G+_Johnathan Turner (Refra Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 So I'm trying to format a HDD (Disk 0) to use alongside my current SSD (Disk 1) but I think I did something wrong. What is this "System Reserved" partition and can I get rid of it? Why did it only allocate 2TB on my 3 TB drive? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Eddie Foy Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 I find it odd that the new additional drive is drive 0 while existing drive is 1. Does Windows force you to create a primary partition on each physical drive? Can you just do a logical partition? (Been a while since I dealt with it) Wondering if you can 'cheat' by using a USB adapter to set up the drive, then install in case? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Marsh Posted April 4, 2015 Share Posted April 4, 2015 Note the size of the partitioned space. The disk is probably setup as MBR, so anything beyond 2.2TB won't be useable. Not sure why the reserved part is there if it wasn't formatted from a bootable installer. It could be safe to remove. Solution: Back up, delete the existing partitions on the disk, convert it to GPT, and repartition as you wish. If anything goes foul, at least you have a backup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Sam Dunham Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Don't try to remove the system reserved partition. It's a Windows thing (iirc, it first showed up in 7). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Timothy Hamlett Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 The Disk # is determined by which SATA port I use. On a desktop motherboard, it's labeled 0-5 (in my case). It really doesn't matter with anything else except for reference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Johnathan Turner (Refra Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 When I try to format the drive the command is grayed out and it says I cannot delete the system reserved drive, and since I cannot format it it is stuck as a 2TB MBR drive. Any ideas? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Sam Dunham Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 The System Reserved partition, in addition to containing BitLocker information, holds the Boot Manager configuration. It's possible to delete it, but I wouldn't recommend it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Sam Dunham Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 For more detailed information, look here: http://www.howtogeek.com/192772/what-is-the-system-reserved-partition-and-can-you-delete-it/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Johnathan Turner (Refra Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 Wayne Hobbins Yes I am running in administrator and the "Convert to GPT disk" option is grayed out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Sam Dunham Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 Somehow, I managed to miss that. That partition shouldn't exist except on a system drive, as Windows creates it during installation. Weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Terry Henderson Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 never use windows to format a HDD, First Rule, Use A G-Parted Boot Disk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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