Commands to find the free space within the EFI and Recovery partitions

zbook · 2025-03-03T19:49:24-0500

When troubleshooting Windows upgrade failures the failure log files may report blocks due to deficient free space.

There may deficient space errors in one or more of these partitions:

EFI
system-reserved-partition
Primary
Recovery

The deficient space for the error message we-couldn-t-update-system-reserved-partition is frequently 3 MB.

“We couldn’t update system reserved partition” error installing Windows 10 - Microsoft Support

When upgrading to Windows 10, you may encounter the error “We couldn’t update system reserved partition”, error code 0xc1900104, or error code 0x8000f0922.

support.microsoft.com

Diskpart is useful for the primary partition.

What commands can be used before an upgrade attempt to determine the free space (MB) for each of these partitions?

EFI
system-reserved-partition
Recovery

Berton · 2025-03-03T20:09:53-0500

The Notebook I'm on now has 4 partitions and small unallocated space, DM gives space info only for 3 of the partitions. Some of the small partitions do not allow user access to them.

When needing to manipulate them I do it by booting a Linux Mint LiveUSB and using the included GPARTED program to make resize changes without losing data.

pseymour · 2025-03-03T21:21:10-0500

You could use this to get partitions, then use the GPT types to get space information for each one.

Powershell:

Get-Partition | Format-Table -AutoSize -Property @('DiskNumber', 'Type', 'GptType', 'Guid')

Get-Partition | Where-Object { $_.GptType -eq '{c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b}' } | Get-Volume | Format-Table -AutoSize -Property @('Size', 'SizeRemaining')

zbook · 2025-03-03T21:21:36-0500

There are scripts such as healthcheck and whynotwin 11 that can be used for screening.

However these do not check free space.

I'm looking for commands to check the partition free space before the upgrades.

zbook · 2025-03-03T21:30:36-0500

Which numbers are for the free space for each

system-reserved-partition
Primary
Recovery

Code:

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Try the new cross-platform PowerShell https://aka.ms/pscore6

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Partition | Format-Table -AutoSize -Property @('DiskNumber', 'Type', 'GptType', 'Guid')

DiskNumber Type     GptType                                Guid
---------- ----     -------                                ----
         0 Recovery {de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac} {d7da621b-1b7b-416c-bd23-49efbe24b66a}
         0 System   {c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b} {0080d238-4ff5-42f9-bf68-9b9c80f5c2a1}
         0 Reserved {e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae} {1e5456a1-7daf-43d9-9ac1-e014c63f4f82}
         0 Basic    {ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7} {16d3a9d3-9279-435b-9141-c65a6520f8d1}
         0 Recovery {de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac} {f22829ed-1f6d-4638-8b3f-8602d8a2a5f8}


PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> Get-Partition | Where-Object { $_.GptType -eq '{c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b}' } | Get-Volume | Format-Table -AutoSize -Property @('Size', 'SizeRemaining')

     Size SizeRemaining
     ---- -------------
100663296      17553408


PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

pseymour · 2025-03-03T21:38:32-0500

This is a little better...

Powershell:

Get-Partition | Format-Table -AutoSize -Property @('DiskNumber', 'Type', 'GptType', @{Name = 'SizeRemaining'; Expr = { (Get-Volume -UniqueId "\\?\Volume$($_.Guid)\").SizeRemaining }}, @{Name = 'Size'; Expr = { (Get-Volume -UniqueId "\\?\Volume$($_.Guid)\").Size }})

Code:

DiskNumber Type     GptType                                SizeRemaining Size
---------- ----     -------                                ------------- ----
         0 Reserved {e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae}
         0 Basic    {ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7} 1866624196608 2000381014016
         1 System   {c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b} 233250816     268435456
         1 Reserved {e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae}
         1 Basic    {ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7} 900102602752  998762344448
         1 Recovery {de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac} 313319424     1033891840

zbook · 2025-03-03T21:53:20-0500

can the results be reported in specific units?

MB or GB?

pseymour · 2025-03-03T22:02:02-0500

Powershell:

Get-Partition | Format-Table -AutoSize -Property @('DiskNumber', 'Type', 'GptType', @{Name = 'SizeRemainingGB'; Expr = { (Get-Volume -UniqueId "\\?\Volume$($_.Guid)\").SizeRemaining / 1GB }; FormatString = "{0:N2}"}, @{Name = 'SizeGB'; Expr = { (Get-Volume -UniqueId "\\?\Volume$($_.Guid)\").Size / 1GB }; FormatString = "{0:N2}"})

Code:

DiskNumber Type     GptType                                SizeRemainingGB SizeGB
---------- ----     -------                                --------------- ------
         0 Reserved {e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae}
         0 Basic    {ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7} 1,738.43        1,863.00
         1 System   {c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b} 0.22            0.25
         1 Reserved {e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae}
         1 Basic    {ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7} 838.28          930.17
         1 Recovery {de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac} 0.29            0.96

garlin · 2025-03-03T22:35:05-0500

Sorry, it's not a one-liner...

