In this post, we will introduce what is PBR Image partition in Windows 10. Besides, we also provide easy methods to help you solve it when the PBR Image partition is almost full in Windows 10, 8, 7.
Generally, PBR stands for Partition Boot Record and it’s the first block of any bootable partition, and the PBR Image drive (no drive letter) is formatted with NTFS file system and contains the recovery image (PBR Image) in Dell computer. You could use PBR image to restore system in case of system or hardware failure.Thus, it’s not recommended to delete PBR Image drive.
I found there are some questions about PBR image, like: "Is PBR image protection is on or off after upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 or from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10? How to turn on the PBR Image for Windows 10?" You will find answers here:
Typically, in Windows 8.1 and 10, the PBR Image protection is OFF, you could turn on the protection settings of PBR Image drive as below:
1. Right click This PC, choose "Properties" -> "System Protection".
2. Select the PBR Image partition and press "Configure" button in "System Protection" window.
3. In the next window, check Turn on system protection option, and then click "Apply" -> "OK".
4. Then you could create restore point right now for the PBR Image that has system protection turned on.
Some users look for help on the forum like this:
Recently, I decided to install Windows 8.1 on my Dell XPS computer (original installed Windows 8), after installing Dell Backup and Recovery, I found something different: a 32GB PBR Image partition which is almost full. What is the partition for and should I delete the PBR Image partition? How can I fix the PBR Image full problem?
When you got the low disk space error in your PBR Image drive, it’s probably due to Dell Backup and Recovery write to PBR Image. You could change the destination of data backup to free up space in PBR Image, or you could extend the PBR image drive with unallocated space. Here we will show you how to merge PBR image partition and the unallocated space with AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard, now you could download it to have a try.
1. Run this powerful yet free disk partition manager after installing, right click the PBR Image partition, select Advanced > Merge Partitions.
2. Tick both PBR Image partition and the unallocated space to merge unallocated space into PBR Image, and click OK.
3. Click Apply at the left upper corner, then press Proceed to extend PBR partition.
Then, you would not get low disk space error on the PBR image partition anymore. Besides, if you upgrade to Professional edition, you can directly transfer free space from other partitions to the almost full (PBR Image) drive via its “Allocate Free Space” feature. And it also allows you to migrate OS to larger or smaller SSD, convert between MBR and GPT without losing data, convert primary partition to logical, and vice versa.
If you delete Dell PBR Image partition already, and do not want to restore it, you could try Windows 7 Backup and Restore to create backups, or the third party backup software - AOMEI Backupper with more flexible functions, like schedule backup, real time sync, system clone, incremental and differential backup, and so on.
Furthermore, you might meet the PBR Image partition visible situation somehow, and shows with Y drive, just restart several times to see if it’s hidden. Or you could remove drive letter for that partition.