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Bonniewest's avatar
Bonniewest
Bronze Contributor
Feb 22, 2025

Missing MSR partition on UEFI/GPT Boot drive (only 3 partitions)

Hi, I'm just noticed my home PC only has 3 partitions on my 1-Tb boot drive that I recently (2 months back?) upgraded to Windows 11. My cloned back up also only has 3 partitions, also missing the MSR partition. I always have 2 drives, one in the computer and one that I use for making a cloned backup. I guess my fault for not checking, but they always worked....so I checked my older drives that had cloned dates on them of 2020 and 2021, that I had used to clone to the new 1-Tb drives and just tossed those 500-gb ones in my drawer....and they also only have 3 partitions, also missing the MSR partition. So whatever the cause, it hasn't given me any problems for 2-3 years. So should I be concerned? And I checked my computer at work and it HAS 4 partitions, including the MSR partition?????

2 Replies

  • EzraOak's avatar
    EzraOak
    Iron Contributor

    The MSR partition plays a crucial role in the boot process. It allows the system to adjust boot parameters and other critical settings. Without it, booting from different drives or systems might become complicated.

  • CalahanReed's avatar
    CalahanReed
    Iron Contributor

    Many modern Windows installations, especially on GPT disks, automatically create the MSR partition during installation.

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