Solved Install Windows on a laptop problem

spapakons · Oct 11, 2026

To further improve performance, disable transparency, fades and animations. Also check startup applications and non-Microsoft services and disable all not necessary l, such as app updaters and browsers. Why loading some applications at startup and spend valuable resources? You can always load them manually when needed. With any SSD the difference in time to load is too small to notice but the difference in performance is more noticeable.

Ghot · Oct 11, 2026

Finally... it's all back to normal.
Now it's... break time.

Ghot · Oct 11, 2026

Ok, last thing I need to do... the three RED dots are all Recovery partitions.
I assume one is the ASUS Recovery partition, so that means I have an extra Recovery partition.

How can I tell which one I "don't" need?

Sorry about the bad pic, I can get a better one tomorrow...

Banjoman301 · Oct 11, 2026

MiniTool Partition Wizard

zbook · Oct 11, 2026

Please run Admin command prompt: > post a share link

(copy and paste all at one time)

Code:

reagentc /info
bcdedit /enum all
diskpart
lis dis
lis vol
sel dis 0
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par
sel par 6
det par
sel par 7
det par
sel par 8
det par
sel par 9
det par
sel dis 1
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
exit

Ghot · Oct 11, 2026

Banjoman301 said:
MiniTool Partition Wizard

View attachment 186313

I'll check tomorrow. I did install Minitool on her computer.
Are your suggesting that Minitool will only show the "active" recovery partition?

Ghot · Oct 11, 2026

@zbook
I don't understand all that.
Isn't there a shorter/easier way?
Can't I just do reagentc /info on each of the recovery partitions to the left of D:\

Only one partition is the active recovery partition.
There's only one drive in the computer.

D: is just a partition I created for her to store things.

Banjoman301 · Oct 11, 2026

Ghot said:
I did install Minitool on her computer.
Are your suggesting that Minitool will only show the "active" recovery partition?

It will show all partitions.

Checking dates of the recovery partition contents using MTPW will tell you oldest to newest.

Running reagentc /info will tell you which one Windows is using.

You can then delete the unused recovery partitions, and re-allocate the space using MTPW.

Ghot · Oct 11, 2026

How about this...

From Google AI...

If you run reagentc /disable, the active 'real' recovery partition will become completely empty, allowing you to clearly distinguish it from leftover or duplicate partitions.

Remember to run reagentc /enable afterward to turn the Windows Recovery Environment back on

Will that work?

Both Recovery partitions to the left of the D: partition, are approx. 1GB in size, and both showed up RED in Macrium Reflect v8.0

The Recovery partition the the right of D: is 260MB and I'm guessing is the ASUS factory restore partition?

Unfortunately, I don't have any Recovery partition(s) to test with.

Marie SWE · Oct 11, 2026

If you assign them drive letters and take a look inside, you might figure out by creation date on folders when they was created.. and the new installed one will most likely have today's date stamp.
Files inside might have older timestamp as they are copied.. But folders do almost always get installation date.
Look at C: and see of creation date on Users/programs etc.

Ghot · Oct 11, 2026

So far, I like this one the best... but I'd be taking Google AI's word for it...

From Google AI...

If you run reagentc /disable, the active 'real' recovery partition will become completely empty, allowing you to clearly distinguish it from leftover or duplicate partitions.

Remember to run reagentc /enable afterward to turn the Windows Recovery Environment back on

Well good night folks.
Thanks for all the suggestions.

Banjoman301 · Oct 11, 2026

Looks like you only have 3 partitions to look at...

Here's an expanded version of one on a 26H2 laptop -

Look for stuff similar to this.

Bree · Oct 11, 2026

Ghot said:
How about this...
From Google AI...

Will that work?

Both Recovery partitions to the left of the D: partition, are approx. 1GB in size, and both showed up RED in Macrium Reflect v8.0

reagentc /info will tell you which is the real recovery partition.
reagentc /disable will move your only copy of WinRE.wim from the recovery partition to C:\System32\Recovery for safe keeping until you re-enable the recovery environment.

