Bitlocker Creates Second Recovery Partition


jeezde

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hi,

after enabling Bitlocker on C drive, I ended up with two two recovery partitions
I can remember a warning about shrinking C drive and creating a new partition, but I did not take much care of it, I just proceeded.

Screenshot 2022-05-16 113422.png

Would be safe to merge those recovery partitions or even delete one of them, I'm on small SSD and ever MB counts?

Anyway, Windows booting and running is fine.
 
Windows Build/Version
Windows 11 Pro Version 21H2 OS build 22000.675

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Asus VIVOBOOK 15 K513EA
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i5-1135G7
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Iris Xᵉ Graphics
    Hard Drives
    512GB M.2 NVMe SSD
I believe this is by design if bitlocker is enabled. When you do full disk encryption, the bootable system files have to remain on an unencrypted partition. The software that does an unencryption also resides on its own unencrypted partition.

And no, you should leave the recovery partitions alone. There are other ways of clearing up disk space, like keeping regular backups of your system on external media, then removing restore points and disabling system restore. Most laptops have a slot where you can install a second data drive and move all your personal files to it. At the very least, you can transfer files you rarely use to an external drive or to the cloud. Regularly use disk cleanup to remove stuff Windows no longer needs. Regularly clear out your browsers cache.

You have a 512gb boot drive which is twice the size of mine. That is more than sufficient if you use smart file/folder maintenance practices.
 

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    Windows 11 Pro 23H2 22631.3296
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    PC/Desktop
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    Dell Optiplex 7080
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    i9-10900 10 core 20 threads
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    DELL 0J37VM
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    32 gb
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    so slow I'm too embarrassed to tell
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  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 22H2 19045.3930
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    Dell Optiplex 9020
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    i7-4770
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    24 gb
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    Benq 27
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    still not telling
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hi,

after enabling Bitlocker on C drive, I ended up with two two recovery partitions
I can remember a warning about shrinking C drive and creating a new partition, but I did not take much care of it, I just proceeded.

View attachment 29259

Would be safe to merge those recovery partitions or even delete one of them, I'm on small SSD and ever MB counts?

Anyway, Windows booting and running is fine.
There is no way using bitlocker created a new recovery partition. That was created upgrading your version of Windows at some time.

Run following admin command

reagentc /info and it will tell you which is active - post image here.

It is probably the first one, partition 4 (there is also a hidden msr partition).

Once we know, we can delete the redundant partition.

It is no big deal just deleting them but if you do, you could not reset your pc without using a usb installation drive.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
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    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
I believe this is by design if bitlocker is enabled. When you do full disk encryption, the bootable system files have to remain on an unencrypted partition. The software that does an unencryption also resides on its own unencrypted partition.

And no, you should leave the recovery partitions alone. There are other ways of clearing up disk space, like keeping regular backups of your system on external media, then removing restore points and disabling system restore. Most laptops have a slot where you can install a second data drive and move all your personal files to it. At the very least, you can transfer files you rarely use to an external drive or to the cloud. Regularly use disk cleanup to remove stuff Windows no longer needs. Regularly clear out your browsers cache.

You have a 512gb boot drive which is twice the size of mine. That is more than sufficient if you use smart file/folder maintenance practices.
I am sorry but this is not true about creating recovery partition - see my other post.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
I am sorry but this is not true about creating recovery partition - see my other post.
I agree, would have been created by a Windows update
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro Beta, 11 Dev, W11 Canary
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    Laptop
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    Dell Alienware M15 Ryzen Edition R6
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX
    Memory
    32GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 8GB GDDR6
    Hard Drives
    1 x Samsung 980 Pro 1TB
    1 x Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro 23H2 22631.3296
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Optiplex 7080
    CPU
    i9-10900 10 core 20 threads
    Motherboard
    DELL 0J37VM
    Memory
    32 gb
    Graphics Card(s)
    none-Intel UHD Graphics 630
    Sound Card
    Integrated Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq 27
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1tb Solidigm m.2 +256gb ssd+512 gb usb m.2 sata
    PSU
    500w
    Case
    MT
    Cooling
    Dell Premium
    Keyboard
    Logitech wired
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless
    Internet Speed
    so slow I'm too embarrassed to tell
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender+MWB Premium
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 22H2 19045.3930
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Optiplex 9020
    CPU
    i7-4770
    Memory
    24 gb
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Benq 27
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    256 gb Toshiba BG4 M.2 NVE SSB and 1 tb hdd
    PSU
    500w
    Case
    MT
    Cooling
    Dell factory
    Mouse
    Logitech wireless
    Keyboard
    Logitech wired
    Internet Speed
    still not telling
    Browser
    Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender+MWB Premium

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
I can remember a warning about shrinking C drive and creating a new partition, but I did not take much care of it, I just proceeded.

