New OEM Partition after 1903 Update

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  1. Posts : 426
    Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 22H2 19045.3636
       #1

    New OEM Partition after 1903 Update


    On my laptop, the C and E partitions used to be adjacent. (Don't ask why there's no D partition.) About a week ago, I extended C, using MiniTool Partition Wizard, then I upgraded to 1903. Now there's a hidden OEM recovery partition between C and E. I'd like to extend C again, so what can I do about that new partition being in the way?
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  2. Posts : 9,765
    Mac OS Catalina
       #2

    Easy way is to format and install Windows. How much space are we talking about with that buffer? In theory it is better to leave some buffer on a drive, especially SSD’s to give the drive area to move data to if there is a problem in a memory segment.
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  3. Posts : 426
    Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 22H2 19045.3636
    Thread Starter
       #3

    bro67 said:
    Easy way is to format and install Windows.
    You seem to define "easy" differently than I do.

    I had 11 or 12 GB free, right after the update, but it's dwindled to 9. I was hoping to shift another 10 or 20 from E to C, like I did before.

    Since I use Macrium Reflect, do I actually need the recovery partition?
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 2,487
    Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
       #4

    Probably best that you post a screen shot of Windows Disk Management.

    Having said that:

    I would NOT remove any partitions made by Windows.

    You may or may not also have partitions supplied by Lenovo that are NOT needed.

    Here is what Windows put on my drive during a clean install:

    New OEM Partition after 1903 Update-untitled-1.jpg
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  5. Posts : 426
    Windows 10 Home 64-bit, 22H2 19045.3636
    Thread Starter
       #5

    The partitions look like this:
    New OEM Partition after 1903 Update-disc-partitions.png
    I just want to shrink E by 10 or 20 GB, so that I can expand C by the same amount. That was easy, when C and E were adjacent.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 9,765
    Mac OS Catalina
       #6

    gregyurkon said:
    You seem to define "easy" differently than I do.

    I had 11 or 12 GB free, right after the update, but it's dwindled to 9. I was hoping to shift another 10 or 20 from E to C, like I did before.

    Since I use Macrium Reflect, do I actually need the recovery partition?
    Yes, every time an OS or Software Package is updated with major changes, your free-space will shrink. That is a reason why larger sized drives are getting cheap. I use a 250gb and still have a lot of space left, since I put everything mirrored on my OneDrive snd iCloud and only keep Office and Windows on the drive. Even on my Macbook, I only keep that Software that I need to use on it and everything else in my Cloud Storage.
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  7. Posts : 9,765
    Mac OS Catalina
       #7

    gregyurkon said:
    The partitions look like this:
    New OEM Partition after 1903 Update-disc-partitions.png
    I just want to shrink E by 10 or 20 GB, so that I can expand C by the same amount. That was easy, when C and E were adjacent.
    Splitting a storage device means you will cause issues and should move to separate storage devices. The plus side is that you can place apps and OS on a dedicated smaller storage device and everything else on a larger storage device. You risk screwing up that drive if you start shrinking and expanding storage. You may want to look at Storage Spaces in place of E.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 2,487
    Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
       #8

    gregyurkon said:
    The partitions look like this:
    New OEM Partition after 1903 Update-disc-partitions.png
    I just want to shrink E by 10 or 20 GB, so that I can expand C by the same amount. That was easy, when C and E were adjacent.
    You should be able to still do that with a tool such as Minitool Partition Wizard.

    Windows Disk Management can't do that because of that intervening 581 MB partition. It's an acknowledged shortcoming of the tool.

    So, use Minitool instead.

    While you are at it, you could also add that unallocated 1000 mb to the partition of your choice.
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  9. Posts : 6,247
    Windows 11 Pro - Windows 7 HP - Lubuntu
       #9

    Another option is:
    - With disk management, change the drive letter from E: to D: (if you have shortcuts to E: on Windows they have to be fixed)
    - Boot from this tool:
    Windows 10 Recovery Tools - Bootable Rescue Disk
    - Create a disk image and store on an external disk.
    - Delete all partitions on the disk
    - Restore partitions one by one ( You can resize any partition) in this order
    EFI - C: - D: - WinRE_DRV - 581M OEM
      My Computers


  10. Posts : 17,661
    Windows 10 Pro
       #10

    Megahertz said:
    - Restore partitions one by one ( You can resize any partition) in this order
    EFI - C: - D: - WinRE_DRV - 581M OEM
    That would create again a new WinRE / OEM partition between OP's C: and E: drives when a future Windows upgrade requires more space for recovery environment.

    Windows Setup, weirdly enough, does not follow Microsoft's own GPT disk partitioning guidelines. The OEM partition, also called Recovery or WinRE, should always be placed after the Windows partition C: but Windows Setup by default puts it first on system disk:

    New OEM Partition after 1903 Update-setup-partitioning.jpg

    Because of this, when a feature upgrade requires more space, original recovery partition cannot expand, EFI partition blocking it. Upgrade "steals" the space it needs for recovery partition from C: drive, shrinking it a bit, marks the new partition (blue in screenshot) as current recovery partition and makes the original one (yellow) obsolete:

    New OEM Partition after 1903 Update-default-gpt-partitions-after-upgrade.jpg

    Recovery partition can something no other Windows partition can: it can expand itself backwards, but only if it is placed directly after Windows system partition. When again an upgrade requires more space for recovery environment, recovery partition takes what it needs (marked green in screenshot) from Windows partition:

    New OEM Partition after 1903 Update-re-partition-expands-backwards.jpg

    If the recovery partition is not directly after C: drive like in following screenshot, next upgrade needing more space for recovery environment once again "steals" space from C: drive and creates one more partition in space marked green:

    New OEM Partition after 1903 Update-third-re-partition-.jpg

    Only way to assure that the recovery partition will be created in correct place, after Windows system partition, is to either use DISKPART to do partitioning before a clean install, or use a deployment method like MDT which can do this automatically.

    Additional reading:

    Kari
      My Computer


 

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