After W7 to W10 upgrade - 2 MSR partitions

TV2 · 20 Jan 2020

I recently helped someone upgrade their system from Windows 7 to Windows 10 remotely.
They are now running Windows 10 1909.

Looking a Disk Management there are now 2 MSR (OEM Partition).

After W7 to W10 upgrade - 2 MSR partitions-pdnphaclfleggobk.png

I do not recall creating the EFI System partition or the MSR partitions when we first clean installed Windows 7 in 2014. But it has been far too long for me to remember.

Also note: we had a glitch upgrading. This resulted in upgrading, restoring the W7 image backup, upgrading again. Which may explain the 2 MSR partitions.

Questions:
Can we delete one of these partitions?
If so, how do we tell which one?

Other questions:
Will a Windows 10 Upgrade on an UEFI system create the EFI and MSR partitions on it's own?
Even if the original Windows 7 installation was done with BIOS set to "Other OS"?

dalchina · 20 Jan 2020

An easy way to tell which Recovery partition ('OEM') - which is what those are- is being used is to determine which is the more recent.
Here's Minitool Partition Wizard: look at the date.

After W7 to W10 upgrade - 2 MSR partitions-1.png

Otherwise you can use these commands: here you can see partition 5 is in use.

After W7 to W10 upgrade - 2 MSR partitions-2.png

After W7 to W10 upgrade - 2 MSR partitions-3.png

Win 10 will of course create the partitions appropriate to its environment - UEFI or MBR. It will be interesting to see what others say about your presumed UEFI configuration.

NavyLCDR · 20 Jan 2020

Looks like a standard UEFI setup except the two partitions in question are not MSR partitions. The MSR partition is a small, likely 16MB partition that should be between the EFI System Partition and the boot (OS) partition. It does not show up in disk management. The extra recovery partition is a fairly common occurrence. After finding the active recovery partition using reagentc/info, the other recovery partition can be deleted. But don't forget, when counting the partition numbers, you have to add in the real, hidden MSR partition. So the boot (OS) partition is very likely to be partition #3, not 2.

Notice that the two recovery partitions are, in fact, numbered 4 and 5.

Megahertz · 20 Jan 2020

In Win 7 the MSR partition (120M) was only used on Ultimate version to have the Bitlocker decryption. On the other versions (HB, HP and Pro) it is useless.
What is the Win 10 MSR partition (16M) for?

zbook · 20 Jan 2020

1) Open administrative command prompt and copy and paste: (all at one time)

Code:

bcdedit /enum all
reagentc /info
diskpart
lis dis
lis vol
sel dis 0
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par
sel par 6
det par
sel dis 1
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par
sel par 6
det par

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

Megahertz said:

What is the Win 10 MSR partition (16M) for?

Microsoft reserved partition (MSR)

Beginning in Windows 10, the size of the MSR is 16 MB.
Add an MSR to each GPT drive to help with partition management.
The MSR is a reserved partition that does not receive a partition ID.
It cannot store user data.

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

TV2 · 20 Jan 2020

Hi all. Thanks for all the info on this. As noted, I am working with this user remotely across the country, so there will be a time delay between suggestions and action. I'll keep y'all posted.

Upon further thought, it is entirely possible I set up this rig for UEFI BIOS when installing Windows 7. Sounds like something I would do just because I could. It probably just had 2 partitions: the EFI System Partition and C: on the original installation.

TV2 · 20 Jan 2020

dalchina said:

Otherwise you can use these commands: here you can see partition 5 is in use.

Not sure how I "see" that partition 5 is in use.
Is it because it has 237GB in the Offset column?
Or because of something I'm looking at in reagentc /info?

EDIT: Ah, I see it now.
Thank You!

dalchina · 20 Jan 2020

Partition 5 in 1st is a Recovery partition.

In the 2nd, P 5 is given as the active Recovery partition.

Hence you can see that P5 of 651Mb is the active Recovery partition.

QED.

zbook · 20 Jan 2020

See Windows RE location displaying harddisk0, partition5
the status displayed enabled

TV2 · 20 Jan 2020

Yes, I see it now. Blindness!
Thank You.

After W7 to W10 upgrade - 2 MSR partitions

After W7 to W10 upgrade - now 2 Recovery Partitions