OP says a very specific warning also was thrown up when he enabled BitLocker.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 23H2 Current build
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    HomeBrew
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 9 3950X
    Motherboard
    MSI MEG X570 GODLIKE
    Memory
    4 * 32 GB - Corsair Vengeance 3600 MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti XC3 ULTRA GAMING (12G-P5-3955-KR)
    Sound Card
    Realtek® ALC1220 Codec
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2x Eve Spectrum ES07D03 4K Gaming Monitor (Matte) | Eve Spectrum ES07DC9 4K Gaming Monitor (Glossy)
    Screen Resolution
    3x 3840 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    3x Samsung 980 Pro NVMe PCIe 4 M.2 2 TB SSD (MZ-V8P2T0B/AM) } 3x Sabrent Rocket NVMe 4.0 1 TB SSD (USB)
    PSU
    PC Power & Cooling’s Silencer Series 1050 Watt, 80 Plus Platinum
    Case
    Fractal Design Define 7 XL Dark ATX Full Tower Case
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    NZXT KRAKEN Z73 73.11 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler (3x 120 mm push top) + Air 3x 140mm case fans (pull front) + 1x 120 mm (push back) and 1 x 120 mm (pull bottom)
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    SteelSeries Apex Pro Wired Gaming Keyboard
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    Logitech MX Master 3S | MX Master 3 for Business
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    Nightly (default) + Firefox (stable), Chrome, Edge
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    Defender + MB 5 Beta
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    ChromeOS Flex Dev Channel (current)
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    Laptop
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    Dell Latitude E5470
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6300U CPU @ 2.40GHz, 2501 Mhz, 2 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s)
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    Dell
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel(R) HD Graphics 520
    Sound Card
    Intel(R) HD Graphics 520 + RealTek Audio
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    Dell laptop display 15"
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    Toshiba 128GB M.2 22300 drive
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    Logitech MX Master 3S (shared w. Sys 1) | Dell TouchPad
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    Dell
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    AT&T LightSpeed Gigabit Duplex Ftth

My Computer

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  • OS
    Windows 10
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    HP
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    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4800MQ CPU @ 2.70GHz
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    Product : 190A Version : KBC Version 94.56
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    16 GB Total: Manufacturer : Samsung MemoryType : DDR3 FormFactor : SODIMM Capacity : 8GB Speed : 1600
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    NVIDIA Quadro K3100M; Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600
    Sound Card
    IDT High Definition Audio CODEC; PNP Device ID HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_111D&DEV_76E0
    Hard Drives
    Model Hitachi HTS727575A9E364
    Antivirus
    Microsoft Defender
    Other Info
    Mobile Workstation
Hi,
604mb was to small so the system created a new one 621mb most are suggesting enlarge an existing to 750mb for future increases

Sort of stupid of windows doing this but you can stop this nonsense making the 621mg should be the last one created "run the scripts to see" into 1024mg or 1gb and that should stop ms from creating more in the future and frankly 1gb on a 500gb+- os disk is nothing

System reserved should be before C partition not after but may not matter if it's large enough
But this stuff is mainly why ms likes gpt disks instead of mbr windows can create as many of these silly partitions as it needs to and you/ we get to live with the partition clutter :zany:
 

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  • OS
    Win-7-10-11Pro's
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    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer 17" Nitro 7840sn/ 2x16gb 5600c40/ 4060/ stock 1tb-os/ 4tb sn850x
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    10900k & 9940x & 5930k
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    z490-Apex & x299-Apex & x99-Sabertooth
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    1920-1080 not sure what the t.v is besides 43" class scales from 1920-1080 perfectly
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