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Move System Reserved Partition to Another Drive without Reinstalling
Find the system reserved partition on the wrong drive after cloning or installing? It's ok and this article can help you easily move system reserved partition to another drive in 4 useful methods.
By Ivy Updated on July 3, 2024
🌟 Video Guide: How to Move System Reserved Partition to Another Drive
(*This video only offers 2 methods. To learn more methods, please read below.)
When to move system reserved partition to another drive?
“I currently have one drive that contains a System Reserved partition (which includes the boot files). The status is System, Active, Primary Partition. I have another drive with the C: partition. The status is Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition.
I've been told that if I remove the disk (it's a bit flaky) with the System Reserved partition, I won't be able to boot up. If this is true, is it possible to transfer that partition to another drive without reinstalling? If so, does it have to be at the start of the drive? Alternatively, can I make the C: partition include System status?” – tenforums
By default, it's not suggested to move system reserved partition to another drive in Windows 10 or other systems. It is dangerous and may cause system failure. However, in some situations, you have to do so. Please create a system backup or disk backup just in case.
- The system reserved partition on wrong drive. This usually happens when you clone disk or install Windows 10 with multiple drives connected to the computer.
- The disk containing system reserved partition is experiencing error, such as imminent disk failure.
Don't worry about it too much, keep reading below, I'll show you 4 ways to safely move system reserved partition to another disk. You can choose to manually copy boot file in the system reserved partition, but it's not guaranteed to to bootable. The safest way is to copy the original partition entirely.
Method 1: Move system reserved partition on wrong drive manually
The first method is to use built-in Disk Management to move boot partition on wrong drive. Without further ado, let's get started.
Please note that the following operation may cause unexpected problems. Thus, you need to create a repair disc first. Once your computer cannot boot successfully, you can use it to troubleshoot the computer.
Step 1. Create a new simple partition on disk 0 with disk management.
To open disk management, you can click “Win+R” and type diskmgmt.msc in the run box. Then right-click the unallocated space and choose New Simple Volume. If you do not have unallocated space on disk 0, you can shrink the partition first.
Step 2. Assign a drive letter for your system reserved partition (Z:).
Step 3. Copy everything from the system reserved partition to your new simple partition, Including Boot folder, bootmgr, BOOTSEC.BAK
Step 4. Remove the drive letter from the old system reserved partition on disk 1.
Step 5. Set the new partition as "System Reserved".
Step 6. Remove the drive letter of your new System Reserved partition, then mark it as active.
Step 7. Restart your computer and delete system reserved partition on disk 1 if Windows can start. If not, start your computer using the previously created repair disc and repair it using the Startup Repair option.
Method 2: Copy system reserved partition to SSD completely
Here you will learn the second method and the easiest, which is to use the "System Clone" feature in AOMEI Backupper Professional to copy system reserved partition completely.
AOMEI Backupper- One-click solution: clone the system reserved partition completely while keeping its primary partition and marking it as active and hiding its disk drive letter.
- Stay bootable: clone system partition and system reserved partition together to ensure the cloned drive is bootable.
- Multiple cloning scenarios: clone OS from HDD to SSD, transfer Windows 10 from one SSD to another, migrate OS from MBR to GPT without losing data, etc.
- Disk brands compatibility: Support all brands of HDDs and SSDs, such as SanDisk, Samsung, WD, Transcend, Toshiba, Seagate, etc,
100% SecureNow, download and install AOMEI Backupper Professional move system reserved partition in Windows 10. To merge system reserved partition with C drive in Server 2012/2016/2019/2022, etc., try server cloning software - AOMEI Backupper Server.
Step 1. On the main page of AOMEI Backupper Professional, select Clone and System Clone. Then, it will automatically select the operating system and system reserved partition required to start Windows.
Step 2. Select another drive (or unallocated space) as the destination path, and click Next.
If the destination SSD is partitioned, you'll receive a prompt reminding you the partition will be overwritten or deleted. Click OK to continue or click Cancel to backup important data first.
Step 3. Tick SSD Alignment to accelerate the SSD disk performance and extend its lifespan (if it is). Then, click Start Clone to perform Windows 10 move system reserved partition. You will be asked to upgrade to the full version of AOMEI Backupper Professional if you are using the trial version.
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Don't check the Sector by sector clone feature. It will clone all sectors of a hard drive to another one.
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If the destination partition is larger, you will see one more option called Make full use of disk space(to extend system partition size by adjacent unallocated space) and it is checked by default.
After cloning, your operating system and system reserved partition is on the same drive. You can use it to boot your computer and see if it's bootable. If yes, clone this drive to where your C: drive is located and delete it afterward.
Method 3: Backup & restore OS and system reserved partition
Except for System Clone in AOMEI Backupper, you still can use "System Backup" and "System Restore" to move system reserved partition to a different drive. Prepare another drive to receive OS and system reserved partition and backup them if you don't have a copy of your system partition.
