Best way to remove SystemDiags files from system reserved partition?

[JMcKenzie]

We wanted to provide an update to anyone who comes along in the future.  We have learned more about how this issue arose and what might be done to address it...

We rebuilt one of the desktops in question and documented and tested as we went along.  Here are the notes.

Using the HP provided media:

• Load “Operating Sytem DVD Windows 10 Pro” into desktop
• Boot desktop to DVD
• Delete all existing disk partitions and install Windows 10 on SSD
• Load “Driver Recovery DVD” into desktop
• Choose “Recommended Software Applications,” install recommended ones
• Launch HP Support Assistant
• Install recommended updates

The issue occurs when installing the recommended software applications.  The “HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI” is one of the packages loaded.  This gets installed to the system reserved partition and ends up taking 50+MB of space.  We can find no supported method to remove “HP PC Hardware Diagnostics UEFI” to get back the space on the system reserved partition.

In starting to test the option of imaging the disk and putting it back down with resized partitions we found a hidden (even more hidden than the System Reserve Partition) partition of 16MB.  Microsoft's documentation indicates that this is the MSR partition.

The default disk layout looks like this:

DISKPART> list part

Partition ### Type             Size     Offset

------------- ---------------- ------- -------

Partition 1   Recovery           450 MB 1024 KB

Partition 2   System             100 MB   451 MB

Partition 3   Reserved           16 MB   551 MB

Partition 4   Primary           237 GB   567 MB

Our current imaging software doesn't support resizing/recreating the MSR partition.  Obviously we would have to reduce partition 4, somehow manage the MSR partition 3 and then increase the size of partition 2.  We are currently looking for a partition manager that is Windows 10 aware.

The Microsoft Windows 10 disk reference is here:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/configure-uefigpt-based-hard-d... Microsoft indicates that in regard to the system reserved partition - This partition is managed by the operating system, and should not contain any other files, including Windows RE tools.

We have talked to HP Support but they continue to suggest that we rebuild our desktops or just delete partition 2.  It appears that HP Support doesn't know Windows 10 and believes only the primary partition (partition 4 in this case) is necessary.  They suggested we could just delete the System Diagnostics from partition 2 but this was advised to be done at our own risk. 

[mdklassen]

>  We are currently looking for a partition manager that is Windows 10 aware.

See:  https://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/

It claims to work with Windows 10 and Windows Server systems.

This could be the same Partition Magic that I purchased, a long time ago, from a company called PowerQuest.

I think that PowerQuest was acquired by Symantec (Norton).

The web-site:  www.PartitionMagic.com still is owned by Symantec, but there's no relevant content on that web-site.

The software can be used to "shrink" the largest partition (hopefully to less than half its original size).

Then "move" that shrunken partition over into the free space, to move the free space to be adjacent to the "problematic" partition.  By pre-shrinking it to less than half the size, the "move" does not need to "overlap" the source and target areas.

Then, "expand" that "problematic" partition.

Move the shrunken partition over, to put the free space at the end.

Finally "expand" the shrunken partition up to its maximum size.

[JMcKenzie]

We tested removing the SystemDiags folder from the EFI partition.  The desktop booted fine.  When we tried accessing the system diagnostics (F2), the screen came up with some basic diagnostics which must be stored in firmware.  The diagnostics worked but didn't offer as much comprehensive testing.  After rebooting, we put back the SytemDiags folder and tried booting again.  The computer booted fine and the more comprehensive diagnostics were back. 

We also found that the Pro version of AOMEI Backupper can manage the Windows 10 partitions with ease.  We imaged the desktop and then put the image back down, increasing the EFI System Reserve partition by 500MB.

Short term we will remove the SystemDiags folder in order to be able to apply Windows 10 updates.  Longer term we will start resizing the System Reserve partition as time permits.