HiddenRecovery Drive is Primary and System after Upgrade to Windows 10


  1. JerryF
    Posts : 14
    Windows 10 Pro
       New #1

    HiddenRecovery Drive is Primary and System after Upgrade to Windows 10


    I recently upgraded my older HP desktop to Windows 10 from 7 on one of our office computers.
    I did not notice prior to upgrade that there was a hidden partition on the system drive which held recovery files to restore Win 7 in case of a crash.
    Unfortunately that partition also was primary, active and system.
    The upgrade was uneventful except for the Windows 10 being MBR instead of GPT.
    The computers bios will boot UEFI so I converted the system to GPT using the tool from Creators Edition (mbr2gpt)
    All is well except for the fact that the 1st partition on the system drive is the old recovery partion (4GB) followed by the OS partition (C) which is then followed by the Windows 10 recovery partition (Yes 2 recovery partitions) followed by the EFI partition. If I delete the 4gb hidden partition with diskpart the system will not boot.
    Question:
    Is there a way to make the hidden 4gb recovery partition visible so that I can transfer the boot record to the OS partition? This EFI stuff is very confusing as I know the boot region needs to also be copied to the EFI partition.
    If the partition can then be deleted is there a way to extend forward the OS partition to recapture the 4GB?
    Should I just live with it as is and forgo the 4gb of space? That's how the computer was for 5 years except the recovery information in that space is now useless.
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  3. dalchina
    Posts : 42,961
    Win 10 Pro (22H2) (2nd PC is 22H2)
       New #2

    You might try removing the drive letter (temporarily) for the Recovery partition, then using either Kyhi's boot disk (available from the top of the Software and Apps section here) or a Macrium Reflect boot disk, booting your PC from that and running Macrium Reflect's Fix boot utility.

    Once you have resolved the issue of your PC booting you can manipulate the partitions - again, Kyhi's disk can help you there, or use a 3rd party partition manager such as Minitool Partition Wizard.
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  4. JerryF
    Posts : 14
    Windows 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    I actually have a copy of Macrium that I use for my own computer at work. It does boot into a Windows PE environment. I will give that a try first. For most of the computers at work we use Acronis, but other than imaging it's tool set is really limited. At one point I used Shadow Protect from Storage Craft which did have the capability of restoring boot function, but customer support for their product was terrible.

    Thanks for the suggestion.
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  6. JerryF
    Posts : 14
    Windows 10 Pro
    Thread Starter
       New #4

    It worked.


    Macrium and the MiniTool Partition worked perfectly.

    Macrium moved the boot information to the Windows partition which allowed me to delete the 4GB partition and still boot.

    MiniTool allowed me to extend the Windows partition to include the 4GB

    Thanks
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