Code:

function DiskSize {
    param ([uint64]$Number)

    if ($Number -ge 1GB) { return ('{0:f2} GB' -f ($Number/1GB)) }
    if ($Number -ge 1MB) { return ('{0:f2} MB' -f ($Number/1MB)) }
    return ('{0:f1} KB' -f ($Number/1KB))
}

$SystemDisk = (Get-Disk | Where-Object {$_.IsSystem -eq $true}).Number
"Disk $SystemDisk (System Disk)"

Get-Partition -DiskNumber $SystemDisk |% {
    $Volume = Get-Volume -UniqueId "\\?\Volume$($_.Guid)\"

    [PSCustomObject]@{
        Partition = $_.PartitionNumber
        Type = $_.Type
        FileSystem = $(if ($_.Type -eq 'Reserved') { 'FAT32' } else { $Volume.FileSystemType })
        Health = $Volume.HealthStatus
        Status = $Volume.OperationalStatus
        Free = $(if ($_.Type -ne 'Reserved') { DiskSize $Volume.SizeRemaining } else { $null })
        Size = DiskSize $_.Size
    }
} | Format-Table -Property @{Label='Partition';Expression={$_.Partition};Alignment='Left'},Type,FileSystem,Health,Status,@{Label='Free';Expression={$_.Free};Alignment='Right'},@{Label='Size';Expression={$_.Size};Alignment='Right'}

Code:

Disk 0 (System Disk)

Partition Type     FileSystem Health  Status      Free      Size
--------- ----     ---------- ------  ------      ----      ----
1         System   FAT32      Healthy OK     222.54 MB 260.00 MB
2         Reserved FAT32                                16.00 MB
3         Recovery NTFS       Healthy OK     174.69 MB 700.00 MB
4         Basic    NTFS       Healthy OK      19.06 GB  53.04 GB

zbook · 2025-03-03T22:46:19-0500

Code:

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Try the new cross-platform PowerShell https://aka.ms/pscore6

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> function DiskSize {
>>     param ([uint64]$Number)
>>
>>     if ($Number -ge 1GB) { return ('{0:f2} GB' -f ($Number/1GB)) }
>>     if ($Number -ge 1MB) { return ('{0:f2} MB' -f ($Number/1MB)) }
>>     return ('{0:f1} KB' -f ($Number/1KB))
>> }
>>
>> $SystemDisk = (Get-Disk | Where-Object {$_.IsSystem -eq $true}).Number
>> "Disk $SystemDisk (System Disk)"
>>
>> Get-Partition -DiskNumber $SystemDisk |% {
>>     $Volume = Get-Volume -UniqueId "\\?\Volume$($_.Guid)\"
>>
>>     [PSCustomObject]@{
>>         Partition = $_.PartitionNumber
>>         Type = $_.Type
>>         FileSystem = $(if ($_.Type -eq 'Reserved') { 'FAT32' } else { $Volume.FileSystemType })
>>         Health = $Volume.HealthStatus
>>         Status = $Volume.OperationalStatus
>>         Free = $(if ($_.Type -ne 'Reserved') { DiskSize $Volume.SizeRemaining } else { $null })
>>         Size = DiskSize $_.Size
>>     }
>> } | Format-Table -Property @{Label='Partition';Expression={$_.Partition};Alignment='Left'},Type,FileSystem,Health,Status,@{Label='Free';Expression={$_.Free};Alignment='Right'},@{Label='Size';Expression={$_.Size};Alignment='Right'}
Disk 0 (System Disk)

Partition Type     FileSystem Health  Status      Free      Size
--------- ----     ---------- ------  ------      ----      ----
1         Recovery NTFS       Healthy OK     434.60 MB 450.00 MB
2         System   FAT32      Healthy OK      16.74 MB 100.00 MB
3         Reserved FAT32                                16.00 MB
4         Basic    NTFS       Healthy OK      34.64 GB 237.05 GB
5         Recovery NTFS       Healthy OK     244.52 MB 885.00 MB


PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

zbook · 2025-03-03T22:52:12-0500

EFI 0.22 or 16.74 MB

Recovery 0.29 or 244.52 MB

garlin · 2025-03-03T23:01:53-0500

So basically you want to check the currently active partitions (via BCD) if there's more than one created?

zbook · 2025-03-03T23:13:55-0500

If an upgrade is attempted and fails the failure may be identified in the failure log files.

Code:

2025-02-18 08:35:28, Info                  CONX   CFreeSystemPartitionDiskSpaceChecker: checked InsufficientSystemPartitionDiskSpace, found HardBlock.Not enough space on partition [\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolume1\] Required: 15 MB. Available: 12 MB.

This was insufficient by 3 MB.

If the partition size free spaces was able to be checked before upgrades there may be reduced upgrade failures.

So I'm looking for methods to check the free space in the four default partitions.

Commands to find the free space within the EFI and Recovery partitions

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