Step 1. Create a system backup. Launch AOMEI Backupper. Click Backup and System Backup. Then, select the prepared drive to save them and click Start Backup.
Step 2. Connect the backup drive to your computer. Click the Restore tab and choose Select Image File to find the backup image.
Step 3. Tick Restore this system backup and click Next.
Step 4. Select your system disk as the destination and click Next.
Step 5. Click Start Restore to restore OS and system reserved partition to your system disk. Then, restart your computer to check if the cloned drive is bootable.
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If you want to backup and restore system image to new computer, it's suggested to tick "Universal Restore". Because this feature can install all the necessary drivers required to boot Windows.
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If the target disk is an SSD, please tick "SSD Alignment" to accelerate the writing and reading speed of SSDs with its 4k alignment technology.
Method 4: Move system reserved partition in Windows 7 and 8
Except for Disk Management, the built-in command line utility can also help you move system reserved partition to another drive, but this method only works well on Windows 7 and Windows 8. Then, learn how to change system reserved partition with the following steps.
Step 1. Open cmd as administrator, type the following command, and hit Enter.
bcdboot C:\windows /s C:
Step 2. Open Disk Management, right-click the C drive, and select "Mark Partition as Active".
Step 3. Select the system reserved partition and tap on "Mark Partition as Inactive ".
Step 4. Restart your computer and confirm if it can boot successfully.
Step 5. Right-click the system reserved partition and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths", then follow the on-screen instruction to assign a letter for this partition.
Step 6. Right-click the system reserved partition again and tap on "Delete Volume" to delete system reserved partition.
Wrapping Things up
You can easily move system reserved partition to another drive, whether you are currently using Windows 10, 11, 8, 7, XP, or Vista, as long as you follow the above ways carefully. If you don't want to see the system reserved partition on wrong drive issue again, you need to ensure you take out extra devices while cloning the disk or installing Windows.
In addition, creating an exact copy of your system by System Clone (e.g.: migrate Windows 10 to SSD) or System Backup is also a great way, please keep it in a safe place. Also, you can enjoy multiple useful features on it, such as SSD Alignment for further performance enhancement, Make full use of disk space to enlarge system partition, etc.
FAQs about moving system reserved partition
1. How do I get my system reserved partition back?
If the system reserved partition is on the second drive, you can choose to clone or backup the entire system with an all-in-one disk cloning software, AOMEI Backupper, for example. It will include all the boot-related partitions, such as, system reserved partition.
2. Is the formatting system reserved partition safe?
By default, it's not suggested to format system reserved partition if your computer work properly. If it's on the second drive or the disk is experiencing error, you choose to move system reserved partition with 4 methods provided in this article and then format it for more space.
3. Can I merge the C drive with system reserved partition?
The answer is Yes, but Not recommended. The system reserved partition on BIOS systems is meant to house WinRE and the boot files. In UEFI, it's meant to house WinRE only. Thus, if the C: partition is corrupted, the WinRE will be affected and you cannot boot into WinRE to fix the computer issue.
4. How do I make my system reserved partition bigger?
To make system reserved partition bigger, you can extend it to unallocated space with Disk Management. The steps should be: right-click the system reserved partition > select Extend Volume.... and follow the on-screen instruction to finish the rest of steps.
5. Is it necessary to format a disk before cloning?
Nope, the cloning software will handle the necessary formatting. But if your new disk is not initialized, you need to initialize disk in Disk Management. Otherwise, your software will not detect it, let alone clone it.
Go to Disk Management. Right-click the disk and select Initialize Disk. Then, select MBR or GPT disk partition style, depending on your old disk, and click OK. As for the disk partition style, you can check the Volume attribute in its Properties window.
6. How to boot from the clone drive?
After moving system reserved partition to another disk, it's necessary to check if your computer can start normally from the cloned drive.
- Restart your computer and press the manufacturer key, usually, it's F2, F11, ESC, etc., to go to BIOS.
- Select the Boot tab and set the cloned SSD as the first boot option.
- Press F10 or another prompted key to reboot. Please wait patiently and see if it can start normally.
- If it is, the operation is successful. Then, it's suggested to delete the original system reserved partition to free disk space.
7. How system reserved partition work?
The system reserved partition contains two important things in the following, which are necessary for computer startup. Read on to learn how it works.
- The Boot Manager and Boot Configuration Data.
When your computer boots, the Windows Boot Manager starts up and reads the boot data from the Boot Configuration Data (BCD). Then, your computer will boot the bootloader off the System Reserved partition. At last, the Windows will boot from your system drive.
- The startup files used for BitLocker Drive Encryption.
If you ever decide to encrypt your hard drive with BitLocker drive encryption, the System Reserved partition contains the necessary files for starting your computer. Your computer boots the unencrypted System Reserved partition, and it will decrypt the main encrypted drive and boot the encrypted Windows system.
