Recovery Partition Question


MachineLanguage

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I recently noticed I have two recovery partitions. One on my boot drive and another on a backup. I understand how this can happen so that is not my question.

I was able to re-establish and verify the recovery partition on my boot drive. I understand the purpose of the recovery partition and that it also may not be necessary.

What I would like to learn is this:

"If a functioning recovery partition exists on a physical drive, is "C:\Recovery\WindowsRe\winre.win" still needed?

Your thoughts and expertise are welcome.
Thanks James
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win7 Pro Retail Upgrade to Win 10 Pro, to Win11 Pro 24h2 OS Build 26.100.2454
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Build
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 3 3200G with Radeon Vega Graphics
    Motherboard
    MSI B450 Tomahawk
    Memory
    Corsair DDR4 32g
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon Vega 8
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    WD 1TB SSD
    Seagate BUP 4TB USB3 (This drive died at one year)
    (3) Seagate BUP Slim 2TB USB3
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500G USB3
    PSU
    Corsair TX 750W
    Case
    Cooler Master tower
    Cooling
    3 generic fans
    Keyboard
    Logitech Backlit USB
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    T-Mobile 5G 100+ Mbs
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender and Malwarebytes Prem
    Other Info
    Microsoft 365 Family Office 18029.20116
    Macrium Home 10 Subscription 8366
    Mini-Tool Ultimate
    Malwarebytes Premium 4.6.17.334
    Hope to Revo Pro Portable Pro 5.3.2
    Hope To many others will be (all legit)
  • Operating System
    WIN 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Beelink
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS
    Motherboard
    AMD
    Memory
    32G
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell
    Mouse
    MS
    Internet Speed
    200GB+
    Antivirus
    Defender Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    Macrium Home Subscrption, MS 365 Family
I recently noticed I have two recovery partitions. One on my boot drive and another on a backup. I understand how this can happen so that is not my question.

I was able to re-establish and verify the recovery partition on my boot drive. I understand the purpose of the recovery partition and that it also may not be necessary.

What I would like to learn is this:

"If a functioning recovery partition exists on a physical drive, is "C:\Recovery\WindowsRe\winre.win" still needed?

Your thoughts and expertise are welcome.
Thanks James
Run "reagentc /info" from a command prompt and post image as well as image of partition layout.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro + Win11 Canary VM.
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Zenbook 14
    CPU
    I9 13th gen i9-13900H 2.60 GHZ
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB soldered
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop OLED screen
    Screen Resolution
    2880x1800 touchscreen
    Hard Drives
    1 TB NVME SSD (only weakness is only one slot)
    PSU
    Internal + 65W thunderbolt USB4 charger
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois (UK pint cans - 568 ml) - extra cost.
    Keyboard
    Built in UK keybd
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wireless dongled, wired
    Internet Speed
    900 mbs (ethernet), wifi 6 typical 350-450 mb/s both up and down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0, 2xUSB4 thunderbolt, 1xUsb3 (usb a), 1xUsb-c, hdmi out, 3.5 mm audio out/in combo, ASUS backlit trackpad (inc. switchable number pad)

    Macrium Reflect Home V8
    Office 365 Family (6 users each 1TB onedrive space)
    Hyper-V (a vm runs almost as fast as my older laptop)
1730831513538.png1730831571289.png
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win7 Pro Retail Upgrade to Win 10 Pro, to Win11 Pro 24h2 OS Build 26.100.2454
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Build
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 3 3200G with Radeon Vega Graphics
    Motherboard
    MSI B450 Tomahawk
    Memory
    Corsair DDR4 32g
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon Vega 8
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    WD 1TB SSD
    Seagate BUP 4TB USB3 (This drive died at one year)
    (3) Seagate BUP Slim 2TB USB3
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500G USB3
    PSU
    Corsair TX 750W
    Case
    Cooler Master tower
    Cooling
    3 generic fans
    Keyboard
    Logitech Backlit USB
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    T-Mobile 5G 100+ Mbs
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender and Malwarebytes Prem
    Other Info
    Microsoft 365 Family Office 18029.20116
    Macrium Home 10 Subscription 8366
    Mini-Tool Ultimate
    Malwarebytes Premium 4.6.17.334
    Hope to Revo Pro Portable Pro 5.3.2
    Hope To many others will be (all legit)
  • Operating System
    WIN 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Beelink
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS
    Motherboard
    AMD
    Memory
    32G
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell
    Mouse
    MS
    Internet Speed
    200GB+
    Antivirus
    Defender Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    Macrium Home Subscrption, MS 365 Family
Well, your setup is fine, you really do not need a recovery partition as it is active ob C drive.. Not obvious perhaps but Windows is partition 3 as there is a hidden MSR partition of 16MB that is between the EFI partition and C drive.

