Solved Do I need two recovery partitions?

rafikiphoto · Sep 17, 2022

I was checking my disk layout and I see that, for some reason, I have two recovery partitions. Why would that be? Any other housekeeping tips would be appreciated, too. This is Windows 11.

FreeBooter · Sep 17, 2022

In this video, i will guide on how to delete the recovery partition.

TairikuOkami · Sep 17, 2022

If you do not like CMD, you can use 3rd party app like Macrorit Partition Expert Free.
Just select the recovery partition and delete, then General - Apply changes - restart.

rafikiphoto said:
Any other housekeeping tips would be appreciated, too.

If you are ever going to clean install, keep Windows on a separate partition like 100GB, 66GB is required.
You could create system backups, at the moment, the backup would take 400GB with nowhere to place it.

NavyLCDR · Sep 17, 2022

Before you go and delete recovery partitions, you should open a command prompt with admin privileges and run:
reagentc /disable

rafikiphoto · Sep 17, 2022

TairikuOkami said:
If you do not like CMD, you can use 3rd party app like Macrorit Partition Expert Free.
Just select the recovery partition and delete, then General - Apply changes - restart.

If you are ever going to clean install, keep Windows on a separate partition like 100GB, 66GB is required.
You could create system backups, at the moment, the backup would take 400GB with nowhere to place it.

Thanks. I am comfortable with the command line from old DOS days and, latterly, Linux. All done now. Thank you everybody for the assistance.

I will be doing a clean install onto a new machine next week and you just reminded me about installing Windows in its own partition. I used to do this years ago but got out of the habit. C: for Windows and D: for everything else, data and programmes. It was so much easier when Windows was becoming screwed up to do a clean install. I always had a handy little app on hand for the times I forgot and installed an app on C:, "Application Mover" by Funduc Software. Very useful and worked well.

johnlgalt · Sep 17, 2022

I have a question - does regaining 600+ MB on a drive with almost 2 TB of space actually mean anything?

If they are detrimental in some way, such as slowing your system down, or something, sure - but both of them together are less than 1.3 GB of space - literally less than 0.1% of the total space of your drive.

NavyLCDR · Sep 17, 2022

johnlgalt said:
I have a question - does regaining 600+ MB on a drive with almost 2 TB of space actually mean anything?

If they are detrimental in some way, such as slowing your system down, or something, sure - but both of them together are less than 1.3 GB of space - literally less than 0.1% of the total space of your drive.

It's not the megabytes, it's the principle of the thing.

cereberus · Sep 17, 2022

rafikiphoto said:
I was checking my disk layout and I see that, for some reason, I have two recovery partitions. Why would that be? Any other housekeeping tips would be appreciated, too. This is Windows 11.

View attachment 39445

Run reagentc /info to find out which is the active partition - it will almost certainly be the fourth partion (560.93 MB)

On my pc - it is partition four on disk 0.

Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\Recovery\WindowsRE

It could be partition 5 i.e.

Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition5\Recovery\WindowsRE

However, the way windows usually works, it shrinks C drive first, and then inserts a new one in front of old one if it cannot replace original one.

Before you delete the inactive partition, it is a good idea to disable active partition as @NavyLCDR says using

reagentc /disable

then delete originally inactive one as identified above (most likely partition 5).

Then you can re-enable partition 4 using

reagentc /enable

TM21 · Sep 17, 2022

Doing a CLEAN install, I like to start with a CLEAN hard drive. I just let the Windows installer delete all the partitions already on the HD.
(assuming that I'm re-using a HD that's had an OS on it before.)
Windows will alert me that it may create several new partitions. I just assume that it needs them, so I just let it do its thing.
Whatever it comes up with is OK by me.
Later, I may create another partition for my own use as a "Storage" partition.

Cheers mates!
TM

zbook · Sep 17, 2022

At one time the recovery partition was the first partition displayed in disk management.
The location prevented recovery partition enlargement.
For some upgrades a larger size recovery partition was required.
During the upgrade Windows created a new recovery partition.
When the new recovery partition was created the old recovery partition was disabled.
This created two recovery partitions (one enabled and one disabled).
The one on the far left was typically an orphaned and disabled recovery partition.

Deleting the far left recovery partition accomplished very little as the size was almost always under 1 GB.
If it were deleted it would become unallocated space on the left size of the data partition.

With later versions of Windows Microsoft changed the default architecture for partitions.
The recovery partition was relocated to the immediate right of the data partition.
This created the new automatic failover.

