Customers will most likely encounter the “We couldn’t update system reserved partition” error when upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7 or Windows 8.1. This error may also come with error code 0xc1900104 or error code 0x800f0922.
“We couldn’t update system reserved partition” Windows 10 upgrade error is normally caused by too little space on the System Reserved Partition (SRP). The System Reserve Partition is an additional small partition created by Windows, which stores boot files. The SRP can be filled up with security apps and third-party anti-virus. Once this partition has insufficient space, the system will not be able to upgrade to Windows 10.
Caution: The following steps are complex and need to be done by experienced users especially using the command line. Once an error is made in entering commands, there’s a chance that your device can be put in a no-boot situation, or data stored on the device can possibly get lost.
To upgrade to Windows 10, your device needs to have at least 15MB free space on the System Reserved Partition. Follow the procedure below and then try upgrading again.
Depending on what partition style your device has and whether you’re currently on Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1, there are various methods you need to do.
NOTE: While in Admin mode, some apps like OneNote will not run.
Doing this method will make a permanent, but small increase in the free space of the device’s SRP.
a. Open the Run window by pressing the Windows key + R. Type diskmgmt.msc then hit Enter.
b. Select System Reserve partition then right-click on it.
c. Choose Change Drive Letter and Paths then select Add.
d. Type Y for the drive letter then click OK.
e. Click on the Start button and search for cmd. In the results, right-click on Command Prompt then choose Run as administrator. The command prompt window will appear.
f. Type Y: at the command prompt then press Enter.
g. Once you’ve switched to drive Y, type takeown /d y /r /f . then hit Enter.
NOTE: Ensure that the space and period after “f” is included in order for the command to work properly
h. Type icacls Y:* /save %systemdrive%NTFSp.txt /c /t then hit Enter to back up the permission to the drive.
NOTE: Ensure that all files are marked as successful and that no files are marked as failed.
i. Type whoami then hit Enter. Record the username that appears. Afterwards, type icacls . /grant <username you got from whoami>:F /t then press Enter.
NOTE: Ensure that there’s no space between the username and “:F” or the command will not work.
j. In the File Explorer, open the SRP drive and select the Boot folder. Choose the language folders you want to permanently delete. Language folders are named with four letters split with a hyphen. For example: de-DE is the German language while en-US is the U.S. English language.
2. Truncate the NTFS Log:
a. Open the Command Prompt then type chkdsk /L Y: to check the size of the NTFS Log. If the NTFS Log size is less than 5000KB, you need not truncate the file.
b. Type chkdsk /L:5000 /X /F then hit Enter to truncate the NTFS Log.
c. Return to Disk Management window. Select Action menu then select Check if the device’s SRP now has a larger amount of free space. Once there’s enough space, right click the System Reserve Partition then select Change Drive Letter and Paths. Choose Y: then select Remove.
3. If there’s still not enough available space after truncating the NTFS Log, resize the USN journal:
a. Open the command prompt then type fsutil usn queryjournal Y: to display the size in hex value. Convert the hex value to decimal then divide it by 1048576. The result you will get will be in MB. If the journal size is 30MB or more, proceed with truncating the file.
NOTE: To convert the Hex value to Decimal, open the Calculator app in Windows then choose View menu. Select Programmer then choose Hex. Type the Hex value then choose Dec.
b. Type fsutil usn deletejournal /D /N Y: then hit Enter to delete the journal. Type fsutil usn createjournal m=1500 a=1 Y: to recreate the journal having the new log size value.
a. Type icacls Y: /restore %systemdrive%NTFSp.txt /c /t in the Command Prompt. Check if the files were successfully processed before proceeding. If you see a message saying some files failed while processing, this is normal since some of the files have already been deleted before performing a backup. However, if there are no successful files indicated, the command was not properly executed.
b. Type icacls . /grant system:f /t then hit Enter to adjust the ACL back to System. Now, you can set the owner of the drive by typing icacls Y: /setowner “SYSTEM” /t /c then press Enter.
c. Check if the device’s SRP now has enough free space by going back to Disk Management and refreshing the data. If the SRP already has sufficient space, you can now remove the drive letter. Right-click on the System Reserved Partition then choose Change Drive Letter and Paths. Select the Y: drive then choose Confirm deleting the drive letter by clicking OK.
This method makes a larger, but temporary, increase in the SRP free space.
1. Be sure you have an external drive having at least 250 MB free space and formatted as NFTS.
2. Open Run by pressing the Windows key + R. Type mscthen to choose the Recovery Partition. Right-click on it then choose Change Drive Letter and Paths.
3. Select Add then type Y for the drive letter, click
4. Click on the Start screen then type cmd in the search bar. In the results, right-click on Command Prompt then choose Run as administrator. The command prompt window will appear.
5. Switch to another drive by typing Y: in the command prompt. Once you’re in the drive Y, type takeown /d y /r /f .
NOTE: Ensure that space and period after “f” are included in order for the command to work properly.
NOTE: Ensure that there’s no space between the username and “:F” or else the command will not work.
Not inclined to go through a long and technical process (as highlighted above)? Download and install a powerful automated tool and get the job done in a jiffy.
New Tab Aid is an extension for Google Chrome. It is published by Spigot Inc. It is classified as a potentially unwanted browser hijacker as it injects Yahoo search into your new tab windows. This extension also adds recently viewed tabs under the search bar. It also redirects all your searches to Yahoo instead of your default browser search engine. It is often found bundled with other software found on the internet and not installed directly by the user. For these reasons, numerous anti-malware utilities flag New Tab Aid as potentially unwanted or malicious.
chkdsk C: /f /x /rNote: “C” is the drive root drive so it could be changed if you’re using a different one.
Loving Windows 11 so far? We sure are. Microsoft has clearly decided to take its OS to the next level and keeps showing it through every update. It makes you wonder what’s next - and today, you’ll find out!
Tons of new features have been leaked, and we can probably expect them with the 23H2 update. Here’s everything you need to know so far.
There are plenty of new features already confirmed for Windows 11. The only issue is we don’t know for sure if they’re coming with the 23H2 update or separately, at a different time. Whatever the case, a lot of them are pretty exciting.
Here’s an overview of what we might be getting this fall.
Another is AI-generated keywords, designed to improve the discoverability of apps you’re searching for. Moreover, the AI-generated review summary is designed to give us a simpler experience looking at reviews. Huge numbers of reviews will be compiled into a summary that’s easy to scan and lets us discover new content faster.
We’ve got some interesting stuff to look forward to with the next major Windows 11 update. And these are just the things the Internet’s actually heard of, so who knows what else Microsoft might be planning? It remains to be seen, hopefully just a few months from now. 23H2 has been released on October 31st.
jZip is a software utility published by Bandoo Media and is classified as a Potentially Unwanted Program. The software is an archive tool that used to compress and extract files in the rar, zip, and other formats. The program is typically bundled upon installation with other unwanted applications and is itself often installed in co-bundles. As of publication time, over 40 AntiViruses have flagged jZip as malicious or potentially unwanted.
It injects itself in Windows shell, providing quick access to the program by right-clicking on any file. jZip displays it's advertising in your browser, instead of the default search results, to better do this, it collects information about your browsing history and your current browsing session, so it can better target ads. This software, upon install, defines an auto-start registry key in your system, this allows the software to launch every time your computer is rebooted, no matter what Windows account you log in to, it also adds Windows Tasks, to allow it to launch by itself at random times, even when closed.