help required to delete the extra recovery partition

perfection · 12 Aug 2018

I had purchased an HP laptop that came with windows 8. This was upgraded online to v 8.1 and then to windows 10 and subsequently to the feature updates of Windows 10.

When checking (yesterday) with disk management I found there were three recovery partitions apart from the three disk storage partitions that i work with and one more for the UEFI tools.

I have deleted the HP OEM recovery partition as that facility was built into the HP recovery manager options and I would probably never be returning to a win 8 installation. By default the space freed up was added to my last partition automatically

I need to help to delete the other partition(s) after being sure that my recovery environment tools and winre.wim file is safe and usuable.

One question here: If I can boot into the windows recovery environment does it means that my winre.wim file is usuable and safe?

This is what disk management in windows shows (I have only one disk)

help required to delete the extra recovery partition-screenshot.9.jpg

help required to delete the extra recovery partition-screenshot.10.jpg

This is what diskpart command in admin run Powershell shows as the list of partitions

help required to delete the extra recovery partition-screenshot.11.jpg

As you can see there is one more 128 MB partion seen (named Reserved) in diskpart and not seen in windows disk management

reagentc /info points the location of the recovery file to the disk0 partition4 i.e. the system partition disk (C drive) where the OS is installed.
Is this possible?
I always thought the winRe file and the recovery environment resides on an adjacent partition

Please help me to decide whether I can delete the other two partitions named recovery?

Also what is that 128MB partition (no 3) just before the system partition?

I am changing to an SSD disk and wish to know which partitions to image and restore to the new SSD drive

Thank you very much for guidance and answers on these issues. I am reasonable familiar with PCs and software but not a genius!

dalchina · 12 Aug 2018

Hi, I'll try to give you a partial answer and a few ideas..

a. a 'cheat' approach to identifying your actual Windows partitions:
Launch Macrium Reflect (free) and click th button on the left to image Windows.
(We constantly urge users to use disk imaging routinely, so hope you are).

help required to delete the extra recovery partition-1.jpg

You should see typically 4 partitions ticked for a UEFI installation. Note the details. These are automatically selected, being the current partitions forming Windows.

b. a way to look inside those partitions

I need to help to delete the other partition(s) after being sure that my recovery environment tools and winre.wim file is safe and usuable.

There you can see the wimre.wim file.

c. Does reagentc /info show that it's enabled or disabled?
If you can boot into Advanced Startup options, the recovery environment is working.

perfection · 12 Aug 2018

Thank you dalchina
But my problem is tht both my recovery partitions have a winre.wim file and to add to the confusion reagent /info shows enabled and points to a location on a third partition (i.e. disk0 partition5 - my system partition)

Superfly · 12 Aug 2018

Strangely enuff... I just deleted a partition (with MiniTool) after getting constant nags regarding the partition WinRe resides on was too small or something to that effect (WinRe was 400MB+ on the 500MB partition + some other stuff - there was like 57mb free)

I don't see the need for the Windows recovery (have they even fixed the repair Startup thing?) .. as Macrium PE has sufficient repair options.

zbook · 12 Aug 2018

1) Open administrative command prompt and copy and paste this whole command:

Code:

diskpart
list disk
list volume
select disk 0
detail disk
list partition
select partition 1
detail partition
select partition 2
detail partition
select partition 3
detail partition
select partition 4
detail partition
select partition 5 
detail partition
select partition 6
detail partition
select partition 7
detail partition
select disk 1
detail disk
list partition
exit
reagentc /info
chkdsk /scan
bcdedit /enum
e:
dir
f:
dir

2) When these have completed > right click on the top bar or title bar of the administrative command prompt box > left click on edit then select all > right click on the top bar again > left click on edit then copy > paste into the thread

Bree · 12 Aug 2018

perfection said:

I had purchased an HP laptop that came with windows 8....
...As you can see there is one more 128 MB partion seen (named Reserved) in diskpart and not seen in windows disk management
...what is that 128MB partition (no 3) just before the system partition?

