Solved Local Disk (D) is emptied… can I delete it?

zbook · Monday at 2:54 AM

If partition #2 was not modified it is hidden in disk management.

The recovery partition is on partition #3 recovery.

Was the reserved partition modified?

These are examples of commands for a new recovery partition 1280 MB (1.25 GB) and a deleted 5th partition (D:): (commands need to be modified pending the diskpar info results)

reagentc /info
reagentc /disable
reagentc /info

Code:

diskpart

sel dis 0

det dis

sel par 5

det par

del par override

sel par 4

det par

del par override

sel par 3

det par

extend

shrink minimum=1280

create partition primary

format quick fs=ntfs label="Recovery"

set id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac

gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001

lis vol

lis par

exit

reagentc /enable

reagentc /info

Post a share link.

zbook · Monday at 3:12 AM

If there is no reserved partition then:

Code:

diskpart

sel dis 0

det dis

sel par 4

det par

del par override

sel par 3

det par

del par override

sel par 2

det par

extend

shrink minimum=1280

create partition primary

format quick fs=ntfs label="Recovery"

set id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac

gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001

lis vol

lis par

exit

reagentc /enable

reagentc /info

Slavic · Monday at 3:12 AM

Apparently your first partition is mislabelled, it should be something like "EFI System Partition" if you have UEFI configured boot, as should be in Windows 11. However, if it works as EFI, terminological difference is unimportant.

zbook · Monday at 3:20 AM

Do you have a modified BIOS or unsupported installation?

No reserved partition?

Active system partition?

Please post a share link for post #11 or run:

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

FreeBooter · Monday at 4:04 AM

To delete a recovery partition in Windows and reclaim unallocated space, open an elevated command prompt as administrator, run the diskpart tool, select your target disk and recovery partition numbers, and execute the delete partition override command.

Open Start, search for Command Prompt or PowerShell, right-click, and pick Run as administrator.

Type diskpart and press Enter. Type list disk and press Enter to view available drives. Type select disk X (replace X with your correct disk number) and press Enter.

Type list partition and press Enter to find your recovery partition number. Type select partition Y (replace Y with the recovery partition number) and press Enter.

Type delete partition override and press Enter to bypass protection and remove it.

Once deleted, the partition turns into unallocated space which you can merge into an adjacent drive using Disk Management.

In this video, i will take you through the steps to create a Windows recovery partition in a Windows 10 or Windows 11 PC installed in UEFI mode with GPT partition style.

Celery · Monday at 4:34 AM

jimhow4545 said:
I don’t understand why disk D is showing up and it is emptied. Can I delete this? Disk D is part of Disk 0.

Legacy BIOS/MBR installation (not UEFI/GPT):
- 500 MB NTFS — System, Active, Primary Partition: contains boot-related files.
- C: 1860 GB — the Windows installation.
- 908 MB Recovery Partition
- D: 760 MB NTFS — Healthy (Primary Partition), almost completely empty.

The interesting one is D:. A 760 MB partition at the very end of the disk is much more likely to be a leftover OEM/recovery partition that accidentally has a drive letter than an intentionally created data drive.

Instead of deleting D:, remove its drive letter. That makes it disappear from File Explorer while leaving the partition intact.

In Disk Management:
- Right-click the 760 MB (D:) partition
- Select Change Drive Letter and Paths…
- Click Remove

Edit:

This applies only to MBR disks; GPT disks do not have an active partition.

Windows will not boot if there is no active partition on the primary disk (either the System partition or the Windows partition).

The "System" partition on a Windows computer contains the files necessary to "boot" the system. It is typically the first partition on the first disk, as set in the BIOS settings. The "Boot" partition contains the files for the Windows operating system.

- System partition (System, Active)
- Windows partition (Boot)

spapakons · Monday at 6:09 AM

jimhow4545 said:
Can I merge these two partitions without causing the windows startup?

View attachment 179173

No need to use a third-party tool. Open any File Explorer windows and right-click on This PC icon. Select Manage to open Computer Management. Wait to open, then click on the Disk Management section. Right-click on the D: partition to Add or modify drive letter and remove the D: drive letter. The partition will immediately disappear from File Explorer.