All other recovery partitions are redundant and can be removed.

With a bit of effort you can move winre.wim to a separate partition but hardly worth the effort
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro + Win11 Canary VM.
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Zenbook 14
    CPU
    I9 13th gen i9-13900H 2.60 GHZ
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB soldered
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop OLED screen
    Screen Resolution
    2880x1800 touchscreen
    Hard Drives
    1 TB NVME SSD (only weakness is only one slot)
    PSU
    Internal + 65W thunderbolt USB4 charger
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois (UK pint cans - 568 ml) - extra cost.
    Keyboard
    Built in UK keybd
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wireless dongled, wired
    Internet Speed
    900 mbs (ethernet), wifi 6 typical 350-450 mb/s both up and down
    Browser
    Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0, 2xUSB4 thunderbolt, 1xUsb3 (usb a), 1xUsb-c, hdmi out, 3.5 mm audio out/in combo, ASUS backlit trackpad (inc. switchable number pad)

    Macrium Reflect Home V8
    Office 365 Family (6 users each 1TB onedrive space)
    Hyper-V (a vm runs almost as fast as my older laptop)
Well, your setup is fine, you really do not need a recovery partition as it is active ob C drive.. Not obvious perhaps but Windows is partition 3 as there is a hidden MSR partition of 16MB that is between the EFI partition and C drive.

All other recovery partitions are redundant and can be removed.

With a bit of effort you can move winre.wim to a separate partition but hardly worth the effort

Thank you for taking the time to review.
I agree I can remove the additional recovery partition on "E Drive".