You should disable the recovery environment before deleting any of the unnecessary recovery partitions. If you do delete them and rearrange the partitions to use the space freed up it is vital that you reboot the PC before re-enabling the recovery environment. Without this reagentc will not recognise where the recovery partition is now located.

Ghot said:
The Recovery partition the the right of D: is 260MB and I'm guessing is the ASUS factory restore partition?

260MB seems far too small for a factory restore partition. It's more likely to be diagnostic tools from Asus.

Marie SWE said:
If you assign them drive letters and take a look inside, you might figure out by creation date on folders when they was created..

No need to assign drive letters. If you run Minitool partition wizard you can right-click on any partition and explore it. It's easy to recognise a Windows recovery partition. It will be interesting to see what that 260MB partition really contains. Here's my recovery partition as an example:

Marie SWE · Oct 11, 2026

Ghot said:
So far, I like this one the best... but I'd be taking Google AI's word for it...

From Google AI...

Well good night folks.
Thanks for all the suggestions.

i ran it thru my AI
i got this

Powershell Admin and command: reagentc /info
Look for Windows RE location. It will show something like
\\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\Recovery\WindowsRE

Here is another powershell one-liner that will list them all and point out which one

Powershell:

$used=([regex]::Match((reagentc /info | Select-String 'Windows RE location').Line,'partition(\d+)')).Groups[1].Value; Get-Partition | Where-Object Type -eq 'Recovery' | Select DiskNumber,PartitionNumber,Size,@{N='InUse';E={if($_.PartitionNumber -eq $used){'YES'}else{''}}} | Format-Table -AutoSize

Marie SWE · Oct 11, 2026

Bree said:
reagentc /info will tell you which is the real recovery partition.
reagentc /disable will move your only copy of WinRE.wim from the recovery partition to C:\System32\Recovery for safe keeping until you re-enable the recovery environment.

You should disable the recovery environment before deleting any of the unnecessary recovery partitions. If you do delete them and rearrange the partitions to use the space freed up it is vital that you reboot the PC before re-enabling the recovery environment. Without this reagentc will not recognise where the recovery partition is now located.

260MB seems far too small for a factory restore partition. It's more likely to be diagnostic tools from Asus.

No need to assign drive letters. If you run Minitool partition wizard you can right-click on any partition and explore it. It's easy to recognise a Windows recovery partition. It will be interesting to see what that 260MB partition really contains. Here's my recovery partition as an example:

View attachment 186323

You was faster on the info one

zbook · Oct 11, 2026

Ghot said:
@zbook
I don't understand all that.
Isn't there a shorter/easier way?
Can't I just do reagentc /info on each of the recovery partitions to the left of D:\

Only one partition is the active recovery partition.
There's only one drive in the computer.

D: is just a partition I created for her to store things.

The disk management image is blurry.

One copy and paste of all commands will report all visible and hidden partitions.

Then you'll know clearly the partitions.

If there is no bootable flash drive then this is revised:

Code:

reagentc /info
bcdedit /enum all
diskpart
lis dis
lis vol
sel dis 0
det dis
lis par
sel par 1
det par
sel par 2
det par
sel par 3
det par
sel par 4
det par
sel par 5
det par
sel par 6
det par
sel par 7
det par
sel par 8
det par
sel par 9
det par

Bree · Oct 11, 2026

Marie SWE said:
You was faster on the info one

I've had to delete surplus recovery partitions and rearrange the others many times now. MS went through a stage where almost every W10 cumulative update would need a larger recovery partition and create a new on. Some of my VMs had half a dozen by the time they were done!

Marie SWE · Oct 11, 2026

Bree said:
I've had to delete surplus recovery partitions and rearrange the others many times now. MS went through a stage where almost every W10 cumulative update would need a larger recovery partition and create a new on. Some of my VMs had half a dozen by the time they were done!

