FIX We Couldn’t Update the System Reserved Partition Error in Windows 11

If you encounter the “we couldn’t update the system reserved partition” error when upgrading Windows 11, follow these steps to fix the problem.

To upgrade Windows 11 to a newer version, your system reserved partition (EFI System Partition) should have at least 15MB of free space. If it has less than 15 MB of free space or is full, you will see the “we couldn’t update the system reserved partition” error, which stops you from upgrading. To fix this error, you must free up space in the system reserved partition.

In this tutorial, I will show the steps to free up the system reserved partition space and fix the “we couldn’t update the system reserved partition” error. Let’s get started.

Before You Begin

• Administrator rights are required to execute the below steps.
• You must be logged into your user account in Windows to follow the steps and fix the problem.

Steps to Fix ‘We Couldn’t Update the System Reserved Partition Error’

1. Open Command Prompt as admin.
2. Run mountvol y: /s
3. Switch directories using the Y: command.
4. Run cd EFI\Microsoft\Boot\Fonts.
5. Run del *.* to free up space.
6. Type Y and press “Enter”.
7. With that, the system reserved partition error is fixed.
8. You can now upgrade your system.

Detailed Steps (With Screenshots)

First, we must open Command Prompt as an admin. To do that, press the Start key on your keyboard, search for “Command Prompt“, and click the “Run as administrator” option.

Once the cmd window opens, we need to mount the system reserved partition (EFI System Partition). So, run the following command. It will mount the partition and assign the drive letter “Y”. However, you might not see the newly mounted partition in the File Explorer.

mountvol y: /s

Next, run the following command to switch to the “Y” drive.

Y:

Once in the drive, run the following command to navigate to the Fonts directory in the Y drive.

cd EFI\Microsoft\Boot\Fonts

Inside the Fonts directory, run the following command.

del *.*

When prompted for confirmation, type Y, and press “Enter” to delete all the files in it.

That’s it. The above action deletes a few non-essential files (fonts) and frees up around 13MB to 15MB of space in the system reserved partition. Close the Command Prompt window.

Now, you can proceed to upgrade your system and should not see the “we couldn’t update the system reserved partition” error.

If you have any questions or need help, comment below. I’ll be happy to help.