Solved Do I need these Partitions on My C;/Drive ?

PvtJohnTowle · Apr 7, 2023

I have two recovery partitions and and an EFI System partition as well as my boot drive on the one disc as per attached. Do I need two recovery partitiouns and can I delete these ? How do I this safely? I have done a backup of my whole driver with Macrium Reflect 8 Free and created a USB Reccue Media on a USB Driver Windows RE with Enable Multi-Boot MBR/UEFI ticked. When I right click on these partitions there is no option to delete or extend them , so I am asking before I do anything unwise and cause problems for myself.

Ghot · Apr 7, 2023

PvtJohnTowle said:
I have two recovery partitions and and an EFI System partition as well as my boot drive on the one disc as per attached. Do I need two recovery partitiouns and can I delete these ? How do I this safely? I have done a backup of my whole driver with Macrium Reflect 8 Free and created a USB Reccue Media on a USB Driver Windows RE with Enable Multi-Boot MBR/UEFI ticked. When I right click on these partitions there is no option to delete or extend them , so I am asking before I do anything unwise and cause problems for myself.

If you use backup software, then all you really need is the EFI System partition and the C:\ partition.

The C:\ partition and the EFI System partition, are the ones needed to boot Windows.

zbook · Apr 7, 2023

The first recovery partition is approximately 500 MB.
Deleting it creates unallocated space.
It does not increase the free space on the data partition.
So most computer users leave the orphaned recovery partition.
(Older Windows versions had had the recovery partition as the first partition and since it could not expand it was orphaned)
All of the default recovery partitions could be deleted if you use a Windows Media Creation Tool (MCT) or regularly make backup images.
But again there is so little free space gained.

cereberus · Apr 7, 2023

It is quite easy to sort this using V8 of Macrium Reflect assuming you know how to use its drag and drop gui ability.

1) run admin command

Code:

reagentc /disable

2) make image backup of pc with Macrium Reflect Free

3) restore image backup using drag and drop to reorder partitions

a) delete all partitions on target drive (which is same as source here)

b)drag EFI as partition 1

c) drag and drop hidden MSR (if you have one) as partition 2

d) drag and drop Recovery Partition at end (not 1st Recovery Partition)

e) Click on Recovery Partition and Select Float Right. This moves Recovery Partition to end as partition 4.

f) Drag and drop C drive to unallocated space between partition 2 and partition 4 as partition 3

g) select C drive partition 3 and select link to "fill space".

4) do restore and reboot

5) run admin command

Code:

reagentc /enable

All of the above takes less than five minutes.

If you are not sure how to drag and drop, I recommend you create a virtual hard drive and practice dragging and dropping to that first.

PvtJohnTowle · Apr 8, 2023

cereberus said:
It is quite easy to sort this using V8 of Macrium Reflect assuming you know how to use its drag and drop gui ability.

1) run admin command

Code:

reagentc /disable

2) make image backup of pc with Macrium Reflect Free

3) restore image backup using drag and drop to reorder partitions

a) delete all partitions on target drive (which is same as source here)

b)drag EFI as partition 1

c) drag and drop hidden MSR (if you have one) as partition 2

d) drag and drop Recovery Partition at end (not 1st Recovery Partition)

e) Click on Recovery Partition and Select Float Right. This moves Recovery Partition to end as partition 4.

f) Drag and drop C drive to unallocated space between partition 2 and partition 4 as partition 3

g) select C drive partition 3 and select link to "fill space".

4) do restore and reboot

5) run admin command

Code:

reagentc /enable

All of the above takes less than five minutes.

If you are not sure how to drag and drop, I recommend you create a virtual hard drive and practice dragging and dropping to that first.

All sounds too complicated and fraught with danger. Thanks anyway. I will leave it as is

cereberus · Apr 8, 2023

PvtJohnTowle said:
All sounds too complicated and fraught with danger. Thanks anyway. I will leave it as is

Not really if you haved a full image backup - but in the end, it is only 500 mb of wasted space.

ThrashZone · Apr 8, 2023

Hi,
Best thing to do atm is enlarge the last recovery partition before ms creates a third "when not if" the second is to small.
I enlarged the first personally to +-1gb and let free minitool move the os works fine if issues occur just restore a system image and try again seeing ms security can be a pest so at the least disable all the newest protections.

cereberus · Apr 8, 2023

ThrashZone said:
Hi,
Best thing to do atm is enlarge the last recovery partition before ms creates a third "when not if" the second is to small.
I enlarged the first personally to +-1gb and let free minitool move the os works fine if issues occur just restore a system image and try again seeing ms security can be a pest so at the least disable all the newest protections.

Minitool does not usually help much on first part6otion due to hidden immoveable msr partition, so you can only do half the job.

Use Macrium Reflect Free and you can properly tidy it up including expanding final recovery partition.

OPs recovery partition is quite large and I doubt it needs expanding in near future but easily done if desired with Macrium Reflect (expand it before floating right).

ThrashZone · Apr 9, 2023

Hi,
Easier than that is wait for the third system reserved to show up
Delete the second and extend the third to take up the unallocated space the second now is

Bree · Apr 9, 2023

ThrashZone said:
Easier than that is wait for the third system reserved to show up

That should no longer happen with Windows 11. Because in a default install the recovery partition is placed immediately after the C: partition Windows can now shrink the C: partition slightly and and enlarge the recovery partition, should it be too small for future needs.

ThrashZone · Apr 9, 2023

Bree said:
That should no longer happen with Windows 11. Because in a default install the recovery partition is placed immediately after the C: partition Windows can now shrink the C: partition slightly and and enlarge the recovery partition, should it be too small for future needs.

Hi,
Yeah time will tell, shouda coulda woulda lol

Bree · Apr 9, 2023

ThrashZone said:
Hi,
Yeah time will tell, shouda coulda woulda lol

I saw it happen on one of my machine for the 21H2 to 22H2 upgrade, it did shrink C: in order to enlarge the recovery partition.

ThrashZone · Apr 9, 2023

Bree said:
I saw it happen on one of my machine for the 21H2 to 22H2 upgrade, it did shrink C: in order to enlarge the recovery partition.

Hi,
I mounted 22h2 so nothing happened on mine.

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