oem reserve

The OEM reserve partition is a small, manufacturer-created partition on a hard drive, typically used to store system recovery tools or factory restore images. In Windows 10, it is separate from the System Reserved partition, which holds boot configuration and startup files. Users may encounter OEM reserve when planning a clean reinstall or managing disk partitions, especially on laptops that originally shipped with Windows 8 and were later upgraded. The partition is usually hidden and not intended for user storage. Understanding its role helps avoid accidental deletion, which could prevent system recovery options provided by the computer manufacturer.