Windows 10 22H2 Installation Creates New Recovery Partition

I recently upgraded Windows 10 Version 21H2 to 22H2 using an ISO file. A new Recovery Partition was added as Partition 5 as shown below. The two images are from Macrium Reflect and Windows Disk Management. The unallocated space is reserved for use by the Solid State Disk. The original Recovery Partition remains with 15.5 MB.

Is there any easy way to remove the original Recovery Partition and allocate that space to the C: drive? I do plan to upgrade to Windows 11 sometime next year.

Thanks for any help.

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Recovery 499 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 System 100 MB 500 MB
Partition 3 Reserved 16 MB 600 MB
Partition 4 Primary 725 GB 616 MB
Partition 5 Recovery 575 MB 726 GB

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: 53dd79a6-638a-11ed-b16e-c8bc4220b44d

Thanks for the help. I'll take a look at MiniTool.

I read in another thread that the 16 MB MSR partition is not easily moved and might require a program like Macrium.

If that is the case I may just stay with the existing partitions. I am only using a small fraction of the available disk space.

You are correct. The MSR partition is not easily moved - but it is very easily recreated. Using MiniTool Partition Wizard, delete the recovery partition and the MSR partition. Move the EFI System partition to the far left. Apply all those changes. The recreate the MSR partition with:

Code:

diskpart
select disk 0
create partition MSR size=16
exit
exit

Now you can go back into MiniTool Partition Wizard and extend the front of C: drive partition to fill the rest of the space.

NavyLCDR said:

You are correct. The MSR partition is not easily moved - but it is very easily recreated. Using MiniTool Partition Wizard, delete the recovery partition and the MSR partition. Move the EFI System partition to the far left. Apply all those changes. The recreate the MSR partition with:

Code:

diskpart
select disk 0
create partition MSR size=16
exit
exit

Now you can go back into MiniTool Partition Wizard and extend the front of C: drive partition to fill the rest of the space.

Thank you very much for the information. That process does not appear difficult at all.

It sounds like the MSR Partition would not have data stored that would be needed. I first need to learn how to use MiniTool before attempting any changes.

I would also back up the disk before proceeding.

I completed the first part of this process using Diskpart and Reagentc. The extra and unused Recovery Partition has now been deleted.

As a precaution, I ran reagentc /disable knowing that the partition numbers would change. I don't know if the disable command was necessary.

I rebooted the system and ran reagentc /enable. The new Recovery Partition that was formerly Partition 5 is now Partition 4. Everything appears to be working normally.

I have seen comments that it is safer to make certain partition changes from a boot device with Windows not running.

As a result, I may hold off on the other changes for the time being.

Thanks all for the help.

Megahertz said:

You did not expand the recovery partition to 850M as I recommended. Soon or latter Windows will need more space and will create a NEW Recovery partition leaving behind the actual.
You have a unallocated space on the beginning of the drive and at the end.

Expanding the size of the Recovery partition looks pretty safe. I will try that tomorrow.

The unallocated space at the end is set up by the Samsung Magician Software for use by the Solid State Disk. That space makes it easier to manage the read and write cycles, improve performance, and extend the life of the drive. I can remove that allocation temporarily to extend the partition.

On the EFI and MSR Partitions, one option is to use Macrium Reflect which allows you to drag and drop partitions from source to destination as desired. That may be a safer approach.