Does my disk partitioning appear to be OK?

jhcarver · 20 Dec 2022

I have some of the same questions posed by GerryPeters in "Do I need the system reserve partition?" but I didn't want to hijack that thread because I am not experiencing any problems.

Windows Version 22H2
My system has one 500 GB HDD which has been partitioned as shown in the attached image. I have a couple of questions about this layout. Note that the logical drives are labeled (E:) and (F:) because the CD-ROM drive is labeled (D:). The system uses a legacy BIOS and an MBR.

Does my disk partitioning appear to be OK?-2022-12-19-disk-management-clip.jpeg

1. Are the partitions in the proper sequence for recovery if needed?
2. Do I need both the System Reserved Partition AND the Recovery Partition?
3. Disk 0 partition 3 (Recovery Partition) seems to be 100% Free. Can I delete it? How?

I welcome your thoughts and guidance.

Regards,
John

Samuria · 20 Dec 2022

In a word no you have logical paritions which means any problems all logical parition can go. It normal now have all primary paritions so any problems you dont loose both paritions and you have free space as well which could be used convert to primary How to Convert Logical Partition to Primary Partition - EaseUS

Ghot · 20 Dec 2022

@jhcarver

You don't really need the recovery partition.
How to Delete Recovery Partition in Windows 10

The following items are ONLY for @jhcarver 's setup.

You need the System Reserved partition. In your case the computer won't boot without it.
The words "System" and "Active" right after the word Healthy on the System Reserved partition are the key.
You "need" them to boot.

Now if you have Macrium Reflect backup software, you can use it's bootable rescue media to "Fix Windows boot problems", which will combine your System Reserved partition with your C:\ drive.
Then, it will look like this...

Does my disk partitioning appear to be OK?-000000-ssd-setup.png

As you can see the words System and Active are now ON the C:\ drive.
Then, and only then.... can you delete the System Reserved partition, if it's still there.

SIW2 · 20 Dec 2022

It depends what you want.

Looks a bit awkward with the extended partition in the middle.

you could run at admin cmd:
reagentc /disable

then delete the 519mb recov partition.

I would move the extended partition across to the right at least 100gb which will allow space to increase the size of os partition later if needed. You would need a 3rd party program for that - diskgenius free is my suggestion.

You dont really need the 100mb active system partition, you could make the os partition both system and boot, but I dont see any particular advantage atm in changing it.

jhcarver · 20 Dec 2022

Excellent thoughts! I'll start by deleting the Recovery Partition. I'm OK with the 100 GB capacity of C:\ which still has 58% free. My other computer does not have the System reserved partition but as noted by GHOT, the C:\ partition on that one includes "System" and "Active". I will consider using Macrium Reflect to combine those 2 partitions. Are there any functional advantages to doing so?

Regards,
John

SIW2 · 20 Dec 2022

one includes "System" and "Active". Are there any functional advantages to doing so?

On an mbr disk getting rid of the separate system partition frees up a partition slot which doesnt matter much on your setup.

Ghot · 21 Dec 2022

jhcarver said:

Excellent thoughts! I'll start by deleting the Recovery Partition. I'm OK with the 100 GB capacity of C:\ which still has 58% free. My other computer does not have the System reserved partition but as noted by GHOT, the C:\ partition on that one includes "System" and "Active". I will consider using Macrium Reflect to combine those 2 partitions. Are there any functional advantages to doing so?

Regards,
John

No. It just looks better.

NavyLCDR · 21 Dec 2022

Your partitioning scheme is just fine the way it is. It could be different:

1. You could do away with the system reserved partition by putting the files required to boot the computer on C: drive and making it the active partition.

2. You can also move the recovery environment to C: drive and do away with the recovery partition.

This would allow you to have all primary partitions on your drive eliminating the need for an extended partition and logical drives.

If the computer is able to boot in UEFI mode, you could convert the disk to GPT and boot in UEFI mode, which would be the most efficient solution.

Megahertz · 21 Dec 2022

MS Disk Manager isn't accurate as it doesn't show all partitions and the free space isn't right.
Use MiniTool or AOMEI Partition instead or Windows disk manager.

On a MBR, the System Reserved partition is normally 100MB. Yours is 549MB because on OEM computes like Dell, the System Reserved partition also has some tools to test the hardware and help recovery.

I would leave it exactly as it is.
If ain't broken, don't fix it.

jhcarver · 21 Dec 2022

Based upon the collective wisdom of the forum members, here is what I've done:

Does my disk partitioning appear to be OK?-2022-12-21-disk-management-screen-shot.png

I think I'll leave the System Reserved partition as is despite my somewhat OCD need to make things neat and pretty

I'm still thinking about converting one or both of the logical drives to primary partitions, but it is not clear to me what benefit would ensue from that change.

Regards,
John