How to increase the System Reserved Partition size

I am having Dual Boot PC XP and Windows 10 on different hard disk. Windows 10 have been upgraded from Windows 7 but the System Reserved Partition on Windows 10 remained 100 MB ( 30 MB is free space ), wherein if we clean install the Windows 10 then System Reserved Partition is 350 MB. Now the problem, if I create a backup then the minimum 50 MB free space is required in System Reserved Partition otherwise backup fails. I tried command fsutil usn deletejournal which was advised by someone but it increase the free size from 20 MB to 30 MB only. I am hesitant to use partition manager software because once I have used this on another PC on a simple partition and though it has increased the size of the partition but data of my other partition was deleted. Please advise.

This is an easy answer, even thou you are nervous about using partition manager's Lots of us on here use MiniTool Partition manager.
This is a Free app, you would need to download their ISO version 9.1 then burn it to your dvd. Also, like I always tell everyone, DO a Complete Image backup BEFORE making any changes to your partitions!!! Try not to use Windows backup either. Use a program called Macrium Reflect Also a free app and does a great job of making your backup image on another drive. Windows backup I would NEVER trust. MiniTool I have used many times, with no problems. Macrium Reflect is also one of the better free image backup apps around.

OldMike65 said:

This is a Free app, you would need to download their ISO version 9.1 then burn it to your dvd.

or just download the installable version and install it in Windows. I find that to be a whole lot easier.

NavyLCDR said:

or just download the installable version and install it in Windows. I find that to be a whole lot easier.

Yeah, I know that method too, have it installed on desktop, DVD, and now on a USB flash drive too. :) Still prefer not to run any changes to my C-drive from the desktop.

OldMike65 said:

Yeah, I know that method too, have it installed on desktop, DVD, and now on a USB flash drive too. :) Still prefer not to run any changes to my C-drive from the desktop.

Different strokes for different folks

OldMike65 said:

This is an easy answer, even thou you are nervous about using partition manager's Lots of us on here use MiniTool Partition manager.
This is a Free app, you would need to download their ISO version 9.1 then burn it to your dvd. Also, like I always tell everyone, DO a Complete Image backup BEFORE making any changes to your partitions!!! Try not to use Windows backup either. Use a program called Macrium Reflect Also a free app and does a great job of making your backup image on another drive. Windows backup I would NEVER trust. MiniTool I have used many times, with no problems. Macrium Reflect is also one of the better free image backup apps around.

I remember that earlier I used this same Mini Tool Partition Manager which wiped data from my other partitions. Moreover my System Reserved Partition is having a drive letter assigned (not sure whether in win 7, drive letter was assigned or not). Wherein people say windows does not assign a drive letter to this. Secondly you said to take complete back up before increasing the size of System Reserve Partition. My Windows 10 drive is 500 GB (230 GB full) so how much space I needed for complete Back up and as My PC is Dual Boot, whether I need to Backup partitions of Windows XP hard disk also.

Anyone can use a wrong option using MiniTool, if you do, then could wipe out something, so if your not sure about using MiniTool, and can't make an image backup, maybe you should leave things along. Not a good idea to make any image backup on your primary drive. I would ask why in the world are you still running XP ... but I won't. So I'm not going to tell you what to do, all I did was offer a suggestion, that's all. The programs I recommended I use myself personally, with no problems. I have no idea how much hard drive space you would need for a complete image backup. If you feel you don't have enough space on another drive, that is not your primary drive, then don't mess with your partitions. Hard drives are pretty cheap these days.....

The only time I make an image onto my primary hard drive is for temporary use of an extra partition. I might make an image of my Windows 10 Insider build, for example, to install a new build on my partition set aside for testing. My laptop only has one hard drive and it's faster than making the backup to an external drive.

OldMike65 said:

Anyone can use a wrong option using MiniTool, if you do, then could wipe out something, so if your not sure about using MiniTool, and can't make an image backup, maybe you should leave things along. Not a good idea to make any image backup on your primary drive. I would ask why in the world are you still running XP ... but I won't. So I'm not going to tell you what to do, all I did was offer a suggestion, that's all. The programs I recommended I use myself personally, with no problems. I have no idea how much hard drive space you would need for a complete image backup. If you feel you don't have enough space on another drive, that is not your primary drive, then don't mess with your partitions. Hard drives are pretty cheap these days.....

You made me smile regarding XP (Many people wonder). I did not intend to backup on primary drive. I have external drive. The reason for asking space was that whether my external drive will have space for complete backup otherwise I could delete data(which is not very important to me) from my external drive before making backup.:)

sam9 said:

I remember that earlier I used this same Mini Tool Partition Manager which wiped data from my other partitions. Moreover my System Reserved Partition is having a drive letter assigned (not sure whether in win 7, drive letter was assigned or not). Wherein people say windows does not assign a drive letter to this. Secondly you said to take complete back up before increasing the size of System Reserve Partition. My Windows 10 drive is 500 GB (230 GB full) so how much space I needed for complete Back up and as My PC is Dual Boot, whether I need to Backup partitions of Windows XP hard disk also.

Since the systems were installed on two different hard disks, you only need to backup the hard drive where Win 10 is on. The disk image will usually be about 10% smaller than the source disk after compression, but this depends on the file types that you have on the hard disk. As to partition manager software, you can try free easeus partition tool if partition wizard didn't work for you.