How to Fix We couldn’t update the system reserved partition

Whenever you guys try to update or upgrade your PC to a newer version of Windows is likely that you guys will see this error. The main cause of this error is due to insufficient available space on EFI system reserved partition on your hard disk actually. The EFI system partition (ESP) is basically a partition on your hard disk or SSD that is used via Windows adhering to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI). Whenever a computer is booted UEFI firmware loads operating system installed on ESP and a lot of other utilities. Just read this article to know all about How to Fix We couldn’t update the system reserved partition. Let’s start!

Now the easiest way this issue could be really fixed is to increase the size of EFI system reserved partition and also that’s what exactly we are going to teach in this article as well.

How to Fix We couldn’t update the system reserved partition

Use Command Prompt

Before continuing, first you have to determine if you guys have a GTP or MBR partition:

• Tap on Windows Key +R and then type “diskmgmt.msc” and click on Enter.
• Right-tap on your Disk (for example Disk 0) and choose properties.

• Then choose the Volumes tab and check under Partition style. It should be either Master Boot Record(MBR) or also GUID partition table (GPT).
• Then, choose the below method according to your partition style.

a)If you have a GPT partition

• Tap on Windows Key + X and then choose Command Prompt (Admin).
• Then type the following command in the cmd and click on Enter: mountvol y: /s
  This will basically add the Y: drive letter in order to access the System Partition.
• Again type taskkill /im explorer.exe /f and then click on Enter. Then type explorer.exe and then press Enter to restart explorer in Admin mode.
• Tap on Windows Key + E to open File Explorer and then type Y:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\ in the address bar.
• Then choose the all the other language folders except English and permanently delete them.
  Such as, en-US means U.S. English; de-DE means German.
• Also you have to remove unused font files at Y:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\Fonts.
• Now reboot your PC to save changes. If you guys have a GPT partition the above steps will definitely Fix We couldn’t update the system reserved partition, however, if you have an MBR partition and then follow the next method.

b)If you have MBR partition

Note: Make you have to sure you have a USB flash drive along with you (formatted as NTFS) with at least 250MB free space.

• Tap on Windows Key + R then type diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter.
• Choose the Recovery Partition and right-click on it then choose Change Drive Letters and Paths.

• Select Add and enter Y for the drive letter and then click OK
• Click on Windows Key + X then select Command Prompt (Admin).
• Then type the following in cmd:

Y:
takeown /d y /r /f .  (Make sure you put a space after the “f” and also include the period)
whoami (This will provide you username to use in the next command)
icacls . /grant <username from whoami>:F /t  (Do not put a space between the username and “:F”)
attrib -s -r -h Y:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim

(Don’t yet close the cmd actually)

• Next, open File Explorer and also note down the drive letter of the external drive that you ‘re using (In our case
  it’s F:).
• Now type the following command in cmd and click on Enter after each one:

mkdir F:\Recovery\WindowsRE
xcopy Y:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim F:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim /h
C:\Windows\System32\Reagentc /SetREImage /Path F:\Recovery\WindowsRE /Target C:\Windows
del Y:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim /F

• Head back to Disk Management then click Action menu and choose Refresh.
• You have to check if the size of the System Reserved Partition has increased, and if so then continue with the next step.
• Now when everything is done, we should then move the wim file back to the Recovery Partition and re-map the location.
• Then type the following command and hit Enter:

xcopy F:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim Y:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim /h
C:\Windows\System32\Reagentc /SetREImage /Path Y:\Recovery\WindowsRE /Target C:\Windows

• Again just choose Disk Management window and right-click the Recovery Partition and then select Change Drive Letter and Paths. Select Y: and select remove.

Using MiniTool Partition Wizard | couldn’t update the system

• You have to download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard.
• Now, just choose the system reserved partition and then select the function “Extend Partition.“
• Then just choose a partition from which you want to allocate space to the system reserved partition from the drop-down Take Free Space from as well. Next, drag the slider to decide how much free space you guys want to allocate and then tap on OK.
• From the main interface we can also see system reserved partition becomes 7.31GB from original 350MB (It’s just a demo, you guys should only increase the size of system reserved partition to maximum 1 GB). So please tap on “Apply” button to apply changes. This must Fix We couldn’t update the system reserved partition, however, if you don’t want to use the third-party application. Then follow the next method in order to fix the issue throuh the command prompt.

Conclusion

Well, That is all from my side. If you want to know more about this article or have any queries. Then feel free to ask me anything in the comments section below.

Have a Good Day!