Solved After clean install, two Recovery Partitions

Now how would I check version number exactly?

Click to expand...

dism, or wimlib, or imagex, or gimagex or dism++




browse to the wim file



dble click on the image you want ( there is only one image in winre.wim )

I tried this:

dism /image:h:\driverdl\winre4.wim /get-wiminfo

It told me:

The /Image option cannot be used in this context.
For more information, refer to the help by running DISM.exe /?.

Error: 87

That file on my H partition is one of the wims I copied from the recovery partition using Disk Genius. Do I have to operate on the wim file in the recovery partition directly? I would expect I could work on this copy.

The /Image option cannot be used in this context.

Click to expand...

/WimFile

dism /Get-WimInfo /WimFile:h:\driverdl\winre4.wim /index:1

I was on the right track. And in case you're wondering, yes I am in an elevated command prompt to do this.

----------------------------------------------------------------
C:\Windows\System32>dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:h:\driverdl\winre4.wim

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.22621.2792

Details for image : h:\driverdl\winre4.wim

Index : 1
Name : Microsoft Windows Recovery Environment (amd64)
Description : Microsoft Windows Recover Environment (amd64)
Size : 2,988,444,981 bytes

The operation completed successfully.

C:\Windows\System32>dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:h:\driverdl\winre5.wim

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.22621.2792

Details for image : h:\driverdl\winre5.wim

Index : 1
Name : Microsoft Windows Recovery Environment (amd64)
Description : Microsoft Windows Recover Environment (amd64)
Size : 2,752,197,069 bytes

The operation completed successfully.

----------------------------------------------------------------

That 10.0.etc number is the version number of DISM itself, isn't it? This doesn't seem to be displaying version information on the wim file.

In case this is relevant:

Device name WildWilly-PC
Processor 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-13900K 3.00 GHz
Installed RAM 128 GB (128 GB usable)
Device ID <not sure if this is sensitive but I'm hiding it anyway>
Product ID <more redaction>
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

Edition Windows 11 Pro
Version 23H2
Installed on ‎12/‎4/‎2023
OS build 22631.2861
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.22681.1000.0

dism /get-imageinfo generates the exact same information as /get-wiminfo.

This doesn't seem to be displaying version information on the wim

Click to expand...

my post #23

dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:h:\driverdl\winre4.wim /index:1

My bad.

C:\Windows\System32>dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:h:\driverdl\winre4.wim /index:1

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.22621.2792

Details for image : h:\driverdl\winre4.wim

Index : 1
Name : Microsoft Windows Recovery Environment (amd64)
Description : Microsoft Windows Recover Environment (amd64)
Size : 2,988,444,981 bytes
WIM Bootable : No
Architecture : x64
Hal : <undefined>
Version : 10.0.22621
ServicePack Build : 2494
ServicePack Level : 0
Edition : WindowsPE
Installation : WindowsPE
ProductType : WinNT
ProductSuite :
System Root : WINDOWS
Directories : 5357
Files : 20885
Created : 5/7/2022 - 0:53:32
Modified : 12/4/2023 - 16:58:12
Languages :
en-US (Default)

The operation completed successfully.

C:\Windows\System32>dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:h:\driverdl\winre5.wim /index:1

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool
Version: 10.0.22621.2792

Details for image : h:\driverdl\winre5.wim

Index : 1
Name : Microsoft Windows Recovery Environment (amd64)
Description : Microsoft Windows Recover Environment (amd64)
Size : 2,752,197,069 bytes
WIM Bootable : No
Architecture : x64
Hal : <undefined>
Version : 10.0.22621
ServicePack Build : 1702
ServicePack Level : 0
Edition : WindowsPE
Installation : WindowsPE
ProductType : WinNT
ProductSuite :
System Root : WINDOWS
Directories : 5083
Files : 20042
Created : 5/7/2022 - 0:53:32
Modified : 5/5/2023 - 7:38:11
Languages :
en-US (Default)

The operation completed successfully.

