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September 14th, 2022 04:00
BIOS upgrade fails as not enough memory
Inspiron 5515
I think my BIOS upgrade is failing as the hard disk has a partition used to boot that is 100MB and 97MB are used, so not enough room left. Unless I buy partition software, I read I cannot increase it, and that is a risky thing to do anyway.
It is very disappointing if Dell configure their laptops so poorly as this to restrict upgrades they recommend. Is there a way round this?
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Saltgrass
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September 15th, 2022 06:00
Most of the free Partition managers will do what you need. If you are aware there is a MSR partition just in front of the OS partition, that has to be dealt with, you can get it done.
With the third-party software, look at the drive. In most cases the software will not be able to deal with the MSR partition. So, delete it so we can recreate it later.
When you adjust the partitions, then you can move the start of the C partition over what you need, then extend the EFI system partition into that area.
Make sure and leave at least 16 MBs of space in front of C for the MSR partition. If that is the only free space on the drive, when you give the command below, it will go into that space. Start Diskpart and then give the command. Only the first 3 letters of the commands need to be used. In Diskpart, it is very important you select the Drive you want to work with. The attachment shows the drive from a Dual Boot system.
Diskpart
Lis Dis
Sel Dis X <-- the drive you want to work with.
cre par MSR
The System EFI partition should have the space required but something regarding your configuration has filled it up. You are correct about the process being dangerous, so create backups.
JOcean
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September 14th, 2022 05:00
There are some good free partition software choices that can be downloaded. I have used AOMEI Partition Assistant with good results and it is available here. And if you open Windows disk management you can increase and decrease partition sizes.
Hoping99
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September 14th, 2022 09:00
I tried the free ones and Windows but I need to expand the boot partition to the right so C; from the left. Neither the free nor windows will do this as all of the C content has to move without loss. Paid for versions say they will but reluctant to pay for something Dell should have avoided
AdrianG001
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September 14th, 2022 23:00
This error is usually caused by a file corruption during the download and can be resolved by downloading the file again.
You may also receive this error:
Not enough memory to load program.
This error is reported when the RESERVED MEMORY is set to 512K - 640K. This option should be set to NONE unless you are using an expansion card that requires special addressing.
In order to run the BIOS upgrade, you need to boot from the diagnostics diskette (or any other bootable diskette, exit to DOS, run the BIOS upgrade. If you receive an out of memory error, check the system setup for RESERVED MEMORY.
Hoping99
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September 15th, 2022 01:00
The error message refers the EFS memory which googling tells me is a UEFI partition on the SSD. Windows tells me 97MB of allocated 100MB is in use so quite sure that is the problem. I have downloaded several times but each time fails. Tried booting via USB but still fails.
Saltgrass
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September 15th, 2022 07:00
If you wanted to see what was in the partition, you could use the process below, in an admin command prompt window.
The drive letter, y, will be removed when you close the command prompt window.
Make note of the bytes free number and compare it to mine. At one time, Dell used to place logs in this partition, but I don't think the still do that.
For reference, to go back in the directories listing you can use the change directory command. The mountvol utility is what sets the drive letter.
cd .. for one directory at a time
cd \ for all the way back to the root.
ann_droid
2 Intern
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September 15th, 2022 10:00
Hi
MS do the partitioning when you install it's OS.
100 - 110 MB was a common size.
Currently 260 MB is more the norm.
I use the Community Edition of Paragon Partition Manager as shown in the piccy below.
I agree changing the size is not easy, but theoretically you can have more than 1 boot area.
In PMM I make the first partition A:
Then mountvol A:
C:\>dir a:\ /s
13/09/2021 12:46
25/07/2021 21:17
18/09/2021 11:39
0 File(s) 0 bytes
Directory of a:\EFI
25/07/2021 21:17
25/07/2021 21:17
25/07/2021 21:17
20/08/2021 13:26
06/08/2021 11:52
16/08/2021 15:07
13/09/2021 12:46
18/09/2021 13:13
0 File(s) 0 bytes
ETC ETC ~~~~
Total Files Listed:
148 File(s) 63,135,880 bytes
160 Dir(s) 204,308,480 bytes free
So you can see I use a 260 MB area.
Hoping99
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September 15th, 2022 11:00
Used EaseUS and it worked with new BIOS installed. I didn't understand the other instructions on finding what is filling the partition and working now so "if it ain't broke don't fix it"