If you install Mini tool partition wizard it can eliminate any guessing as it will clearly display the contents of any labeled drive.
So before you modify any of the drives/partitions you will know what is happening as you can see the contents.
MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition - Free download and software reviews - CNET Download.com
Is it possible that there can only be one Recovery partition?
In retrospect, I should have probably downloaded a W10 iso. But I was not sure if it would accept the key that I extracted using Magic Jellybea. I did buy the laptop new. I think just before Win7 was released, so it had Vista. Then a few weeks later they sent me the Win7 upgrade disk. Then I went to Win10 during the free upgrade period. So who knows if the Key is still good. But it should be.
As it is, this laptop has been through the wars (I twice used a blow-torch on it to reflow the GPU! And Must have dislodged the wifi aerial, so it now uses external usb wifi ) It's a stopgap until I buy a new machine for my wife. But I would like it to have a good working W10 so we can do a seamless move to a new unit and keep her connected until then. Her Vista laptop besides no longer being supported developed a jumping screen! Works on external monitor, but we will be travelling soon.
I was hoping to post back positive result, but Window still says it is Getting Ready??? About 1 hr now!
FYI. A Recovery partition should not have a drive letter and should not have $RECYCLE.BIN. Your booting problem has nothing to do with the Recovery partition and as a matter of fact, you could delete this partition and Windows still boot except you can't boot into the Recovery Environment.I could try that.
But what concerns me, is that files were being saved in that partition's REcycle Bin BEFORE I changed the partition size. I changed it BECAUSE of the Notification warning me partition was getting full.
So did Windows Recovery give it a drive letter?
Anyway, I created a System Restore Point and went ahead. Removed drive letter first. Then used the cmds. I would like to report the results, but on restart we have yet another never ending "Getting Windows Ready" loopNo idea what it is doing. Another update?
A normal Windows 10 installation version 1709 would have: 550MB System Reserved and C drive. The System Reserved will contain the Bootmgr and the Recovery Environment altogether.
The booting problem was quite another thing and on the original Win10 installation. Hanging at the first window logo seems like nquite a common problem reading the forums. Various suggested fixes, but none worked for me. Maybe it was the bootmgr. But anyway, that ship has sailed. No boot problems with re-install.
I do understand what you are saying about the recycle bin. What I do not understand, is if the one in the Recovery partition only contains virtual files, then why did the size of the folder keep increasing whenever something was deleted?
For mini tool the folder size is often not displayed. Opening the folder and viewing the files typically displays the size of each file. Then you can add the size of the files to see the size of the folder.
What do you see for the files when you use Aomei
When you upgraded Win7 to Win10 a digital licence for your PC was stored on Microsoft's activation servers. You can do a clean install of the same edition (Home or Pro) from a Win10 ISO and, when asked, skip entering a key. It will activate automatically as soon as it can contact the activation servers.
Mini tool has a right click option > explore:
See if you can have a deeper look into the folders and files using right click with Aomei.
My understanding is different from @Bree . If you set the option for $RECYCLE.BIN not to permanently delete a file then it will create a file pointer link in $RECYCLE.BIN that points to the file on disk hence it will still occupy the storage space until you empty/delete it.I do understand what you are saying about the recycle bin. What I do not understand, is if the one in the Recovery partition only contains virtual files, then why did the size of the folder keep increasing whenever something was deleted?
$RECYCLE.BIN and System Volume information folders are special kind of folders and exist in every regular drive. If you delete them, they will be re-created by Windows.
As you can see from the screen shot from @zbook. Recovery partition does not have a $RECYCLE.BIN as stated earlier.
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