Old Recovery partition

Hi there!
My question is about the Windows Recovery Environment partition(s). Looks like I have one too many!
Starting at an offset of 1,024KB, diskpart sees the following.


Partition 1 EFI SYSTEM 100 Mb Required: No (hidden) FAT32 (Volume #3)
Partition 2 "old" WIN RE 900 Mb Required: Yes (hidden) NTFS (Volume #4)
Partition 3 MS RESERVED 128 Mb Required: No (hidden) (No volume)
Partition 4 WINDOWS 10 92 Gb Required: No NTFS (C: ) (Volume #1)
Partition 5 "new" WIN RE 450 Mb Required: Yes (hidden) NTFS (Volume #5)
Partition 6 DATA 118 Gb Required: No NTFS (D: ) (Volume #2)
Partition 7 W8 RESTORE IMAGE 20 Gb Required: Yes (hidden) NTFS (Volume #6)

My first disk is a GPT SSD.
The second disk has data volumes 7 and 8 (NTFS)

Originally this ASUS notebook came with Windows 8.1, which was later upgraded to 10. Eventually 10 was installed again (clean install). [EDIT: maybe I didn't use the right words by saying "clean install", as I didn't actually format C:, but what I meant is that I installed a brand new copy of Windows without keeping existing applications nor migrating settings]
I guess the "new" Win Recovery partition was automatically created during Windows 10 clean install.

reagent /info confirms the current Recovery Environment path is
\\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\Recovery\WindowsRE
(0\4, so it's the fifth partition on the first disk) [EDIT: I stand corrected: it is pointing to the *fourth* partition on the first disk]

I would like to keep the "new" WinRE, but delete the "old" WinRE
Partition 2 "old" WIN RE 900 Mb
and also delete
Partition 7 W8 RESTORE IMAGE 20 Gb


How should I remove the "old" RE partition? Can I just delete it in Disk Management and then create a regular volume instead? Or should I keep it and change the partition type in Diskpart?
I am afraid the new renumbered "partition count" might confuse Windows and Windows Recovery.

Originally this ASUS notebook came with Windows 8.1, which was later upgraded to 10. Eventually 10 was installed again (clean install).
I guess the "new" Win Recovery partition was automatically created during Windows 10 clean install.

The 450MB Recovery was created when you upgraded from 8.1 to 10.
From the partitions layout, I don't see how you did a clean install because if you did, the partitions would be in the following order:

1. 450MB Recovery
2. 100MB EFI System
3. 16MB MSR (128MB in Windows 8/8.1)
4. C Drive
5. 20GB Factory Recovery

reagent /info confirms the current Recovery Environment path is
\\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\Recovery\WindowsRE
(0\4, so it's the fifth partition on the first disk)

Partition # is starting with 1, not 0. So your 450MB Recovery should be partition 5.

Disk Management won't allow to delete Recovery Partition. You'd have to use diskpart to delete

The main problem is the msr partition. You can delete the old recovery partition but reclaiming that space is not so easy as the msr partition cannot be moved.

You can just delete it as it is not really needed unless you want to encrpyt the drive in the future (and maybe dynamic disks).

You can delete it and recreate it in a new position later but hardly worth the effort (I do not have it on my laptop).

Different manufacturers such as ASUS, HP, TOSHIBA etc... configure the partition sizes and scheme differently so that they can add their own recovery tools, diagnostic tools and some even set up the partition as OEM partition then when you upgrade to Windows 10, additional Recovery partition is created, making them a mess.

Based on what you described above. If it were my PC then here's what I'd do to get the partitions layout correctly as if it is a fresh install which contains only the partitions that I mentioned above: 450MB Recovery, 100MB EFI System, 16MB MSR and C drive.
Since you've already had the backup image of your current Windows disk then it is safe to reconfigure your Windows 10 partition scheme using strictly with Macrium.

