Can't Unpartition/Format HDD

[da_shack]

Hi guys,

Just installed a fresh copy of windows on a used computer i bought but I can't seem to format the HDD.

I've tried to extend the volume into the unallocated space but disk management wont let me do it.

I've tried to format the disk but windows wont do it because its partitioned, did a little bit of digging but couldn't solve the problem.

Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks!

[SpencerTech]

I think it's called "System Reserved" for a reason..

[SpencerTech]

Just now, SpencerTech said:

I think it's called "System Reserved" for a reason..

It shouldn't be 204gb tho.. hmmm

[da_shack]

I saw that too but I didn't think it would matter since I was just gonna format the entire drive,

I don't see the drive in file explorer too if that makes a difference. I literally installed windows 10 not even an hour ago

and went straight into Disk management and found it like this.

 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Try using diskpart in the command prompt.

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
clean
create part pri
select part 1
format fs=ntfs quick
assign
active

ONLY DO THIS IF YOU'RE CERTAIN YOU DO NOT NEED ANYTIHNG FROM THE DISK AS IT WILL REMOVE EVERYTHING FROM IT.

[TechyBen]

As BlueChin.... the above post says. I had similar, and IIRC it's where the drive is formatted between GPT (UEFI compatible) and MBR (legacy/BIOS) and Windows is being stupid and not letting you change it. So you can also do:

Quote

1. Convert MBR to GPT using Diskpart

Backup all your data and then use the DISKPART command.

• Open command prompt and type in DISKPART and press Enter
• Then type in list disk  (Note down the number of the disk that you want to convert to GPT)
• Then type in select disk number of disk
• Finally, type in convert gpt.

[edit]

Or click the *Drive* part of Disk Management, not the *partition* part. (I also forget that those two things are clickable and give different options).

[AbydosOne]

Removing this partition will likely break the underlying Win10 install (it relies on that System Reserved space, and will probably fail to boot without it), but can likely be fixed with the install media.

 

Once you have the System Reserved partition issue fixed, you may also need to convert the drive to GPT, as the alternative (MBR) doesn't support drives over 2TB (likely why Disk Management refuses to do anything above that).

An aside: Why Win10 would decide to make that large of a System Reserved space is beyond me and very unusual (I hope).

 

edit: Sniped by TechyBen, see his instructions.

[TechyBen]

Ah, yes the "just installed" thing. Yes, it is very similar to the "bug/unintended behaviour" I had. Was a laptop with 256gb ssd and a 1tb hdd. The "factory reset" had put the SSD in bios (MBR) mode, and the HDD in UEFI (GPT). Worse, the laptop could not see legacy partitions, so the SSD was unselectable for boot/install.

 

As windows would mess up and do a massive 200gb "recovery/system reserved" every instal, I had to force the GPT partition/format in Command prompt from the Windows Install Media. Did not take long to complete, but took about half an hour of head scratching to figure out how to force it from the command prompt (as the partition manager in the Windows 10 Install does not allow changing of disk format type ).

 

Oh, and I also got the fright of my life when it told me (I had accidentally selected and) formatted a 32mb drive.  I thought it was the bios or Windows 10 key location on the motherboard... but somehow everything booted fine and worked ok. Phew!