Strange partition on my C drive

Tombar · Apr 24, 2025

zbook said:
Post share links.

Hi. I managed to run the first set of commands. Question 1 - how do I make the results available to you (about 3 screen fulls).

Problem 1 - it's now become impossible to type anything, such as cmd, in the Search bar. I've tried every method on Google to get this back, but no luck, so it might be some time before I can run these commands again. In the meantime, maybe you can tell me how to display the output for diskpart, please?

antspants · Apr 24, 2025

Tombar said:
Search bar now won't let me type in cmd!

You should be able to open Terminal (Admin) by right clicking on the Start Meny button, then select command prompt:

Tombar · Apr 24, 2025

antspants said:
You should be able to open Terminal (Admin) by right clicking on the Start Meny button, then select command prompt:

View attachment 132122

I knew I had Terminal and know there's differences between the assorted Command, Terminal, Powrshell things (but no idea what), but I'd forgotten there was a drop-down box. Thanks.
Am currently restoring a backup from the 4 April with no I drive. This appears in a backup from 7 April labelled Xafter repair installation" -trouble is I can't remember what this was and why I did it. Ah! maybe this was when DISM couldn't find the source files (see earlier post). Oh well, we'll see.

Edit. That didn't work, as the backup without the I drive shows just nothing but a gap in the equivalent space and the offending I drive partition doesn't get overwritten. I'm using Macrium and restoring partitions -
j can you restore whole disks with Macrium?

glasskuter · Apr 24, 2025

I would not be so hasty deleting partitions. You can not go by what disk management says when it comes to what it shows as "used" on these special partitions that windows creates. Look at the difference in mine - disk management vs minitool

zbook · Apr 24, 2025

Tombar said:
Hi. I managed to run the first set of commands. Question 1 - how do I make the results available to you (about 3 screen fulls).

Please use drop box or google drive.

Make sure that links are available without sign in.

How to use Google Drive - Computer - Google Drive Help

Scannerman · Apr 24, 2025

antspants said:
Identical drive?

Yes, I believe I misunderstood Tombar. I was fixating on the 2GB unallocated partition. After I posted I considered that they were referring to the multiple recovery partitions on the C drive. The OP title is somewhat ambiguous.

Scannerman · Apr 24, 2025

glasskuter said:
I would not be so hasty deleting partitions. You can not go by what disk management says when it comes to what it shows as "used" on these special partitions that windows creates. Look at the difference in mine - disk management vs minitool

Yes, that's the great thing about MiniTool. It will show all the partitions, including the hidden ones. Antspants has already advised OP to make a drive image first before proceeding. What with all those recovery partitions Tombar could probably get away with deleting the FAT partition, but I fail to see the point. Why not just leave it be? Personally, I would do a reinstall (Microsoft's answer to everything) just because having so many recovery partitions on my 'C' drive would annoy me. Perhaps this is a proprietary thing? Myself, I was obsessing over the unallocated partition in the other drive. It made no sense.

Anyway, it looks like Zbook has this.

BTW. Very nice res on those screen shots. I'm guessing you're using some sophisticated software for that or something that does a 4K monitor justice.

antspants · Apr 25, 2025

Scannerman said:
It will show all the partitions, including the hidden ones. Antspants has already advised OP to make a drive image first before proceeding.

Also, if that i: drive shows natively in file explorer, I very much doubt it would be a system partition. I’ve personally never seen a system partition identified as “Data”. Maybe I’m just unlucky. Maybe I’ve just never looked hard enough?
Is it showing in Windows File Explorer, Tom?

Tombar · Apr 25, 2025

zbook said:
Please use drop box or google drive.

Make sure that links are available without

I meant how do I copy the output from diskpart in cmd. I can select it all, but the highlighting is lost if I try to run Copy.

EDIT Think I've sorted it - select all and press Enter to put it on the clipboard - not exactly intuitive!
Edit 2 - seems this was what the links in post 2 were for!
Question - is there some way of finding post X without counting all the posts?

