Cannot update to 24H2 because of partition error

For those who may not be aware, this issue has been prevalent in Windows since the release of Windows 8. Microsoft removed the option to set EFI partitions during the initial stages of a Windows installation. Even more concerning, they have not extended the partition despite being aware for years that this causes problems during automated updates. The internet is filled with reports of this issue, yet Microsoft has not provided a resolution, only workarounds. If you use BitLocker, you may also encounter blue screens due to this problem.

We faced the same issue with Windows 10, and now it persists in Windows 11. Here are your options:

A. Delete the Fonts folder and hope it resolves the issue. B. Use Command Prompt to delete the existing EFI partition and create a new, larger one after shrinking the OS drive. C. Use third-party software to extend the EFI partition on the fly (note that no free tool effectively does this). D. Completely reinstall Windows, for example, upgrading from W11 23H2 to W11 24H2.

This is a significant issue for us and many businesses, as we recently updated to Windows 11 23H2 and now find that the 24H2 update will not install without extending the EFI partition. We are deeply disappointed with Microsoft's blasé attitude towards this problem. Managing a network of over 400 systems and encountering this issue as a professional service is unacceptable. We hoped this would be resolved in Windows 11, but unfortunately, it has not been.

Terrible service!

This is the screenshot from my system after running the Disk Management app as suggested.

Delete the Recovery Partition.

Get a free partitioning tool, delete partition 1 and extend the EFI System Partition to the left. The Recovery Partition has been discarded by Windows for good.

Hi Ramesh....

I know you must have not noticed my later post of finding a fix for this problem so I will cut and paste it here for you. I really appreciate your efforts to help, but the following activity solved the problem

[To everyone that has this problem...

I was able to fix this problem by some very unorthodox methods and I am not sure are necessarily the best way to do what was done. It would be nice if someone with the technical skills to write up a step by step that anyone could follow using software that is available to everyone.

In any case this is the solution in a somewhat abbreviated form:

1: Using a non-windows partition manager, I shrunk the main windows partition to allow about 1GB of unallocated space...

2: I moved the main windows partition so the unallocated space wat to its left (on the partition manager) and therefore accessible to the SRP (System Reserved Partition)...

3: I resized the SRP to include most of the unallocated space that was now available..

After rebooting Windows the update problem no longer existed since the SRP was now large enough for some time to come...

I realize that not presenting the details may be annoying issue but I'm sure this can be done more than one way and it is risky to do in any case and needs to be done using partition manager(s) that you feel comfortable with and by ALL MEANS have complete recoverable backup just in case things go wrong...]

Regards,

William

How exactly do you move the Unallocated space next to the SRP??

This is the screenshot from my system after running the Disk Management app as suggested.

@Thomas:

Please see this link:

“We couldn’t update system reserved partition” error installing Windows 10 - Microsoft Support: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/-we-couldn-t-update-system-reserved-partition-error-installing-windows-10-46865f3f-37bb-4c51-c69f-07271b6672ac (also applies to Windows 11.)