How to Remove the Windows System Reserved Partition (SRP) (4034426)

Windows 7, 8, 2008R2 and 2012 use a special partition (100MB for Win 7/2008R2 & 350MB for Win 8/2012) called the System Reserved Partition (SRP) to host the files which initiate the boot of the machine.

Backups can be disrupted frequently due to the System Reserved Partition being completely used either with the AppAssure Change Logs or with files created by a third party software. In many cases, attempting to fix the issue without the help of a support engineer, may result in new base image being taken on all volumes of the protected server, due to unloading the filter drivers without having special tools.

The radical solution is removing the SRP altogether. Please note that this operation will be successful only if all the prerequisites are satisfied and AppAssure Support cannot take any responsibility in the outcome.

Prerequisites:

• Windows OS is installed on a MBR Volume. UEFI systems with GPT partitions are not supported.
• For Windows 7/2008R2 The boot files need to reside on a NTFS partition with the cluster size of 4Kb (the default size). This limitation does not apply to Windows 8/2012
• Bitlocker should not be used and you should noty plan using it at a later date.
• The partition containing Windows should be a primary partition. If installed in a logical partition, after removing the SRP, the system will not be bootable. (It can be fixed with third party software, including using a boot manager, though)

Simply put, the process will look as follows:

1. Copy the Windows booting files and Windows RE (Windows 8 only) to the Windows partition,
2. Apply the necessary BCD file corrections,
3. Remove the System Reserved partition (optional)

1. Boot into Windows
2. Use Disk Management to assign a letter to the System Reserved Partition
3. Press WinKey+R, type diskmgmt.msc into the Open box,press OK;
4. Right-click on the System Reserved partition and select Change Drive Letter and Paths… from the pop-up menu.
5. The partition will most likely be displayed as “100 MB Healthy (Active, Primary Partition)” (Windows 8 will show “350 MB” for the size) and be located at the start of the drive, prior to the Windows partition.
6. Click the Add button. An available drive letter will automatically be selected. You can keep it or select a different one. When finished, click the OK button.
7. In this example, E: will be assigned to the System Reserved partition and c: is the Windows System Driv
8. Start an Administrator mode Command Prompt
9. Windows 8 only: Disable the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). Run the following command:
   1. reagentc /disable
10. Verify that the winre.wim file was correctly moved to the C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder by running the following command. You should see the file in the directory listing.
    1. dir /a C:\Windows\System32\Recovery
11. This step is necessary because WinRE also needs to be moved from the System Reserved partition to the Windows partition. Leaving WinRE enabled will result in a broken/unusable WinRE after this procedure has completed. If the above command does not report success, you may need to manually copy the WinRE files (in the hidden \Recovery\{GUID} folder on the System Reserved partition) to an alternate location.
12. Unload the BCD registry hive by running the following command:
    1. reg unload HKLM\BCD00000000
13. Copy the bootmgr file from the System Reserved partition to the Windows partition. Run the following command:
    1. robocopy e:\ c:\ bootmgr
14. Copy the Boot folder from the System Reserved partition to the Windows partition. Run the following command:
    1. robocopy e:\Boot C:\Boot /s
15. The booting files have now been copied. If you wish to verify that they were copied correctly, run the following command:
    1. dir c:\ /ah
16. If the bootmgr file and the Boot folder show up in the list, the procedure was successful.
17. To update the copied BCD file so it will boot correctly, run the following command:
    1. bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {bootmgr} device partition=C:
18. Update the Memory Diagnostic entry by running the following command:
    1. bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {memdiag} device partition=C:
19. Close the Command Prompt window.
20. Remove the drive letter assignment from the System Reserved partition and set the Windows partition as the Active partition.
21. Return to Disk Management
22. Remove the assigned Drive letter from the System Reserved partition
23. Right-click on the Windows partition and select Mark Partition as Active from the pop-up menu.
24. Click the Yes button to confirm the change. You should see the Active tag move from the System Reserved partition to the Windows partition.
25. Close the Disk Management window.
26. Windows 8 only: Enable the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE). To do this, open an Administrator Command Prompt (if necessary, refer to instructions in Step 6) and run the following command:
    1. reagentc /enable
27. Windows should now be configured to boot properly from its own partition. Restart the computer.