SOLVED Win 10 upgrade system partition message help

[Kiwi Paul]

Hi guys, can anyone advise?
When I try to upgrade my Dell XPS 15 running Win 8.1 to Win 10 I get a message "we couldn't update the system reserved partition", I only have an EFI system partition, not the 100MB DATA partition I've read about.
I've attached my disk management layout.

thanks,

Paul

 

[Trouble]

Hello and welcome to the forum.
That appears to be a GPT partition table being used on that drive.
When you created the installation media, did you create it with that in mind?
I would have thought, that in the case of an upgrade, that wouldn't make any difference but it might be worth looking into.
If you have the ISO, you can use Rufus to create the GPT / UEFI installation media. Browse to your ISO and afterward confirm that UEFI / GPT and Fat32 are select above.
http://rufus.akeo.ie/
Picture here showing what it should look like http://www.nextofwindows.com/how-to-make-uefi-bootable-usb-flash-drive-to-install-windows-8/
Just a guess, but.....
I thought I would pass it along just for your consideration.

 

[Kiwi Paul]

Thanks for the reply, I think I may have found the problem but now can't work out how to fix it.
The EFI system partition is full. I installed partition magic and was able to assign the EFI partition a drive letter and view the contents using partition magic. Somehow Acronis has put a backup file in there that only leaves 1.5MB free, but the drive is locked and I can't get the security tab to show to take ownership spo can't delete the file. I tried to expand the partition but it says not enough space even after I free up space on the disk by reducing the D drive size.
So I thinking it may be a complete clean install unless anyone can tell me how to access the EFI partition and delete Acronis.

Paul

 

[Nibiru2012]

That's a real mess you have there. If it were me I would wipe all the partitions and start anew with a clean install.

Dell's recovery partitions are a PITA. Serve no useful purpose.

 

[Trouble]

So I thinking it may be a complete clean install unless anyone can tell me how to access the EFI partition and delete Acronis.

If you run acronis I believe that it will show you all your backups.
If you find the correct one, you can choose to delete it from within acronis..... whole backup or settings only as I recall. That may do the trick, if you can identify the correct backup that is in that location.

 

[Kiwi Paul]

If you run acronis I believe that it will show you all your backups.
If you find the correct one, you can choose to delete it from within acronis..... whole backup or settings only as I recall. That may do the trick, if you can identify the correct backup that is in that location.

I can't find the Acronis backup related to that file.
I've attached my partition and drive staus. Even if I give the ESP partition a drive letter I can't access it as it locked, so I can't delete the Acronis file and I can't extend the partition so I'm a bit stuck. Any other ideas?
Can I install Win 10 as a clean install or does it need to upgrade to register it?

Paul

 

[Trouble]

Can I install Win 10 as a clean install

Nope

or does it need to upgrade to register it?

Yep

Gonna have to do something to sort it out prior to the upgrade.
Not a lot of options if you can't address whatever that file is consuming the space

 

[Kiwi Paul]

Nope

Yep

Gonna have to do something to sort it out prior to the upgrade.
Not a lot of options if you can't address whatever that file is consuming the space

I'll just have to format the drive, install Win8 then upgrade to Win10 and install all the apps again...sigh.

Paul

 

[SIW2]

"Can I install Win 10 as a clean install"

Yes, I just did .

 

[Trouble]

Absolutely, if....
It has been activated successfully post upgrade.
Then you can perform a clean install, as many of us have done. You don't even need to enter a key when prompted, just skip it " do this later".
Or if you have purchased the product and have a key or have an MSDN subscription.
Otherwise there are no resources that I'm aware of in the public domain that will support a clean install on a machine that has never had windows 10 activated on it.

 

[davehc]

Nibiru's post indicates my feelings. But. I use several Dells. What I would do is use the Dell facility to" return to factory settings". You should then find yourself with the computer as bought. First boot up will give you the opportunity to reinstall whatever was offered. This should be on a label somewhere. In the case of Dell, this could be as good as a Windows 7/8 pro. You can then upgrade to Windows 10,
All that mess of partitions will then be gone.

 

[Trouble]

Agreed....
After first backing up all critical data as afterwards all that and installed programs will be gone.

 

[SIW2]

Absolutely, if....
It has been activated successfully post upgrade.
Then you can perform a clean install, as many of us have done. You don't even need to enter a key when prompted, just skip it " do this later".
Or if you have purchased the product and have a key or have an MSDN subscription.
Otherwise there are no resources that I'm aware of in the public domain that will support a clean install on a machine that has never had windows 10 activated on it.

10 rtm has never been previously activated on this machine.No MS account in this clean install either. It seems the activation is picking up that this machine is part of the insider program.

 

[Trouble]

It seems the activation is picking up that this machine is part of the insider program.

That's probably it.
So that machine is righteous as far as MS is concerned as at least one of the former insider previews was apparently activated on it, it will support and allow a clean install.

 

[Kiwi Paul]

Update....

Managed to solve the issue with the EFI boot partition been full.
After assigning the EFI partition a drive letter I then had to open file manager (Windows explorer) with Admin rights, it opens without admin rights by default......

Open a command prompt with Admin rights.
taskkill .im explorer.exe /f
explorer.exe

Then open file manager and open the EFI partition, now I could delete the offending folder and file freeing up the disk space on that partition.

Then downloaded and installed Windows 10 yay!!!

Easy when you know how, I was lucky, stumbled upon the solution just before I was about to reinstall the Dell recovery software meaning all my Apps would ahve needed to be reinstalled too.

Paul

 

[Trouble]

Excellent.
Thanks so much for updating the thread with your solution.
I suspect it will prove helpful to others with the same or similar issues.

 

[Nibiru2012]

Good to see that you solved some parts of it. How many partitions do you have now?

Now this is just myself strictly talking here... what I would have done is to make a bootable USB drive or CD from the mini Tool Partition Wizard and rebooted with that software.
Then I would have deleted all the partitions and done a clean install of Windows 10 after the initial "upgrade install" of Windows 10.
Clean installs are way better performing than an upgrade install, at least for me that's always been the case.

 

[Trouble]

Then I would have deleted all the partitions and done a clean install of Windows 10 after the initial "upgrade install" of Windows 10.

I think that his problem was

When I try to upgrade my Dell XPS 15 running Win 8.1 to Win 10 I get a message "we couldn't update the system reserved partition", I only have an EFI system partition, not the 100MB DATA partition I've read about.