Cannot Install Windows Update and Install DVD Won't Boot (to repair)

[Bruce Scherzinger]

My computer is trying to install Update to Windows 10 Home, version 1511, 10586, but can't. It claims there is no system reserved partition, but there is. This computer was upgraded from Windows 7 to 10, and immediately after doing that I installed a Samsung SSD and migrated the system to it using the software that came with the SSD. The migration went well and I've been using Windows 10 for months. All of a sudden, when trying to do some updates it claims it cannot update the system reserved partition. The partition is there, it's 100MB in size. So I tried booting from the install CD, which I burned to do the upgrade (so I know it's a good disc). My computer recognizes there's a disc in the DVD drive, but no matter how I set the bios boot order it will not boot from the DVD, so I can't do a repair on the SSD.

Any suggestions? I really don't want to do a bare metal reinstall on this computer. It would take me an entire day.

Thanks in advance.
Bruce

 

[safari801]

I've got a similar problem. When attempting to update to 1511 I get "couldn't update the system reserved partition" I'm already running Win 10 64 bit and have had no problems with other updates but this one fails. After refusing the update the machine has no problems but still can't update. The system partition is there and we've had no problems with the operation so far. I haven't tried the DVD yet. My drive is a Samsung SSD too. I wonder if it's a Samsung issue as I installed the drive about 10 days ago, although it took an update recently.

 

[kneely]

I too have the exact same issue. I am running Win 10 64 bit and have a Samsung SSD 250Gig. I have had this SSD for about 2 months with no issue while on Win 10. I wonder if it might have something to do with the addon software from Samsung called "Samsung Magician"?

 

[safari801]

When I bought the SSD some on Newegg said they had problems with win 10, but usually with the migration. I couldn't clone the drive with the sata to usb cable that is supposed to work with the cloning software as the drive wasn't seen. Wasn't seen in the bios either. I installed the drive in the machine and the drive was recognized and cloned. Maybe if the Samsung Magician software is uninstalled it will work. Updaate: I uninstalled the Samsung Magician and the same results, "Can't update the system reserved partition"

 

[Peter Bresler]

Sounds like you need to repartition the drive and reinstall the software from the DVD. The partition might be too small for the updated files.

 

[Bruce Scherzinger]

I don't think the partition is the wrong size. From what I've read, the system partition is supposed to have the "Boot" attribute in Disk Management. That's not the case with my drive. "Boot" appears in the main partition (the one that makes the C: drive; see attached image file).

Again, this would likely be repairable if the computer would boot from the install DVD I burned when I upgraded from Win 7 (same disc, so I know it's good). But it won't. I don't really want to do a bare metal install, but that may become necessary if we don't hear from someone at Microsoft on this issue.

 

[Peter Bresler]

I don't think the partition is the wrong size. From what I've read, the system partition is supposed to have the "Boot" attribute in Disk Management. That's not the case with my drive. "Boot" appears in the main partition (the one that makes the C: drive; see attached image file).

Again, this would likely be repairable if the computer would boot from the install DVD I burned when I upgraded from Win 7 (same disc, so I know it's good). But it won't. I don't really want to do a bare metal install, but that may become necessary if we don't hear from someone at Microsoft on this issue.

I just had a similar problem with inability to boot from what should have been a bootable disk. Afters hours of playing around I discovered a new setting in the bios; the boot routine has been "upgraded" for security; when I reset it to "Legacy booting", all my all old bootable disks worked again!

Peter

 

[kneely]

Interesting....Peter, where you having the same issue concerning the reserve partition or was this more an issue of not being able to boot from bootable disks?

Bruce, I have a similar setup when reviewing my partitions. I was able to increase the size of the system reserve partition to a little over 1Gig and it still will not update to Win 10 1511, giving me the same error when trying to fix the issue "could not update the system reserve partition." So I believe you are correct in that it has nothing to do with the partition size.

 

[kneely]

Meant to add a note to safari801, after my initial response, I too removed the "Samsung Magician" with the same result.

 

[Peter Bresler]

Interesting....Peter, where you having the same issue concerning the reserve partition or was this more an issue of not being able to boot from bootable disks?

Bruce, I have a similar setup when reviewing my partitions. I was able to increase the size of the system reserve partition to a little over 1Gig and it still will not update to Win 10 1511, giving me the same error when trying to fix the issue "could not update the system reserve partition." So I believe you are correct in that it has nothing to do with the partition size.

I was trying to reinstall Win 7 from an old disk and it would not work...finally got it too! I did repartition the disk.

 

[kneely]

Well...not sure which part of these steps actually was the solution, but I was able to install Win 10!

It might also be worth mentioning again that I originally was able to increase the size of the system reserved partition, which did not work originally. However, I also had a partition called "Data", which was only 100mb...identical to Bruce's .png image. I was using a tool called MiniTool Partiton (great easy tool). This tool did increase the reserved partition, but oddly was not able to increase the size of the "Data" partition. I mention this piece of information as I will use the tool later.

http://www.partitionwizard.com

I was nearly at a point where I was about ready to just do a clean install of Win 10. However, I had a couple more tasks to run before doing so. First I updated my BIOS and Intel chip set just to make sure I had the latest and greatest.

Then on a whim I decided to load and run Malwarebytes on my system, even though I have Bit Defender on there as well. To my surprise Malwarebytes actually found 2 instances of threats and wiped them clean. At that point I tried re-sizing the "Data" partition and was finally able to do so using MiniTool Partiton! I increased the partition to around 400mb.

Finally I re-ran the Win 10 update and it worked! Again, I am not really sure whether it was an outdated BIOS, Chip set Instructions, malware, or increasing the size of the Data partition. Sorry, I know I did not provide a whole lot of specifics so if you want to know more I will try and respond as best I can.

 

[Bruce Scherzinger]

It turns out the problem IS that the system reserved partition is too small. Apparently, Win 7 didn't need any more than 100MB. Evidently, Win 10 needs at least 350MB, and that partition doesn't get enlarged during the upgrade process.

So I tried something a friend of mine tried; resizing the partitions, which requires moving the start of the main (C partition, and doing that made the computer not boot. Long story short, I had to backup all my files, delete all the partitions, create a bootable USB drive with the Win 10 ISO on it, and install from that. The reason for that is apparently my laptop's DVD drive is attached as a SATA device and the BIOS only support AHCI on or off. It doesn't give the option of using the DVD drive in "compatible" mode. So if I enabled AHCI, the DVD wouldn't boot. And if I disabled AHCI, the hard drive was inaccessible. Just FYI, installing onto a SSD from a USB flash is pretty fast.

With a bare metal installation, the reserved partition created is 500MB. All is well now.