I am not sure if you can do something similar on a standard (GPT partition style, UEFI mode boot) Windows 11 installation, but on an unsupported system you can bypass compatibility check and select to install Windows 11 in Legacy BIOS mode (for modern computers with CSM enabled or old computers without UEFI firmware). In that case, Setup will normally create a small system partition and the rest space is the Windows partition. You can force the whole space being the Windows partition (recovery data are copied to a folder in that partition) if you DON'T let Setup format the drive, but you do it yourself in advance. One way to do it is to press SHIFT+F10 to open a Command Prompt BEFORE proceeding with Setup and execute this code:

Code:

diskpart
list disk
select disk 0
clean
convert MBR
create partition primary
select partition 1
format fs=NTFS quick
exit
exit

This assumes you have only one hard disk in your computer (disk 0). If you have more make sure you replace 0 with the appropriate disk number to avoid accidentally wiping another disk. Even better, disconnect all other disks.

Then proceed Setup to the disk selection window and click on the NTFS partition and proceed. DON'T format the disk again otherwise Setup will add the small system partition. This trick is very useful for systems with small eMMC 64GB disks or small SSD disks such as 120GB. Why waste valuable disk space for extra partitions? That's why I also prefer MBR in these systems rather than GPT, provided they support booting on Legacy BIOS mode. To install Windows 11 in Legacy BIOS mode make sure you select MBR in Rufus when creating the USB and of course bypass compatibility check.

Slavic · Monday at 6:35 AM

spapakons said:
That's why I also prefer MBR in these systems rather than GPT, provided they support booting on Legacy BIOS mode. To install Windows 11 in Legacy BIOS mode make sure you select MBR in Rufus when creating the USB and of course bypass compatibility check.

This indeed works, but you may have problems in the future with version upgrade because of lack of full compatibility, so you will need to use other upgrade options, or repair installation, or somehow avoid this check again, which is more time consuming than typical WU. Sure, it's a disadvantage of a small SSD.

spapakons · Monday at 7:22 AM

Slavic said:
This indeed works, but you may have problems in the future with version upgrade because of lack of full compatibility, so you will need to use other upgrade options, or repair installation, or somehow avoid this check again, which is more time consuming than typical WU. Sure, it's a disadvantage of a small SSD.

I do that since Windows 11 21H2, never had issues upgrading to the next version. All I need to do is download the next version ISO and bypass compatibility check to upgrade. Since I bypass compatibility check Setup doesn't care if it is UEFI boot or Legacy BIOS installation, it just proceeds as normal. Also I can download and install all Windows updates that don't upgrade to a newer version without any compatibility check. What I am not offered in Windows update is the upcoming 26H2 Enablement Package. I will have to download that manually and run it. Also I am not offered an upgrade from one Windows 11 version to the next. I have to download the respective ISO (if there is no Enablement Package) and bypass compatibility check to upgrade.

hsehestedt · Monday at 7:47 AM

zbook said:
The recovery partition is on partition #3 recovery.

Be careful with that! The recovery partition is likely actually partition #4. It looks like it is partition #3 in in Disk Management but that is because Disk Management hides the MSR partition. This is why I suggested in my procedure verifying the partition number with Diskpart.

hsehestedt · Monday at 7:56 AM

Slavic said:
This indeed works, but you may have problems in the future with version upgrade because of lack of full compatibility, so you will need to use other upgrade options, or repair installation, or somehow avoid this check again, which is more time consuming than typical WU. Sure, it's a disadvantage of a small SSD.

Yeah, I have a whole lot of other problems with running in legacy BIOS mode if UEFI is available. First of all, legacy BIOS does not support drives larger than 2TB. UEFI can boot significantly faster. UEFI provides far greater security. Also, be careful using NVMe drives with legacy BIOS. Many legacy BIOS don't handle NVMe drives properly or outright fail to support it at all without third-party drivers.

spapakons · Monday at 9:44 AM

hsehestedt said:
Yeah, I have a whole lot of other problems with running in legacy BIOS mode if UEFI is available. First of all, legacy BIOS does not support drives larger than 2TB. UEFI can boot significantly faster. UEFI provides far greater security. Also, be careful using NVMe drives with legacy BIOS. Many legacy BIOS don't handle NVMe drives properly or outright fail to support it at all without third-party drivers.