---------------------------------------------------

The one created by the Repair Install has a higher ServicePack Build number: 2494 vs 1702. I've had a big update pushed out since I did the Repair Install so I imagine if I created another recovery partition now, it would have a higher build number. Which makes me ask another question. Does the recovery partition get updated when FixPacks come out for the main system?

In any case, what does this version information tell you?

WildWilly said:

Interesting that in contradiction to diskpart, Disk Genius numbers the partitions from 0. So partition 3 in Disk Genius is partition 4 in diskpart, & partition 4 in Disk Genius is partition 5 in diskpart. Are we confused enough yet?

Click to expand...

Not quite confused enough yet. If you want to get really confused, look at Disk Management. That will show one less partition than Disk Genius or Diskpart - it deliberately hides the 16MB MSR partition

Yeah, I mentioned that one upthread. What is that one for, anyway?

Answered my own question:

At least Macrium Reflect sees everything:



I wonder why the active recovery partition, numbered 4 here (another numbering scheme), is shown in red. I'll have to hunt that one down.

WildWilly said:

Yeah, I mentioned that one upthread. What is that one for, anyway?

Click to expand...

On old MBR formatted drives there were some hidden sectors reserved for certain software to use. The GPT format doesn't allow such hidden sectors, so the MSR partition takes its place. Virtually nothing uses it these days, which is why its so small now.

Oh yes. Be mysterious. Hide things. Users are too stupid to be allowed to see everything. Such is life in Microsoftland.

What do you think? Will you be ready to do the final step within one week?
Make sure that you update the firmware of your SAMSUNG as well. It's old!
The safest way to do this, is to use UNetbootin to flash.

WildWilly said:

At least Macrium Reflect sees everything:

View attachment 81393

I wonder why the active recovery partition, numbered 4 here (another numbering scheme), is shown in red. I'll have to hunt that one down.

Click to expand...

There is very little free space on that partition so it is shown red

Oh, is that all? I was worried it was something serious, like maybe some sort of corruption. They should show the unallocated part in red. That would be more intuitive. Thanks for the answer. Meanwhile, what did the version numbers in the wims tell you?

From the Diskpart list partition you can see that drive 0 has 5 partitions (Windows Disk Manager doesn't show the MS reserved partition)


From reagentc / info your recovery partition is number 4 and partition number 5 was the old one.


This is quite normal to happen. Windows creates a recovery partition at the end of the drive. Then, latter, it is requested a bigger recovery partition. Instead of disabling the old (reagenc /disable) deleting the partition and then creating a new and bigger recovery partition, windows just shrinks the C: partition and create a new and bigger Recovery partition leaving the old one without use.
To avoid this I normally create a big recovery partition (1G) at the end of the C: partition.

You can delete the last partition (5) and then enlarge the 4th partition (786+674) resulting a 1460M recovery partition.

What you want to do?

@Megahertz Of course! I should have thought of that myself. I mean, a 2G partition at the back of a 2T SSD is a drop in the bucket. (Remember when 2G was considered a jaw-dropping amount of disk space? My, how times have changed . . .) That so neatly solves the problem of multiple Recovery Partitions forever. I love the idea. That's what I'm going to do when I get around to cleaning this up. This exercise is not so much about squeezing every last byte of useful space out of the drive. It's more about eliminating the complexity of useless multiple Recovery Partitions.

I'm going to go with a 2G partition for W11 to mess around with Recovery Partitions in. As you can see from my image above, the current active Recovery Partition is already on the order of 0.75G. It's not too much of a leap to assume it's going to cross the 1G threshold at some point. But 2G really ought to be enough to hold the line forever. Hah. Forever. Haven't we all heard that one before? Still, 2G should be good enough for a long time.

Hi,
Yeah those awesome tech guys at microsoft can't do anything right
I'd delete the old and extend the new one into that space with disk genus


I left 3gb in front of C for this silly recovery partition and got nothing than criticism and a ms history lessen and here ms is messing it up again because they are inept in reusing an existing recovery partition lol
Only SIW2 was really helpful out the gate on my thread with the same app here
My favorite reply is it's normal don't worry about it lol