I have never deleted a recovery partition unless i have deleted all partitions on a disk... Also the to small one is never going to happen as i dont have any recovery partitions. When i set up MBR i set two partitions. C: and D: ... D is for storing drivers i need to install manually and for pagefile as i dont want that one on C.
So Recovery have a tendency to end up on C:\Recovery\ when partitions is made before even starting the install ISO

Marie SWE · Oct 11, 2026

Bree said:
260MB seems far too small for a factory restore partition. It's more likely to be diagnostic tools from Asus.

Have a look inside to get a hint.

Celery · Oct 12, 2026

To determine which recovery partition Windows is currently using, open Command Prompt as administrator and run:

reagentc /info

You can then compare the disk and partition numbers reported by reagentc with the output of DiskPart (list partition).

Note: The Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR) does not appear in Disk Management, but it does appear in DiskPart. Therefore, the partition numbers shown in DiskPart may not correspond to the apparent order of the partitions shown in Disk Management.

To view the partitions on a disk in DiskPart:

diskpart
list disk
select disk #
list partition
exit

Bree said:
You should disable the recovery environment before deleting any of the unnecessary recovery partitions. If you do delete them and rearrange the partitions to use the space freed up it is vital that you reboot the PC before re-enabling the recovery environment. Without this reagentc will not recognise where the recovery partition is now located.

I have never rebooted the PC after changing the location of the recovery partition. The reagentc /enable command has always been able to find a suitable recovery partition in my experience, provided the partition meets the WinRE requirements.

However, this may be because I never use third-party partition management software. I only use DiskPart and Disk Management.

With the default Windows RE configuration, if no other Windows RE image has been specified using the reagentc /setreimage command

reagentc /disable
- Moves Winre.wim from the registered Windows RE location (normally the recovery partition) to the default staging location (C:\Windows\System32\Recovery).
- Updates ReAgent.xml to disable Windows RE. The registered Windows RE location is cleared.

The following excerpt from C:\Windows\Logs\ReAgent\ReAgent.log shows where ReAgent moves the Winre.wim file:

Code:

winreCopyWIMBack moved WIM file from \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\Recovery\WindowsRE\ to C:\WINDOWS\system32\Recovery\Winre.wim successfully!
WinRE uninstall step 1 succeeded: copy WIM file back to its staging location

To verify that the Winre.wim file is present in the C:\Windows\System32\Recovery folder, run the following command in PowerShell:

Get-ChildItem -Force "C:\Windows\System32\Recovery"

reagentc /enable
- Searches for a suitable recovery partition.
- Moves Winre.wim from the default staging location (C:\Windows\System32\Recovery) to the recovery partition or to C:\Recovery\WindowsRE if no suitable recovery partition exists.
- Updates ReAgent.xml to enable Windows RE and record the registered Windows RE location.

The following excerpt from C:\Windows\Logs\ReAgent\ReAgent.log shows how ReAgent searches for and selects a suitable recovery partition:

Code:

Start looping through each partition and initialize os partition, recovery partition and system partition for MBR
 Checking partition at offset 1048576, partition number: 1
 skip GPT Partition which type is not PARTITION_MSFT_RECOVERY_GUID
 Checking partition at offset 16777216, partition number: 2
 skip partition because it is not on the same disk as staging partition
 Checking partition at offset 1023136497664, partition number: 4
MeetPartitionRequirements Partition details: {Offset: 1023136497664, Free space: 1057349632, Total space: 1072689152}
MeetPartitionRequirements WinRE WIM size: 791833657
MeetPartitionRequirements Required free space: 846359609
 partition meets requirements
 NOTE: select partition because it meets WinRE requirements
 Checking partition at offset 227540992, partition number: 3
 find OS partition
Complete looping through each partition
----Search target partition option #1: try existing WinRE partition
----Search target partition option #2: try first recovery partition
Found target partition: use the first recovery partition, offset: 1023136497664
Exit FindTargetPartition returns with status code: 0x0

Solved Install Windows on a laptop problem

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