Yes, MBR has a limit of 2TB, but larger than 2TB SSD are too expensive for using one as the Windows disk, so I didn't mention it. Also most NVMe controllers won't boot the disk in Legacy BIOS mode, they only support UEFI boot. Unsupported MBR installation is intended for older SATA or IDE or eMMC disks that can boot in Legacy BIOS mode. As for NVMe loading faster, I cannot confirm that, unless I dual boot UEFI and Legacy at the same computer and see for myself. Also fast SSD disk will likely make the difference very small to perceive. So keep old stuff for old computers, use new stuff with new Windows 11 compliant computers, unless you want to experiment and face any possible issues.

Volume Z · Monday at 10:21 AM

hsehestedt said:
Be careful with that! The recovery partition is likely actually partition #4. It looks like it is partition #3 in in Disk Management but that is because Disk Management hides the MSR partition.

This is not correct. There is no hidden MSR partition present as there is no GPT involved in this disk. This is Windows 11 running on MBR. Therefore there is also no EFI System Partition missing as there is System Reserved (with no label).

This is an MBR disk holding the maximum of 4 primary partitions. There is no use for and nothing to worry about drive D. The partition is 98% free.

It has been verified that the Recovery Partition in use is partition 3.

Partition 4 is safe to delete and partition 3 is free to be extended.

hsehestedt · Monday at 12:42 PM

spapakons said:
Yes, MBR has a limit of 2TB, but larger than 2TB SSD are too expensive for using one as the Windows disk, so I didn't mention it.

I was lucky. I snapped up a few 4TB SSDs back when they were dirt cheap. I got one NVMe 4TB for $156 (that's in US dollars). I strongly regret not having snapped up more of them back then, but I was expecting prices to go even lower

. Shows how little I knew.

hsehestedt · Monday at 12:47 PM

Volume Z said:
This is not correct. There is no hidden MSR partition present as there is no GPT involved in this disk. This is Windows 11 running on MBR. Therefore there is also no EFI System Partition missing as there is System Reserved (with no label).

Ah yes, you are correct, of course. I'm just so used to working with UEFI based systems that I neglected to take that into account. So, partition #3 was in fact correct, not partition #4 as I suggested it might be.

jimhow4545 · Monday at 2:40 PM

Wow I couldn’t believed all the great responses!
Thank you ! I will try all the methods mentioned on my extra working windows bootup SSD which I had cloned or imaged from a working computer.

jimhow4545 · Monday at 8:20 PM

Wow I couldn’t believed all the great responses!
Thank you ! I will try all the methods mentioned on my extra working windows bootup SSD which I had cloned or imaged from a working computer.

Celery said:
Legacy BIOS/MBR installation (not UEFI/GPT):
- 500 MB NTFS — System, Active, Primary Partition: contains boot-related files.
- C: 1860 GB — the Windows installation.
- 908 MB Recovery Partition
- D: 760 MB NTFS — Healthy (Primary Partition), almost completely empty.

The interesting one is D:. A 760 MB partition at the very end of the disk is much more likely to be a leftover OEM/recovery partition that accidentally has a drive letter than an intentionally created data drive.

Instead of deleting D:, remove its drive letter. That makes it disappear from File Explorer while leaving the partition intact.

In Disk Management:
- Right-click the 760 MB (D:) partition
- Select Change Drive Letter and Paths…
- Click Remove

Edit:

This applies only to MBR disks; GPT disks do not have an active partition.

Windows will not boot if there is no active partition on the primary disk (either the System partition or the Windows partition).

The "System" partition on a Windows computer contains the files necessary to "boot" the system. It is typically the first partition on the first disk, as set in the BIOS settings. The "Boot" partition contains the files for the Windows operating system.

- System partition (System, Active)
- Windows partition (Boot)

View attachment 179190

View attachment 179191

ok disk d is deleted and windows bootup fine. However, when I run reagentc /info it was disabled. It was enabled before I deleted disk D.
I enabled winRE again.

jimhow4545 · Monday at 10:07 PM

Ok. I am using MiniTool Wizard to merge Healthy (Recovery Partition) and Healthy (Primary Partition)
and here is the result. Windows restarted without any issue. Next I want to extend Health (boot partition) to right. Is it possible?

Klaver7 · Monday at 10:27 PM

What happened to your C: Drive ???

jimhow4545 · Monday at 10:31 PM

I think I am happy with this.
I used Minitool to accomplish this.
I merged Healthy (Recovery Partition) and Healthy (Primary Partition) and then
I extended Health (boot partition) to right.

Solved Local Disk (D) is emptied… can I delete it?

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