Windows 10 wrongly labels my secondary HDD as "System" in backup

Ocman76 · 17 Oct 2015

I am trying to create a system image of my SSD (where my OS is installed) but cannot because windows 10 claims my secondary HDD is also a "System" drive when it is not. I do not have enough space to create a system image of both of these drives.

Windows 10 wrongly labels my secondary HDD as "System" in backup-asdf.png

Does anyone know why this is happening? There is nothing on my secondary hard drive except programs and regular files (movies, music, pictures, documents, etc).

essenbe · 17 Oct 2015

Would you please post a screenshot of Disk Management? https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/2...creenshot.html

If you have moved any user files, installed programs to your secondary drive, windows will insist on including it in a system image. If you have the system reserved on it, the same.

Ocman76 · 17 Oct 2015

Hey I remember you form seven forums! Nice to see you again :)

For clarification, my WD Black HDD is the one I do not want to include in the system image.

Here is the screenshot, it appears there is a small partition I didn't know about. I wonder what its for...

Windows 10 wrongly labels my secondary HDD as "System" in backup-drives.png

essenbe · 17 Oct 2015

it looks like a system reserved Partition. Did you used to have Windows installed on it? Try unplugging 1 wire from all hard drives that windows is not installed on and try to boot. That will tell you if that 'System Reserved' is being used now or just a leftover from a previous install. I suspect it is a leftover.

fdegrove · 17 Oct 2015

Hi,

Here is the screenshot, it appears there is a small partition I didn't know about. I wonder what its for...

It seems that disk was once part of a pack of dynamic disks. Note also that both partitions have the same drive letter assigned.

Cheers,

Ocman76 · 17 Oct 2015

essenbe said:

Did you used to have Windows installed on it? Try unplugging 1 wire from all hard drives that windows is not installed on and try to boot.

No, windows was never installed on this drive. I just unplugged it and restarted with no issues.

essenbe · 17 Oct 2015

Then, I would move all data to another drive, delete all partitions and create a Primary Partition of the whole drive and replace the data. That should solve your problem. Just make sure it is a simple primary partition.

Ocman76 · 17 Oct 2015

Do you think it will be possible to remove the files from the HDD even though some of them (such as icon files) will be in use by the system? I am afraid I will try to cut and paste the contents of the drive only to have windows tell me 4 hours into the operation that some of the files are "in use" and can't be moved. That would be a disaster; it will probably take 10+ hours to move all the files

topgundcp · 18 Oct 2015

From the screen shot. Your disk is a dynamic disk. You might want to download Mini Tool Partition Wizard which allows to convert from Dynamic Disk back to Basic Disk.
About Dynamic disk: The way to convert dynamic disk to basic disk without damaging data or causing data loss .
Download: Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online

Ocman76 · 18 Oct 2015

topgundcp said:

You might want to download Mini Tool Partition Wizard which allows to convert from Dynamic Disk back to Basic Disk.

I was able to convert from dynamic to basic disk:

Windows 10 wrongly labels my secondary HDD as "System" in backup-untitled.png

But this has not solved my problem. Windows still thinks it is a system drive