Solved Not enough space on system reserved partition error

First time posting, but found the Win 7 forums very helpful. I'm trying to upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 (and then 8.1) on a laptop with a 240 GB SSD. When I run setup, it loads, but then says Windows can't be installed because there isn't enough free space on the system reserved partition. My reserved partition is only 32 MB (I believe it was shrunk from 100 MB when I swapped the SSD in).

Is there any way I can resize the reserved partition and install Windows 8, or will I need to totally reformat the drive and repartition? Don't want to reinstall all my software if I can help it....

Thanks!

Can you post a screen shot of Disk management?

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2598-screenshots-files-upload-post-eight-forums.html

Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image - Windows 7 Help Forums

Here's the screenshot of Disk Management...


Disk 0 is my SSD. Disk 1 a 600GB HDD that I use for storage of music etc. Disk 1 originally was the primary hard drive in this machine, and I imaged it over when I installed the SSD. In the process, the recovery partition and the system reserved were shrunk apparently...

to


You need a 3rd party Partitioning software, to Delete & Extend, Which is signed by Microsoft.
Make the Bootable CD/DVD/USB.
Do backup both drive first.

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I personally use Paragon.
Paragon Hard Disk Manager Professional - Overview

Thanks! I will try this as soon as I can and post back. When I extend the system reserved partition, how large does it need to be?

400mb is a good size.

You might want to check what is in the recovery partition. One that is almost 9 GB is not the normal setup, so possibly the recovery image is located in it.

Just to be safe.....

Just wanted to throw out there that theog's solution worked and I've got Windows 8.1 up and running. I used MiniTool Partition Wizard. Startup repair ran after the first reboot (rebuilding partition table??).

You are welcome.