Tombar · Apr 25, 2025

Scannerman said:
The OP title is somewhat ambiguous

Sorry - I should have said Disk 1 or whatever it is. I always think of it as my C drive.

Tombar · Apr 25, 2025

Scannerman said:
What with all those recovery partitions Tombar could probably get away with deleting the FAT partition, but I fail to see the point. Why not just leave it be? Personally, I would do a reinstall (Microsoft's answer to everything) just because having so many recovery partitions on my 'C' drive would annoy me

I don't like leaving one wrong thing, as I'd let them accumulate.

The recovery partitions are deliberate - they are the Boot Recovery options for Macrium and Aomei Backupper

The screenshots are with ShareX

Tombar · Apr 25, 2025

antspants said:
Is it showing in Windows File Explorer, @Tom?

Yes - see screenshot

Scannerman · Apr 25, 2025

Tombar said:
Yes - see screenshot

I'm thinking it may be a contribution from Aomei. Again, user preference prevails. Personally, I would use just one third party for backup like this in addition to good ole Windows BU. That way I avoid any future confusion about what's what. In addition to this I make a ton of restore points and I reserve a drive strictly for File History. I also use Kaspersky Premium for backing up my personal data and it doesn't write any partitions onto my main drive. I keep my system images on a separate drive as well. AND yup... Here I go again about the importance of cloning... I keep a copy tucked away for a rainy day. About once a week I write a copy of my desktop onto yet another separate drive marked "Archives" which is mirrored. I'm about 99% protected from data loss this way. Pffft... And people wonder why I have so many drives in my PC lol

antspants · Apr 25, 2025

Tombar said:
The recovery partitions are deliberate - they are the Boot Recovery options for Macrium and Aomei Backupper

Not exactly accurate. Windows creates the Recovery Partition, I have seen Windows create two. The second can be attributed to an upgrade, like from 23H2 to 24H2
I can’t tell you if one of yours is a result of AOMEI or Macrium, if at all, either..

Your external, G: drive has 2GB of unallocated space, not sure why.

Scannerman · Apr 25, 2025

antspants said:
Not exactly accurate. Windows creates the Recovery Partition, I have seen Windows create two. The second can be attributed to an upgrade, like from 23H2 to 24H2
I can’t tell you if one of yours is a result of AOMEI or Macrium, if at all, either..

Your external, G: drive has 2GB of unallocated space, not sure why.

Yup. That's what I thought was suspicious. lol Why a 2GB unallocated partition? Windows certainly does make extra recovery partitions and I find it annoying when it does this because it really only needs one per OS. I'm guessing it might be for rollbacks to an original OS? Alas, my finding is that those rarely work. But over a GB of FAT32?? Myself, I would make like a Dalek on this but if everything is working fine and the OP is happy with what they have why not just leave it alone? *Includes portrait of Kuzzin Andy*

Cardiff_Bay_-_Dalek_-_geograph.org.uk_-_5253753.webp

Tombar · Apr 25, 2025

zbook said:
or google drive.

diskpart.txt

drive.google.com

Hope this works

Tombar · Apr 25, 2025

antspants said:
Your external, G: drive has 2GB of unallocated space, not sure why

The G drive and Z drive are irrelevant - they are for storing backups and downloads

antspants · Apr 25, 2025

OK then

antspants · Apr 25, 2025

I kind of see it as quite relevant due to the possible misunderstanding of partitions and drives.

Did you try and create an extra partition on your external drive and ended up with the i: Drive on C: without realizing?
There’s no reason to have 2GB of unallocated space on the external that I know of. You can see that as irrelevant, I see it as telling.

Lawnmower74 · Apr 25, 2025

I have looked at most of the posts but cannot recall if anyone asked is there anything in this partition before you delete it

Strange partition on my C drive

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