The multiple recovery partitions arise when the Windows partition follows the recovery partition. Assume that scenario where Windows follows the recovery partition, and you then upgrade to a new version of Windows. Windows determines that there is not enough space in the existing recovery partition, so it has no choice but to shrink the Windows partition and create a new recovery partition in the free space now available after the Windows partition.
Microsoft now recommends creating the recovery partition last. If the recovery partition needs to be increased in size, the Windows partition can then be shrunk and the recovery partition can be expanded into that free space.
NOTE: Microsoft likes to claim that the recovery partition has the unique ability to grow backwards, which is not possible with other partitions. However, in actuality, what really happens is that the recovery partition is removed and then a new partition is created filling both the space freed by shrinking the Windows partition and deleting the original recovery partition. This gives the illusion of growing backwards although technically it's simply being recreated.
Note too that if you manually do a clean install of Windows, current versions of Windows will create the recovery partition last, which is what we want. However, unattended setup does not have the ability to do this and will place the recovery partition before the Windows partition. I keep waiting for Microsoft to add the ability for unattended setup to this, but as of Win 10 / 11 22H2 that capability is still missing. There is a workaround to this. To save you from the boredom, I won't describe it in detail here, but if anyone is interested, let me know and I'll provide the details.
The bottom line is this: Now that you have a recovery partition AFTER the Windows partition, Windows should be able to expand that partition if it needs to be grown again so you should not end up with a third partition
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Hope this helps!