1. OPTION 1:
   Wipe out the whole disk and do a fresh install to get the first 3 partitions ie. 450MB Recovery, 100 EFI System, 16MB MSR then use Macrium boot disk to replace the fresh install C-Drive with the C-Drive from your Backup then D-Drive after the C-Drive.
   OPTION 2:
   To save time re-installing fresh Windows 10 from option 1, you can download the template of the first 3 partitions from here:
   BootEFI_Only-00-00.zip - Google Drive
   From Macrium, select the template then restore to current Windows drive with the template. Again, within Macrium, select your backup image, copy your C-drive from the backup image then Data partition after C- Drive
2. From Macrium, click on "Fix Windows boot problem" then reboot your PC

Once done. You should have a partition scheme as follows:
450MB Recovery
100MB EFI System
16MB MSR
C: Drive
D: Drive

IMPORTANT: The procedure must be done using Macrium Boot Disk since you cannot perform the steps while Windows is running.

Jeeves said:

Thanks a lot for your replies! I really appreciate it.

@topgundcp


I might have used the term "clean install" incorrectly. Actually I never reformatted C:
However, I checked after the first upgrade from 8.1 to 10 in August 2015, and there was no new recovery partition then.
I always check partitions because I backup them with Macrium Reflect.

I re-installed Windows 10 in September 2015 creating a new "Windows" folder in the existing C: volume, no new format.

In November 2015 I re-installed it again (it was the November Update build on a pendrive created by the mediacreationtool).
It was in November I first noticed the new WindowsRE, and the file creation dates say November (see below). I never reformatted C:, but in November I also shrunk the C: volume (I used Disk Management to shrink) and created the new D: data volume, so maybe that has something to do with it. Hmm.


@NavyLCDR


Yes, I already use Macrium Reflect.
Here is what the partitions contain

The EFI SYSTEM partition contains an "EFI" dir, with three subdirs: ASUS, Boot, Microsoft.
The bcd file in [ESP]/EFI/ASUS dates back to 2014, when Windows 8.1 was first installed.
The bcd file in [ESP]/EFI/Microsoft/Recovery was created in August 2015 (first upgrade to 10) and last modified in November 2015.
The bcd file in [ESP]/EFI/Microsoft/Boot was created in November 2015 and last modified in January 2016.

The "new" WinRE partition only contains Recovery/WindowsRE/ with these files created in November 2015: WinRE.wim, Reagent.xml, boot.sdi

The "old" WinRE partition contains several directories: Boot, EFI, en-us, Recovery, not mentioning sys vol info.
The bcd file in [oldWinRE]/Boot was last modified in August 2015.
The bcd file in [oldWinRE]/EFI/Microsoft/Boot was last created in August 2014 and last modified in November 2015.
The WinRE.wim file in the Recovery dir was created in August 2014 and last modified in December 2013.


@cereberus


Yes, I might use Bitlocker in the future. Now I am using VeraCrypt on some Data volumes, but I would like to try Bitlocker on the OS volume.

As to the old recovery partition, I could reclaim that space (900MB) for a new Data partition. Not a lot of space, I know!
Anyhow, I would like to be sure that 1) I don't need that partition any longer for my system to work and 2) I am not going to "break" anything if I delete it with diskpart.

Thanks! :)

I would not delete that msr partition if you want to use bitlocker. Not worth it for just 900MB. Just make that a small data partition and use it for say additional backup of valuable data eg treasured photos etc.

I tried deleting msr partition which was empty, and recreating using dispart commends, and it did create a new partition but it is shown as 100% full, and I am unsure if this is a problem or not. Since I do not need it, no big deal but in your case ....

Of course, if you try topgundcp's suggestion, this is all a red herring.

In fact, I am going to do same on one of my PCs which is a bit mangled.

Just in case you don't know how to copy a partition from source to destination with Macrium:

1. Click on 1 then click on 2
2. Drag 3 from source and drop to destination

Jeeves said:

@topgundcp
Thanks a lot for posting detailed instructions! In you screenshot I noticed you have Macrium Reflect V6. Therefore I guess you imaged the partitons in BootEFI_Only-00-00.zip with Macrium Reflect V6. I am asking because I am using V5 currently, but only MR V6 can restore V6-created images, so I think I should install the new version in case.

Yes you need version 6. You will need to create a usb recovery drive of course.

Note: version 6 will allow you to create a dual boot pc so you can boot from Macrium without using a usb stick (not nuch use here until OS is rebuilt. It also supports differental images in free version as well now.

FYI - I used the above method and it worked first time.

My mangled pc is nice and tidy now - thanks topundcp!