I have no urgency or reason to delete "C:\Recovery\WindowsRe\winre.win" I just want to understand its full purpose. Plenty of literature available but still looking for that one detail.
Thanks
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win7 Pro Retail Upgrade to Win 10 Pro, to Win11 Pro 24h2 OS Build 26.100.2454
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Build
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 3 3200G with Radeon Vega Graphics
    Motherboard
    MSI B450 Tomahawk
    Memory
    Corsair DDR4 32g
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon Vega 8
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    WD 1TB SSD
    Seagate BUP 4TB USB3 (This drive died at one year)
    (3) Seagate BUP Slim 2TB USB3
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500G USB3
    PSU
    Corsair TX 750W
    Case
    Cooler Master tower
    Cooling
    3 generic fans
    Keyboard
    Logitech Backlit USB
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    T-Mobile 5G 100+ Mbs
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender and Malwarebytes Prem
    Other Info
    Microsoft 365 Family Office 18029.20116
    Macrium Home 10 Subscription 8366
    Mini-Tool Ultimate
    Malwarebytes Premium 4.6.17.334
    Hope to Revo Pro Portable Pro 5.3.2
    Hope To many others will be (all legit)
  • Operating System
    WIN 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Beelink
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS
    Motherboard
    AMD
    Memory
    32G
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell
    Mouse
    MS
    Internet Speed
    200GB+
    Antivirus
    Defender Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    Macrium Home Subscrption, MS 365 Family
It’s been a while for me so happy to be corrected.
Did you try to fix or do something to that 2GB partition to the right of C? I don’t believe that is a proper recovery partition most likely there has been no recovery attributes applied. In fact I don’t think that 2GB partition is recognised at all by Disk Management.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows Pro 23H2 Build 22631.4249
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Sin-built
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (4th Gen?)
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus VI Formula
    Memory
    32.0 GB of I forget and the box is in storage.
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC 6GB
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    4 x LG 23MP75 - 2 x 24MK430H-B - 1 x Wacom Pro 22" Tablet
    Screen Resolution
    All over the place
    Hard Drives
    Too many to list.
    OS on Samsung 1TB 870 QVO SATA
    PSU
    Silverstone 1500
    Case
    NZXT Phantom 820 Full-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15 Elite Class Dual Tower CPU Cooler / 6 x EziDIY 120mm / 2 x Corsair 140mm somethings / 1 x 140mm Thermaltake something / 2 x 200mm Corsair.
    Keyboard
    Corsair K95 / Logitech diNovo Edge Wireless
    Mouse
    Logitech G402 / G502 / Mx Masters / MX Air Cordless
    Internet Speed
    100/40Mbps
    Browser
    All sorts
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    Kaspersky Premium
    Other Info
    I’m on a horse.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro 23H2 Build: 22631.4249
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    LENOVO Yoga 7i EVO OLED 14" Touchscreen i5 12 Core 16GB/512GB
    CPU
    Intel Core 12th Gen i5-1240P Processor (1.7 - 4.4GHz)
    Memory
    16GB LPDDR5 RAM
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Iris Xe Graphics Processor
    Sound Card
    Optimized with Dolby Atmos®
    Screen Resolution
    QHD 2880 x 1800 OLED
    Hard Drives
    M.2 512GB
    Other Info
    …still on a horse.
I’m looking at the wrong partition. Still, shouldn’t partition 3 be labled as recovery?
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows Pro 23H2 Build 22631.4249
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Sin-built
    CPU
    Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4770K CPU @ 3.50GHz (4th Gen?)
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus VI Formula
    Memory
    32.0 GB of I forget and the box is in storage.
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte nVidia GeForce GTX 1660 Super OC 6GB
    Sound Card
    Onboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    4 x LG 23MP75 - 2 x 24MK430H-B - 1 x Wacom Pro 22" Tablet
    Screen Resolution
    All over the place
    Hard Drives
    Too many to list.
    OS on Samsung 1TB 870 QVO SATA
    PSU
    Silverstone 1500
    Case
    NZXT Phantom 820 Full-Tower Case
    Cooling
    Noctua NH-D15 Elite Class Dual Tower CPU Cooler / 6 x EziDIY 120mm / 2 x Corsair 140mm somethings / 1 x 140mm Thermaltake something / 2 x 200mm Corsair.
    Keyboard
    Corsair K95 / Logitech diNovo Edge Wireless
    Mouse
    Logitech G402 / G502 / Mx Masters / MX Air Cordless
    Internet Speed
    100/40Mbps
    Browser
    All sorts
    Antivirus
    Kaspersky Premium
    Other Info
    I’m on a horse.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro 23H2 Build: 22631.4249
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    LENOVO Yoga 7i EVO OLED 14" Touchscreen i5 12 Core 16GB/512GB
    CPU
    Intel Core 12th Gen i5-1240P Processor (1.7 - 4.4GHz)
    Memory
    16GB LPDDR5 RAM
    Graphics card(s)
    Intel Iris Xe Graphics Processor
    Sound Card
    Optimized with Dolby Atmos®
    Screen Resolution
    QHD 2880 x 1800 OLED
    Hard Drives
    M.2 512GB
    Other Info
    …still on a horse.
Folks I appreciate the interest my post has generated but I am not necessarily looking for suggestions regarding "how to "fix my problem." My configuration works. I am just looking for an answer to the question.
Thanks.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Win7 Pro Retail Upgrade to Win 10 Pro, to Win11 Pro 24h2 OS Build 26.100.2454
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Home Build
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 3 3200G with Radeon Vega Graphics
    Motherboard
    MSI B450 Tomahawk
    Memory
    Corsair DDR4 32g
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon Vega 8
    Sound Card
    AMD High Definition Audio Device Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    WD 1TB SSD
    Seagate BUP 4TB USB3 (This drive died at one year)
    (3) Seagate BUP Slim 2TB USB3
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 500G USB3
    PSU
    Corsair TX 750W
    Case
    Cooler Master tower
    Cooling
    3 generic fans
    Keyboard
    Logitech Backlit USB
    Mouse
    Logitech M510
    Internet Speed
    T-Mobile 5G 100+ Mbs
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender and Malwarebytes Prem
    Other Info
    Microsoft 365 Family Office 18029.20116
    Macrium Home 10 Subscription 8366
    Mini-Tool Ultimate
    Malwarebytes Premium 4.6.17.334
    Hope to Revo Pro Portable Pro 5.3.2
    Hope To many others will be (all legit)
  • Operating System
    WIN 11 Pro
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Beelink
    CPU
    AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS
    Motherboard
    AMD
    Memory
    32G
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dell
    Mouse
    MS
    Internet Speed
    200GB+
    Antivirus
    Defender Malwarebytes
    Other Info
    Macrium Home Subscrption, MS 365 Family

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