Multiple Recovery Partitions After Windows 10 upgrade, Need help?


  1. Posts : 4
    Windows 8.1
       #1

    Multiple Recovery Partitions After Windows 10 upgrade, Need help?


    Windows 10 went ahead and installed without my permission on my Dell laptop. I wasn't ready to upgrade, yet. The install finished, I looked it over and decided I needed to roll back to 8.1. I did this and now I have multiple recovery partitions and barely any disk space left on my computer. My questions. I need to know what partitions to merge and which ones to leave alone, and if this is still possible to do. Will this give me extra space on hard drive.. I know one partition is for Dell, not sure which one that is. And, I may upgrade later to 10, will it force this situation again? What is best program to do partition merge? Thanks for assistance.
    Multiple Recovery Partitions After Windows 10 upgrade, Need help?-capture.jpg
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #2

    The recovery partition created by Windows 10 is 1/2 GB (500mb). It's not any recovery partition that Windows 10 created that is taking up more than about 1/20th of 1% of your hard drive space.

    I would recommend you run a thorough disc cleanup using option 2 here:
    [url="https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3012-disk-cleanup-open-use-windows-10-a.html#option2"]Disk Cleanup - Open and Use in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums[/url

    All of the recovery partitions combined in your screenshot make up about 1.8% of your hard drive space.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 4
    Windows 8.1
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Still Like to Clean Up Extra Partitions


    NavyLCDR said:
    The recovery partition created by Windows 10 is 1/2 GB (500mb). It's not any recovery partition that Windows 10 created that is taking up more than about 1/20th of 1% of your hard drive space.

    I would recommend you run a thorough disc cleanup using option 2 here:
    [url="https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/3012-disk-cleanup-open-use-windows-10-a.html#option2"]Disk Cleanup - Open and Use in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums[/url

    All of the recovery partitions combined in your screenshot make up about 1.8% of your hard drive space.
    I would still like to know which partitions are which and the ones I could safely merge.
    Thanks
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 18,424
    Windows 11 Pro
       #4

    jmick said:
    I would still like to know which partitions are which and the ones I could safely merge.
    Thanks
    OK. You can safely merge all the partitions that are not the first EFI System partition or the OS C: drive partition.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 4
    Windows 8.1
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Not sure what that means. Can you point them out and list them from the diagram? Secondly, would partition software know which ones to safely merge? thanks
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 4,131
    Windows 3.1 to Windows 11
       #6

    Leave the partitions and disk alone...
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 15,441
    Windows10
       #7

    jmick said:
    Not sure what that means. Can you point them out and list them from the diagram? Secondly, would partition software know which ones to safely merge? thanks
    Recovery partitions are not that important n Windows 8.1 as you only need two partitions ie. the EFI and the main OS partition.

    Create a usb recovery drive using control panel, recovery, create recovery drive and select to copy the compressed OS partitition.

    You can also uses a tool like Macrium Reflect Free to make an image backup of your pc.

    You cannot merge recovery partitions, but you can delete them. The only two you might want to keep are the last two 8 GB ones as they are obviously original vendor supplied partitions.

    Personally, I would delete them too if you make the image backup I suggested earlier.

    If you delete the partitions before the C drive, you will get unallocated space, and then you would need to move the C partition to the left using a tool like minitool partition wizard free, then expand partition to the right to fill up the unallocatd space creted to the right (plus space from deleted partitions).

    It is pretty hard to really mess it up unless you delete the EFI or C drive partition, but I stress again, and image backup is a good plan.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 4,131
    Windows 3.1 to Windows 11
       #8

    it appears you have a 1TB Hybrid drive - 8GB Cache

    the last partition on disk 0 is the factory recovery image partition...
    the 466MB just before that partition is the windows 10 recovery tools partition..
    the 40MB partition is the Dell Diagnostics partition...
    And all the other partitions where oversized by OEM...

    Again you should consider leaving the disk and partitions alone...
    Based on the size of the HDD, you stand to gain a very small percentage of extra storage space...
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 4
    Windows 8.1
    Thread Starter
       #9

    Thanks for all your advice!
      My Computer


 

  Related Discussions
Our Sites
Site Links
About Us
Windows 10 Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation. "Windows 10" and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.

© Designer Media Ltd
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 19:23.
Find Us




Windows 10 Forums