Non-default disk partition layout

I did a bit of reading and according to



The Recovery partition on my W10 machine is on the far left (rather than on the far right as in the above pic) 499 MB of which 432.5 MB is used.

Is there any cause for concern?

(I don't know what happened, I wasn't aware that there was a default partition layout and I didn't pay attention)

Haydon said:

I did a bit of reading and according to

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions

learn.microsoft.com

View attachment 47220

The Recovery partition on my W10 machine is on the far left (rather than on the far right as in the above pic) 499 MB of which 432.5 MB is used.

Is there any cause for concern?

(I don't know what happened, I wasn't aware that there was a default partition layout and I didn't pay attention)

Click to expand...

No cause for concern.
The only one that seems to always be in the same place is the 16 MB MSR partition... if it even exists.

The EFI System and the Recovery partitions pop up in various places, depending on a few factors.
Like if you convert from MBR to GPT the EFI partition usually follows right after the C: partition.

I always remove the MSR and the Recovery partitions, anyway.

Haydon said:

I did a bit of reading and according to

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions

learn.microsoft.com

View attachment 47220

The Recovery partition on my W10 machine is on the far left (rather than on the far right as in the above pic) 499 MB of which 432.5 MB is used.

Is there any cause for concern?

(I don't know what happened, I wasn't aware that there was a default partition layout and I didn't pay attention)

Click to expand...

If the system is functioning properly, there is no reason to be concerned. Partitions can be moved/relocated, and the recovery partition is not necessary. The Recovery partition is a part of the disk drive on your computer whose purpose is to save the computer system image. It can help you recover Windows or fix system problems. Usually, the recovery partition simply saves the system state as the manufacturer first set up the PC.

Haydon said:

I did a bit of reading and according to

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions

UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions

learn.microsoft.com

View attachment 47220

The Recovery partition on my W10 machine is on the far left (rather than on the far right as in the above pic) 499 MB of which 432.5 MB is used.

Is there any cause for concern?

(I don't know what happened, I wasn't aware that there was a default partition layout and I didn't pay attention)

Click to expand...

One thing you could do is to disable the recovery environment, reboot, then re enable the recovery environment. This will place the contents of the recovery partition into a Recovery folder on the System partition, you could then delete the recovery partition and extend the Windows partition into that space.
On a large disk 450 Mb or so is not really worth worrying about but if you use Macrium Reflect or similar software to work with system images then the recovery partition is pretty much redundant, IMHO.
The recovery folder works just the same in most other regards, including the contents being updated as needed.

OK, I won't change anything on my present system, then. I have GPT on my present system, BTW.

However, if I create an mrimg of my present system and do a restore on new hardware, and the new hardware comes with the default partition layout, do I only restore C: ?

In theory you can drag and drop any partition to any disk for 'restore' in any order you want, however if an environmental variable references the wrong partition ID or letter it could cause issues, most can be easily solved. My disk is also GPT.
I beleive the full version of Macrium can prepare an image for transfering to different hardware, never done that myself though, it is probably best to replace existing system created partitions in such a scenario.

The only minor problem with the recovery partition being first is when you get a full build upgrade, a new recovery partition will be created by shrinking the C drive and a new one created after the C drive. So you end up with 2 recovery partitions.

The original default layout for Windows had the recovery partition on the left, but updates created issues ending up with multiple partitions sometimes. That is why MS changed partition layout but even that is not perfect.

No big deal - easy to sort with minitool partition wizard free or similar.

I'm pretty sure that if you change it so that the recovery environment is on the Windows partition, in the folder, then a new recovery partition won't be created, the folder contents will just be replaced/ updated.
To my mind this is a far more elegant solution, avoids having to resize/ add partitions, free space in the Windows partition allowing of course.

Let me explain this scenario just a little bit more ...

There is a specific reason that Microsoft now recommends that the recovery partition be placed last.

Let's assume that you have a recovery partition that is located BEFORE the Windows partition. What can potentially happen is that a new version of Windows is installed as an upgrade at a later date. That new version requires more space in the recovery partition than is currently available. Because the existing partition cannot be grown since another partition exists after it, Windows has no choice but to shrink the Windows partition to free up some space at the end of the disk, then create a whole new recovery partition. So now you have two recovery partitions, one of which is completely useless and obsolete. Does this cause any problems? Other than wasting a little disk space, no.

However, if the recovery partition is placed last on the disk, then in order to increase the size of that partition, the Windows partition can be shrunk, the recovery partition can be deleted, then recreated with the new larger size. This avoids the situation where you end up with multiple unused recovery partitions over time.

On most systems, this will make no difference since the recovery partition is so small. Where it is of greater concern is systems such as tablets that may only have small disks such as 64 GB.

Note that if you do not perform upgrade installations of Windows, if you perform clean installs when a new major version is released, then this will not affect you.

Some additional notes: When you manually install Windows clean, it will automatically install the recovery partition last. However, if you install Windows using an unattended setup, the Windows partition will be placed last. This can easily be worked around, but by default, this is what happens. I won't go into the details here because it may be a bit lengthy, and I suspect that no one cares . However, if you do want more detail, let me know and I will explain.

Something of interest for BitLocker users like me (from the link in my OP)
BitLocker does work with the Recovery partition on the far left (as on my machine) but the words seem to say that with the default partition layout with the Recovery partition on the far right, I gain the WinRE bit. I don't know what that exactly means, though.