The automatic failover allows dynamic sizing of the recovery partition.
During an upgrade when the recovery partition is located immediately to the right of the data partition the data and recovery partitions can enlarge and contract to allow the recovery partition sizing needed for the upgrade.
For example the recovery partition could enlarge from 750 to 950 or shrink from 950 to 750 during the upgrade.
The data partition or C: will shrink or enlarge to allow the size requirements of the recovery partition needed for the upgrade.

Code:

Recovery tools partition
Create a separate recovery partition to support automatic failover and to support booting Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption-encrypted partitions.

We recommend that you place this partition in a separate partition, immediately after the Windows partition.
This allows Windows to modify and recreate the partition later if future updates require a larger recovery image.

BIOS/MBR-based hard drive partitions

learn.microsoft.com

Code:

The Windows RE tools should be in a partition that's separate from the Windows partition.
This separation supports automatic failover and the startup of partitions that are encrypted by using Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption.

Disk partition requirement for using Windows RE tools on a UEFI-based computer - Windows Client

Introduces the disk partition requirement for using Windows RE tools on a UEFI-based computer.

learn.microsoft.com

Code:

The recovery tools should be in a separate partition than the Windows partition to support automatic failover and to support booting partitions encrypted with Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption.

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions

learn.microsoft.com

hsehestedt · Sep 17, 2022

Zbook's summary is excellent. I just wanted to add one thing to this:

When doing an unattended install, be aware that the recovery partition will NOT be created last. There is a technical reason for this but I'll spare you the tech talk for now

The easiest way around this is to simply not define the location to which Windows should be installed in the unattended answer file. The result is that the user will need to select the location for Windows to be installed, just as in a manual install of Windows, but then the rest of Windows installation will continue unattended.

If you absolutely positively want unattended setup to be 100% touch free you can script the partitioning in such a way as to have the recovery partition created last as recommended by Microsoft. If you need details please feel free to ask and I can provide detailed steps.

rafikiphoto · Sep 18, 2022

johnlgalt said:
I have a question - does regaining 600+ MB on a drive with almost 2 TB of space actually mean anything?

If they are detrimental in some way, such as slowing your system down, or something, sure - but both of them together are less than 1.3 GB of space - literally less than 0.1% of the total space of your drive.

No. But it's not about the space. I like things to be tidy. I was also wondering why there were two of them and if they are needed.

Fabler2 · Sep 18, 2022

Just for information, when two recovery partitions have been created I just use MiniTool partition wizard. Right clicking the recovery partitions and selecting 'Explore' gives the date and time the recovery partitions were created. Delete the older recovery partition then move/resize partitions as required and all done through the program.

johnlgalt · Sep 18, 2022

rafikiphoto said:
No. But it's not about the space. I like things to be tidy. I was also wondering why there were two of them and if they are needed.

Fair enough. As long as you're not approaching it as a "OMG, look at all that space that is being wasted!" I'm OK with your reasoning.

Tidiness is a good enough reason for me.

cereberus · Sep 18, 2022

Fabler2 said:
Just for information, when two recovery partitions have been created I just use MiniTool partition wizard. Right clicking the recovery partitions and selecting 'Explore' gives the date and time the recovery partitions were created. Delete the older recovery partition then move/resize partitions as required and all done through the program.

Better to use reagentc/info as I have seen cases where older one waa active although no idea why.

Fabler2 · Sep 18, 2022

cereberus said:
Better to use reagentc/info as I have seen cases where older one waa active although no idea why.

I've never come across that issue but will use it to check in future. Thanks.

man00 · Sep 18, 2022

Everyone sure that during the install of windows that all the old partitions are removed if you pick delete and pick create?

NavyLCDR · Sep 18, 2022

rafikiphoto said:
No. But it's not about the space. I like things to be tidy. I was also wondering why there were two of them and if they are needed.

That's why I like to do "reagentc /disable", then delete all recovery partitions. Subsequently, "reagentc /enable" will then put the recovery environment in C:\Recovery.

Fabler2 · Sep 18, 2022

NavyLCDR said:
That's why I like to do "reagentc /disable", then delete all recovery partitions. Subsequently, "reagentc /enable" will then put the recovery environment in C:\Recovery.

What happens if Windows fails to boot will the troubleshooter screen open to try an automatic boot repair if recovery set to C:?

Quandary · Sep 18, 2022

NavyLCDR said:
That's why I like to do "reagentc /disable", then delete all recovery partitions. Subsequently, "reagentc /enable" will then put the recovery environment in C:\Recovery.

What are benefits of doing this, e.g.,
- cleaner setup
- optimizes disk space (no wasted space in the recovery partition)
Finally, with a good image backup why bother with a recovery environment?

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