Question re: Recovery partitions, Macrium

robkay · 27 Mar 2020

Well, this was interesting. I installed Minitool and it did, in fact, let me assign a drive letter to the subject recovery partition.

What's interesting is that when I inspected the drive in File Explorer it did not show the 'Recovery' folder; it only showed the 'RecoveryImage' folder where the Lenovo crap is. I'm guessing that had to do with the partition type or something. So, I took a deep breath and bravely deleted the largest files that I did not want. I did a restart and all was well.

Next, I used Minitool to shrink the partition down to 640mb with 122mb free. This leaves a little leeway and MS can adjust it more in future W10 updates if needed. Did another restart and all still good.

Finally, I used Minitool to change the drive letter back to 'None' and so far all is well.

I'm thinking that since I use Macrium for imaging it is likely that I would never need that recovery partition anyway, but MS will continue to maintain it if future updates necessitate, and it is there if I ever do need it. Hopefully my actions did not clobber it for future use, but I think it s/b OK.

Thanks a lot for your help. This got me exactly where I was hoping to be!

dalchina · 27 Mar 2020

Hi, it would be a good idea to check it's actually functional. Try booting to Safe Mode, for example.

Kyhi · 27 Mar 2020

1 - 2- 3 - 7 - 8
all need work -
you removed largest file from 8 - thus destroyed OEM Win8 recovery
yet there are now 5 other partition where you could gain disk space

robkay · 27 Mar 2020

dalchina said:

Hi, it would be a good idea to check it's actually functional. Try booting to Safe Mode, for example.

I restarted successfully in Safe Mode and confirmed that I was able to launch a program and close it. Then I restarted in normal mode successfully. Does that tell me that MS's recovery stuff is functional? Another thing I did was run Macrium and do the "Analyze File System" on that partition and it reported no errors.

I ran EaseUS again and note that in the 'System Volume Information' folder there are a couple new files dated today that were not there before. So, I guess it would have to have accessed the partition OK--or maybe Mini Tool put those in there. I really don't know for sure. See pic below.

Question re: Recovery partitions, Macrium-partitionpic20.png

- - - Updated - - -

Kyhi said:

1 - 2- 3 - 7 - 8
all need work -
you removed largest file from 8 - thus destroyed OEM Win8 recovery
yet there are now 5 other partition where you could gain disk space

What kind of work? As far as the Win8 Recovery, why do I care? I'm on Win 10/1909 with no plan to ever go back.
Oh--if what you mean is reducing those other partitions, I figured when it came time to do the clone over to the SSD using Macrium I would just leave 1 and 7 behind. 2 and 3 I'll move in the clone, but not mess with and just let Microsoft manage those.

dalchina · 28 Mar 2020

That you can boot to Safe Mode and navigate through the Advanced Startup options indicates the recovery partition is configured correctly. Can't imagine how it came to be as it was.

Don't fiddle with the content of 'System Volume Information'.

robkay · 28 Mar 2020

All I can figure is the contents of that old OEM Lenovo recovery partition got pulled along as new recovery partitions were created through various updates. Install.wim alone was over 6g.

Right. The less fiddling the better.

Thanks for your assistance!

robkay · 23 Apr 2020

Stopping back to leave a conclusion. My project was successful. I used my Macrium 'Rescue CD' to clone my HDD to a brand new SSD for my boot drive. I brought across partitions 2, 3, 4, and 8 only. I am able to boot and operate successfully. I also tested a boot in Safe Mode to confirm that the recovery partition (8) was still pointed to and operable. Thanks to everyone for their help in making my upgrade a success!