With Windows 8 a 400MB recovery partition was the typical size. This is too small for Windows 10 which typically requires at least 450MB so a new recovery partition was created when you upgraded. The old one was left in place but no longer used.

The 128MB partition will be the Microsoft Reserved partition. In Windows 8 this MSR partition was 128MB, but a clean install of Windows 10 creates a 16MB partition. This MSR is not for general use and is never shown in disk management, only diskpart will list it.
Microsoft Reserved Partition - Wikipedia

Microsoft reserved partition (MSR)

The MSR is used on UEFI/GPT systems, to support software components that formerly used hidden sectors.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/win...and-partitions

Bree · 12 Aug 2018

perfection said:

... my problem is tht both my recovery partitions have a winre.wim file and to add to the confusion reagent /info shows enabled and points to a location on a third partition (i.e. disk0 partition5 - my system partition)

One of those winre.wim will be the original Windows 8 one. That partition is redundant now and no longer needed, but the upgrade would not have been able to remove it so it's been left there.

If during an upgrade Setup determines there's not enough room in any existing recovery partition for the upgraded recovery environment and no space to make a new one then the fallback position is that it will create a hidden Recovery folder on the root of the C: drive and point to that as the recovery environment.

I have one laptop that's configured like that. The recovery environment works fine, just as if it was booting from a separate recovery partition.

perfection · 12 Aug 2018

Here is the result zbook
--------------------begin------------------------------
Partition 2 System 260 MB 401 MB
Partition 3 Reserved 128 MB 661 MB
Partition 4 Primary 248 GB 789 MB
Partition 5 Recovery 907 MB 249 GB
Partition 6 Recovery 829 MB 249 GB
Partition 7 Primary 300 GB 250 GB
Partition 8 Primary 380 GB 550 GB

DISKPART> select partition 1

Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 1
Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden : No
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 1048576

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 9 WINRE NTFS Partition 400 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> select partition 2

Partition 2 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 2
Type : c12a7328-f81f-11d2-ba4b-00a0c93ec93b
Hidden : Yes
Required: No
Attrib : 0X8000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 420478976

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 7 FAT32 Partition 260 MB Healthy System

DISKPART> select partition 3

Partition 3 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 3
Type : e3c9e316-0b5c-4db8-817d-f92df00215ae
Hidden : Yes
Required: No
Attrib : 0X8000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 693108736

There is no volume associated with this partition.

DISKPART> select partition 4

Partition 4 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 4
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required: No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 827326464

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 2 C Windows NTFS Partition 248 GB Healthy Boot

DISKPART> select partition 5

Partition 5 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 5
Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden : No
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 267441405952

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 10 NTFS Partition 907 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> select partition 6

Partition 6 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 6
Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden : No
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 268393512960

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 11 NTFS Partition 829 MB Healthy Hidden

DISKPART> select partition 7

Partition 7 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 7
Type : ebd0a0a2-b9e5-4433-87c0-68b6b72699c7
Hidden : No
Required: No
Attrib : 0000000000000000
Offset in Bytes: 269262782464

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 5 E NTFS Partition 300 GB Healthy

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

SanDisk Cruzer Blade USB Device
Disk ID: 22910780
Type : USB
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : UNAVAILABLE
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : No
Pagefile Disk : No
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : No
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 8 D NTFS Removable 7400 MB Healthy

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 7400 MB 1024 KB

DISKPART> exit

Leaving DiskPart...

C:\WINDOWS\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition5\Recovery\WindowsRE
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 5c1b7937-9e34-11e8-b4ea-ef5af3937bb7
Recovery image location:
Recovery image index: 0
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>chkdsk /scan
The type of the file system is NTFS.
Volume label is Windows.

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...
592640 file records processed.
File verification completed.
20274 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...
51446 reparse records processed.
773436 index entries processed.
Index verification completed.
0 unindexed files scanned.
0 unindexed files recovered to lost and found.
51446 reparse records processed.

