Fix: We couldn’t update system reserved partition in Windows 11

If you’re not able to install or upgrade your Windows 11 to a newer version, this article may interest you. During the process of upgrade or installation, you might receive We couldn’t update system reserved partition error. In this article, we will see how you can deal with this message and complete your upgrade or installation.

Here is the error screenshot:

This error code is often accompanied with error code 0xc1900104, or error code 0x800f0922. When this error appears, you won’t be able to proceed further while installing or updating your Windows 11. You have to apply below fix first then you can retry the installation or upgrade process.

Fix: We couldn’t update system reserved partition in Windows 11

Reasons behind this error

Now let’s get to the basics first. Here, the System Reserved Partition (SRP) is a small partition on your Windows installation not having any drive letter assigned and is hidden. It has basically two things:

• The Boot Manager and Boot Configuration Data: When your computer starts, the Windows Boot Manager reads the boot data from the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) Store. This helps you to start your Windows.
• BitLocker Drive Encryption: When you opt to enable BitLocker Drive Encryption, SRP plays an important role. BitLocker writes data to SRP which help you to start your encrypted Windows installation.

When the SRP is full or doesn’t have a free space, then this error may occur. Some third-party app may write up to SRP and make it full. Once it is full, and when you perform upgrade or installation, the title error may occur.

To resolve this problem, you need to at least free up 15MB, if you’re installing. While if you’re upgrade, make at least 13MB free on SRP.

How to fix System Reserved Partition error?

For Windows 11, you should have System Reserved Partition in GPT partition style. Because Windows 11 can’t be installed with MBR partition style.

Here’s how you fix it:

1. Open administrative Command Prompt, if you’re upgrading. If you’re installing, you can instead use Windows RE Command Prompt.

2. Assign a drive letter ‘Y’ to SRP. Type following and press Enter:

mountvol y: /s

3. Now execute Y: command to go to SRP. Then type following and press Enter:

cd EFI\Microsoft\Boot\Fonts

4. So you should be now in Fonts folder. Execute this command del *.*. This should delete unnecessary fonts and free up space in SRP.

5. You can now close Command Prompt.

Re-try with upgrade or install, and this time error should not occur. With inputs from Microsoft support article.

You can also checkout this video fix for further assistance:

That’s it!