Partition might be too small

garlin · Aug 1, 2024

cmart6 said:
Thanks, Helmut, that give me solace. I'll just wait it out.

Well, no. Back in the W8.1 days, Recovery partition was static because it was built once by your PC vendor and never patched. If you recovered your system, it would be an outdated Windows that was years out of date.

This isn't the current model of how Windows get updated. In the future, it's possible one of your Monthly Updates will fail because the normal patching process now updates WinRE. When the partition runs out of space, that error will halt the normal Monthly Update from being applied. So, it's in your interest to provide WinRE a bit more room to grow.

cereberus · Aug 1, 2024

Megahertz said:
I recommend you make the recovery partition bigger (1024M)
- Disable the recovery environment. Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
reagentc /disable
- Use Minitoll partition to shrink the C: partition in 267M
- Use Minitoll partition to enlarge the Recovery partition to the left using all the 267M unallocated space.
- Enable the recovery environment. Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
reagentc /enable

Blimey there is absolutely no need to do this. This is tinkering for the sake of it!!!

cmart6 · Aug 1, 2024

garlin said:
Well, no. Back in the W8.1 days, Recovery partition was static because it was built once by your PC vendor and never patched. If you recovered your system, it would be an outdated Windows that was years out of date.

This isn't the current model of how Windows get updated. In the future, it's possible one of your Monthly Updates will fail because the normal patching process now updates WinRE. When the partition runs out of space, that error will halt the normal Monthly Update from being applied. So, it's in your interest to provide WinRE a bit more room to grow.

Is there a simple way to give Recovery Partition more space using Windows Disk Manager?

hdmi · Aug 1, 2024

cmart6 said:
Is there a way of making Recovery Partition 4 larger by taking from C: drive (partition 3) and using Disk Manager, sine I don't now what MiniToll is or how to use it?

It's a misspelling, it's actually MiniTool Partition Wizard Free. But I recommend to grab the Portable version of it instead. On their website, they call it Portable Partition Magic, but don't worry about that. It really is (Portable) MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 12.8. lol

MiniTool Portable Partition Magic Brings Easier Disk Management

Free download portable partition software - MiniTool portable partition magic to manage disks and partitions on Windows PC.

www.partitionwizard.com

After you unzipped the folder MiniTool Partition Wizard 12 from the downloaded zipfile, you can look for the file partitionwizard.exe (and make a new shortcut to it if you like).

The feature that lets you take available free space from a different partition (or from unallocated space) to enlarge the selected partition is called the Expand feature.

garlin · Aug 1, 2024

cmart6 said:
Is there a simple way to give Recovery Partition more space using Windows Disk Manager?

No, because the Windows Disk Management is limited in this scenario. You can shrink the existing Windows partition to create an empty "gap" between it and Recovery. The problem is it doesn't know how to expand Recovery to the "left" (if we visualize the disk volume as left to right), and use that freed space. A 3rd-party disk re-partitioning tool is required. But assuming you resize it well enough, you'll only do this exercise once.

bfunke · Aug 1, 2024

Manually resize your partition by 250 MB

Open a Command Prompt window (cmd) as admin.
To check the WinRE status, run reagentc /info. If the WinRE is installed, there should be a “Windows RE location” with a path to the WinRE directory. An example is, “Windows RE location: [file://%3f/GLOBALROOT/device/harddisk0/partition4/Recovery/WindowsRE]\\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition4\Recovery\WindowsRE.” Here, the number after “harddisk” and “partition” is the index of the disk and partition WinRE is on.
To disable the WinRE, run reagentc /disable
Shrink the OS partition and prepare the disk for a new recovery partition.
1. To shrink the OS, run diskpart
2. Run list disk
3. To select the OS disk, run sel disk<OS disk index> This should be the same disk index as WinRE.
4. To check the partition under the OS disk and find the OS partition, run list part
5. To select the OS partition, run sel part<OS partition index>
6. Run shrink desired=250 minimum=250
7. To select the WinRE partition, run sel part<WinRE partition index>
8. To delete the WinRE partition, run delete partition override
Create a new recovery partition.
1. First, check if the disk partition style is a GUID Partition Table (GPT) or a Master Boot Record (MBR). To do that, run list disk. Check if there is an asterisk character (*) in the “Gpt” column. If there is an asterisk character (*), then the drive is GPT. Otherwise, the drive is MBR.
  1. If your disk is GPT, run create partition primary id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac followed by the command gpt attributes =0x8000000000000001
  2. If your disk is MBR, run create partition primary id=27
2. To format the partition, run format quick fs=ntfs label=”Windows RE tools”
3. If your disk is MBR, run set id=27
To confirm that the WinRE partition is created, run list vol
To exit from diskpart, run exit
To re-enable WinRE, run reagentc /enable
To confirm where WinRE is installed, run reagentc /info

hdmi · Aug 1, 2024

garlin said:
3rd-party disk re-partitioning tool is required.

No, it isn't really. Simply scrolling a bit further down the official docs from Microsoft (same page I linked in my 3rd reply to this thread) gives you this.

garlin · Aug 1, 2024

This is the problem I have. Everyone assumes someone else (not to imply our OP) is technical, and wants to run some script. Which may or may not have dependencies or assumptions.

