Windows 10: Broken partition table but somehow it's still working

Thanks - you've been great so don't be embarrassed *Redface

Now that you have the Speccy report + the output you already provided - you know as much as I know!

I'll read the stuff you're posting now and see if I think it's worth your time pursuing it further.

Bill
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Thanks for updating your Specs ... now I also know the Asus model.

Reagentc /info points to Disk 0 Part 5, so there's nothing Win10 recovery knows about on Disk 1.

The EFI Part is also on Disk 0, my initial thought is Disk 1 is just a paper weight
- but don't change anything

I am a curious monkey, if I come up with a safe step-by-step procedure, I'll post it on your thread.
At this point, I appreciate your willingness to continue and I might take you up on that sometime

I'll think hard about this because your machine is running w//o issue (relatively speaking).

For now, let it run as it is.

Bill
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It's actually fairly cool from a techie point of view.

Windows is somewhat self-healing and that helps non-techies when common issues arise. But .... Windows cannot know about every PC mfgr recovery mechanisms, so it falls short when machines are upgraded (Win8 or Win7 to Win10 for instance). Add "What should a Windows upgrade do with OEM partitions" to the equation and you get 40 answers. I guess the best thing Windows can be expected to do is to leave the OEM partitions alone. And that's the state your machine is in now (as best I can tell) - Win10 running with Win8 recovery on the SSD, but Win10 doesn't know about it. There might be an Asus hotkey (don't do/try it) recovery that will launch what's on the SSD - don't know until I read more on your machine.

I don't even know how to use any of these recoveries, what is the point of having it?
Sure, a shop can use the Recovery options, but that costs for repairs end users can do themselves ... if they know how.

Aha! That's where the tutorials come into play.
You can learn a lot from them - when you need to fix something or learn how to do something.
That's the first place members should look - Search for the subject of interest or browse the sections

 

Normally, OEM partition is specific to the manufacturer recovery option back to the day you bought the PC. and usually associate with a function key at boot time. For ASUS, I think it's F9 to activate the recovery.
@OP,
In your case if you use this, it would restore back to Windows 8.1

 

Thanks topgun,

Right ... that woke up some dying brain cells.
The OEM Recovery partition is the mfgr's way of providing Installation media in case your machine crashes. I don't think any send out discs any more.

The user is expected to create their own Installation discs, in case of catastrophic disk errors.
The Install media on the Recovery Part can be booted and Windows re-installed from there.

But, as you stated ... the Windows you would re-install would be the version that came with the machine.
Which is not what anyone would necessarily want to do. Maybe, but most would want to recover the version the machine is currently running.

Since reagent points to Disk 0 Part 5, Win10 knows where to launch winRE

Bill
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True unless in the future you need to bring it back to the original state to sell/give to someone.

 

Excellent point *Cool