System reserved memory partition became unallocated. Can I dual boot my PC?

ArminPhulkar

New Member
I am a Windows user, I want to dual boot my PC with kubuntu, but I realised that my system reserved memory column before the C partition is being shown as unallocated.
I don't know how this happened, is there a way of bringing back system reserved memory there in place of unallocated, without wiping the whole drive?
Attaching the screenshot of my Disc management.

Hoping for a solution for this, thank you.
 
If that was formerly a MS generated "Sytem Reserved" partition, that would have been the default location (since W7) of the boot files.
Vista located bootmgr and the BCD along with the OS (C generally), but from W7 onwards the default action of Setup during a new installation was to separate these to enable the C partition to be encrypted with Bitlocker (if desired).
Since I didn't want an encrypted drive, I used to go to great lengths to force the boot files onto C. (It's hard because Setup will grab any spare space it sees (even on other drives) to thwart you).
Nowadays with a dual boot W7/W10 I let it do its thing because a separate partition makes more sense ( and you can't stop it on UEFI no matter how you try) when it applies equally to several OSs.
For reference
Disk Management flags have the following meanings

"boot" = "this is the system you're running"
"system" = "this is where I found the boot files for the currently running system"
"active" (on the first HDD in the BIOS boot sequence) = "this is where I started the search for the boot files"
"active" (on subsequent HDDs in the BIOS boot sequence) ="this is where I will look if I don't find something in the MBR on the first HDD"

This shows that at some point you have relocated your boot files from the MS default location to your C: drive

Your former partition is now redundant and you can reformat it and use it in any way you like, including moving the boot files back there if you so desire
Changing the Boot Partition
 
Hi,
Because the boot loader files are stored on it, Windows won't boot properly if you delete this partition. You'll then have to remove the System Reserved partition and enlarge your existing partition to reclaim the space.
 
Back
Top