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.
90399 data files processed.
CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...
35702944 USN bytes processed.
Usn Journal verification completed.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

260365205 KB total disk space.
108109596 KB in 412234 files.
227572 KB in 90400 indexes.
0 KB in bad sectors.
711753 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
151316284 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
65091301 total allocation units on disk.
37829071 allocation units available on disk.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>bcdedit /enum

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume2
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {49300e44-935e-11e8-a85d-9e1b91f90575}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \WINDOWS\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 10
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {5c1b7937-9e34-11e8-b4ea-ef5af3937bb7}
displaymessageoverride Recovery
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \WINDOWS
resumeobject {49300e44-935e-11e8-a85d-9e1b91f90575}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard

C:\WINDOWS\system32>e:

E:\>dir
Volume in drive E has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 7186-A24B

Directory of E:\

20-10-2017 21:12 <DIR> A meeting Planners Guide to Catered Events
13-12-2015 11:00 <DIR> Drivers
14-12-2015 00:06 898,778 Enable the (Hidden) Administrator Account on Windows 7, 8, or 10.mht
09-11-2015 18:40 59,239 General Information.mht
12-08-2015 21:40 <DIR> HD
27-11-2017 12:40 <DIR> My Presentations Archive 26112017
10-07-2014 11:41 3,457,565 SANJIT KESKAR.JPG
31-10-2015 10:39 860,350,464 SW_DVD5_Office_Professional_Plus_2016_W32_English_MLF_X20-41353.ISO
27-09-2015 12:18 11,824 THPC Check if the hard disk drive is using GPT or MBR.mht
01-09-2015 16:09 105,566,208 VTS_01_1.VOB
29-04-2016 15:12 1,284,821 W7fmra Lifetime Universal Cr.ack+Keys.zip
02-02-2016 19:18 115,804,216 WondershareFilmora 7 Setup.exe
02-10-2015 10:32 545,764 “Etiquette” vs_ “Manners” Nancy Mueller Nancy Mueller.mht
9 File(s) 1,087,978,879 bytes
4 Dir(s) 287,012,896,768 bytes free

E:\>f:

F:\>dir
Volume in drive F has no label.
Volume Serial Number is F4AB-1243

Directory of F:\

29-07-2018 17:16 482,632,087 (none) no 5-00-00.mrimg
02-01-2015 10:34 <DIR> Deleted ebay shortcut
27-11-2017 12:03 <DIR> Essential Notes and Course Work 26112017
21-10-2017 00:01 <DIR> Gueridon Pics
29-07-2018 17:17 74,240,395 part 2 260 MB-00-00.mrimg
29-07-2018 17:17 174,698 part 3-00-00.mrimg
11-08-2018 22:50 <DIR> Portable Appz
28-07-2018 23:21 <DIR> Programs Used
13-12-2015 10:58 54 Read_me.txt
21-05-2015 11:54 <DIR> ttfpatch10
11-08-2018 16:10 <DIR> Windows10Upgrade
29-07-2018 17:13 238,727,285 winre part 1-00-00.mrimg
5 File(s) 795,774,519 bytes
7 Dir(s) 397,932,511,232 bytes free
-------------------------end-----------------------------------------

Steve C · 13 Aug 2018

You have a good tip in post 2 to use Partition Wizard to peruse the partition contents. You want to keep the recovery partition which has the latest file dates and delete the rest. Check also what reagentc /info tells you.

cereberus · 13 Aug 2018

There is an easy way to do it.

First make image backups of both recovery partitions with Macrium Reflect Free.

The delete first paritition and go to Reset my PC and click on reset (don't worry - you will cancel it anyway) - if you hsve deleted wrong one, it will complain. If it is right one, it will carry on - just cancel the activity.

If you deleted wrong one, restore it using Macrium, and delete other.

It is 90+% certain that it is the first one that is the old one anyway.

I actually delete recovery partitions as they are not really needed anymore. You can always reset from a boot installation drive anyway.

I actually just make image backups anyway.