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#10
Thought it was 4 primary partitions? Anyway tidied up the partitions that I meant to do a while ago but was too lazy
Thanks for your input, very much appreciated.
I believe that the "PortableBaseLayer" drive is related to the Windows Sandbox rather than the Reserved Storage. Check and see if you have Windows Sandbox enabled, if so you will have this virtual drive. If not, you will not have the virtual drive. If you turn off Windows Sandbox the virtual drive will disappear.
...at least this is how it behaved on my system...
galileo
@galileo
Thanks for the reply. I'm still under the impression that the Protable Base Layer VHDX is directly related to the Reserved Storage, based on this excerpt from the MS Tech Blog. You may be correct, but this is the quote:
Also is there a way to dismount the “PortableBaseLayer” container volume (at least temporarily) which is mounted from a VHXD whose content is also unmaintainable and permanently locked ?
Windows 10 and reserved storage | Storage at Microsoft
@f14tomcat
I had also seen that MS page and after reading it came away with no clear grasp of exactly where the reserved storage is located or how it is defined. Although, the first comment (by Craig Barkhouse [MSFT]) just below the article seems to indicate that MS chose not to utilize a VHDX storage solution.
In attempting to research this, I noted that prior to enabling the Windows Sandbox, I had no PortableBaseLayer virtual disk. And after enabling, I did. After disabling the Sandbox, the virtual drive disappeared. However, the "System & reserved" storage page in Settings does still show Reserved storage of 7.4 GB.
My take away from this is/was that the virtual drive was in fact related to the Sandbox and not the Reserved storage...but, then with MS...I could well have "stalled out"...
With respect to dismounting the PortableBaseLayer virtual drive, it would make sense that for the Sandbox to be functional, it would need a reliable disk storage location and size. Perhaps MS could have let the user choose to dismount the virtual drive and in conjunction with doing so, the Sandbox could have been disabled. Apparently, MS has chosen to err on the side of caution and not permit the user to manipulate the Sandbox storage drive...just a guess on my part...
galileo
Googled "PortableBaseLayer" after seeing it in partition manager while trying to get something else done. I'm almost positive it is for Windows Sandbox. I have a fresh clean install of 1903 that I did because I finally upgraded my SSD (went from a 256 GB SATA to 1TB HP 920 NVME drive ) . So I know Win 10 is doing the "reserved storage" thing But this partition was not in disk manager first time I opened it to wipe and create a new partition on my old SSD. However since then I did enable Windows Sandbox through the Enable and Disable Windows features part of the control panel and now I have "PortableBaseLayer". Glad to know what it is now.