open CMD or PowerShell as admin.
2. Type diskpart and press Enter.
3. Type list volume and press Enter to list all volumes on the computer.
4. Look for the System Reserved partition that doesn’t have System under the Info column. In this example, the System Reserved partition is in Volume 4.
   
5. Type select volume 4 to select the partition. The volume number may differ on your computer, so replace 4 with the correct one.
6. Once the partition is selected, type delete partition and press Enter.
7. Finally, run list volume again and confirm that the System Reserved partition has been deleted.
   

How to Remove System Reserved Partition in Windows 10 using Remove-Partition

The Remove-Partition cmdlet in PowerShell removes a specified partition from the disk. This cmdlet is included in Windows, so you don’t need to download or install additional modules.

Follow these steps to remove the System Reserved partition using the Remove-Partition cmdlet.

1. Open PowerShell as administrator.
2. Run the following command to retrieve all ‘System Reserved’ volumes on the computer:

   $srv = Get-Volume -FriendlyName 'System Reserved'

   As you can see, there are two System Reserved volumes in the result.
   

3. Next, run this command to determine which partitions in the previous result do not have the System attribute:

   $srv | ForEach-Object {Get-Partition -Volume $_} | Where-Object {-not($_.IsSystem)} | Format-List *

   Note that DiskNumber and PartitionNumber from the result. In this example, the System Reserved partition is DiskNumber 1, PartitionNumber 1.
   The partition number is already a given since the System Reserved partition is always the first partition (Partition 1) on a disk.
   Note. The ordinal disk numbers start at 0, while partition numbers start at 1.
   

4. Remove the partition by running this command:

   Remove-Partition -DiskNumber 1 -PartitionNumber 1

5. To confirm, list the partitions on Disk 1:

   Get-Partition -DiskNumber 1

   The result below confirms that the System Reserved partition on Disk 1 has been removed.
   

Conclusion

The System Reserved partition is a critical area on the operating system disk and cannot be removed while booted into Windows. Removing the System Reserved partition is only possible on non-active operating system disks.

Using the native Windows tools is the safest method of removing the SRP since they have built-in safeguards to not accidentally delete the active system reserved partition. Deleting the SRP using third-party tools outside of the Windows environment can lead to your computer not booting up and data loss.