Booting from cloned SSD, removal of old installation

AddRAM said:

The Recovery partition would be used at 1st boot (there's a function key to start it, the screen would show you) or from within windows.

If you make an image as Steve has suggested, you will never need it.

If you don't have an external you can store an image on the 1TB drive, it`s better than not having an image at all.

topgundcp said:

Using dispart "clean" command should wipe out the whole disk and leave it unallocated, you'd need to re-create the partition(s) and format, you probably did not use it correctly. Here's an example to clean disk 0.
diskpart
select disk 0
clean
exit

If you want to delete a system partition (EFI or Recovery...) You would have to first select the partition then use override option to delete it. Example:
diskpart
select disk 0
select partition 1
delete partition override
exit

will delete the EFI partition

NOTE: The reason you did not see the 12GB Recovery partition because there's no letter assigned to it so it is hidden.

Much thanks for the guidance and info. I am going to let the recovery partition remain where it is, much simpler to get the system up and running in the shortest amount of time.

Thanks a lot for your patience and in depth responses, everyone. Greatly appreciate the help provided. :)