Whereas running a generally available (and reliable) re-partition tool gives you the peace of mind of probably not screwing it up.

hsehestedt · Aug 1, 2024

cmart6 said:
Is there a simple way to give Recovery Partition more space using Windows Disk Manager?

The limitations of Disk Management in resizing partitions has already been noted. However, if your recovery partition follows the Windows partition, it is an easy matter to shrink the Windows partition, the simply disable and delete the recovery partition, and recreate it at the larger size rather than resizing the original partition.

Megahertz · Aug 1, 2024

cmart6 said:
Is there a way of making Recovery Partition 4 larger by taking from C: drive (partition 3) and using Disk Manager, sine I don't now what MiniToll is or how to use it?

That is exactly what I suggested on post #15
MiniTool partition is a very good and free partition tool.
It allow you to expand a partition to the left border (MS Disk manager don't)
It is very intuitive to use.

You can use Windows tools to do it but I stronglly recommend you use Minitool

Open a CMD window as administrator and type:
(you can copy and paste each command to the CMD window)
Reagentc /disable (very important. don't miss this cmd)
diskpart
list disk (take note of the Windows drive number)
sel disk n (replace n with the drive number found above)
sel part 4
del part override
sel part 3
shrink desired=267
create par prim
format quick FS=NTFS label=Recovery
set id=de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
assign letter=R
exit
R:
MD R:\Recovery\WindowsRE
Reagentc /setreimage /path R:\Recovery\WindowsRE
reagentc /enable
reagentc /info

zbook · Aug 1, 2024

1) Please post a image of disk management:

How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management

How to Post a Screenshot of Disk Management at Ten Forums

www.tenforums.com

2) Run Disk partition information > post a share link

https://www.tenforums.com/attachmen...atch-files-use-bsod-debugging-diskparinfo.bat

Batch files for use in BSOD debugging - Windows 10 Help Forums

Batch files for use in BSOD debugging - Windows 10 Help Forums

zbook · Aug 1, 2024

cmart6 said:
Is there a way of making Recovery Partition 4 larger by taking from C: drive (partition 3) and using Disk Manager, sine I don't now what MiniToll is or how to use it?

Windows can increase or decrease the size of recovery partition for most Windows updates (automatic failover) if the recovery partition is to the immediate right of the data partition).

There was just one problematic update in recent years related to the size of the recovery partition.

hdmi · Aug 1, 2024

garlin said:
This is the problem I have. Everyone assumes someone else (not to imply our OP) is technical, and wants to run some script.

I am not assuming anything. Rather, I was only pointing out the fact that, no, a 3rd party tool is not a requirement for this. Whether the OP wants to use the script is entirely for the OP to decide.

garlin said:
Which may or may not have dependencies or assumptions.

Whereas running a generally available (and reliable) re-partition tool gives you the peace of mind of probably not screwing it up.

Powershell is generally available on Windows. The script is reliable, it has plenty of error handling also in addition to meaningful text messages to guide the user through the whole process so it isn't overly technical, and, as the documentation clearly states, it actually even creates a backup copy, which, BTW, the 3rd party re-partition tools do not. Enough said...

cmart6 · Aug 1, 2024

"They call it Portable Partition Magic, but don't worry about that. It really is (Portable) MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 12.8. "
I found the file at last, but no Expand feature. Did you mean Extend, because that's mentioned in the Manual, though it's not clear where it is in the menus. I'll study it.
Thanks, Johanna

hdmi · Aug 2, 2024

cmart6 said:
, but no Expand feature. Did you mean Extend, because that's mentioned in the Manual, though it's not clear where it is in the menus.

Yes, that's the one. My bad... sorry for the confusion. The 1st screenshot in the online help article (link below) shows where to find it.

How to Extend Partition | MiniTool Partition Wizard Tutorial - MiniTool Partition Wizard

Extend Partition makes it much easier to enlarge a partition, and MiniTool Partition Wizard Tutorial here will show users detailed steps.

www.partitionwizard.com

It also is possible to just right-click on the partition that you want to extend, then choose Extend. See:

cmart6 · Aug 2, 2024

Thanks to HDMI and all others for giving me the solution, which I'll put into effect when the time comes.
I'm real glad to have discovered Elevenforum as my new install of Win11 23H2 has a variety of issues. Partition size will be taken thanks to superb help from the responders here. My 2nd issue, which I'll post soon is that Windows updates often (usually) gives "Retry later".
I have "Get immediately" though right below it shows "Pause 1 week" which I can't change. I guess I'll do this on another thread.

Without Elevenforum, I'd be lost, as friends in my profession (music-dance) are totally clueless on Windows-techie issues.

cmart6 · Aug 2, 2024

I noticed when doing a file backup on system that Macrium Reflect warned: "C:\$WinREagent folder is missing."
Which it was. Is that a problem?

zbook · Aug 2, 2024

When available, update the progress with the steps in post #31.

cereberus · Aug 2, 2024

cmart6 said:
I noticed when doing a file backup on system that Macrium Reflect warned: "C:\$WinREagent folder is missing."
Which it was. Is that a problem?

No - I delete it.

antspants · Aug 2, 2024

I had to increase that partition yesterday on my sons Windows 10 PC as it was the cause of a recent update not being able to be installed. Microsoft recommended increasing the recovery partition, so I did.It fixed the issue.
But I did it due to an error, not because it was in the red.

Partition might be too small

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