Windows 10: Can I delete any of these partition?

There seems to be far too many recovery partitions and then some. This PC came with windows 8.1 but I upgraded to windows 10 a few months ago.

I also wondering if the proper recovery would take me back to 8.1 again or would it do a fresh install of 10. I hope it is 10.

Thanks for your time.





:)

 

Can I delete these folders: ESD.old and $Windows-WS.old

ESD Folder saves downloaded Windows files before Feature upgrade starts. You can delete all of them. However, you might have to take ownership of that folder, for which steps are here:

https://www.askvg.com/guide-how-to-take-ownersh...

 

Can I delete these folders: ESD.old and $Windows-WS.old

Thank you, however ownership wasn't an issue to delete the files. I appreciate the quick response.

 

Your partition layout is a bit of a mess. It will not affect your running, but is sub optimal.

If you are happy to reinstall all programs, and backup valuable data, I would be inclined to do a clean install of windows 10 deleting all partitions.

Then it will be setup with the partitions as you should have them.

 

You can delete the 650MB recovery partition, and the OEM partition. on a GPT disk (UEFI boot mode enabled), it does create an EFI, MRS (won't show in Disk Management), Recovery, and C: drive. If you install Windows 10 on an MBR disk, it only needs System Reserved partition and C: drive. When you upgrade Windows 8.1 to 10, Windows 10 will create a recovery partition if your system reserved partition (MBR disk) or Recovery Partition doesn't have enough disk space. As you know, Windows can only shrink a partition from the right side, so the 450 MB recovery partition is new created, which should not be deleted if you want to use recovery options.From Microsoft Help with upgrading to Windows 10 - Windows Help
, under "Can i go back to my old operating system", "Note: If the manufacturer set up your PC to run from a compressed Windows image file (also known as Windows image file boot or WIMBoot) and included the option to restore factory settings, that option will no longer be available after you upgrade to Windows 10." Therefore, you can delete the OEM recovery partition. To see more details, you can read: The Recovery Partition After Upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7/8 Recovery Partition After Upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows 7/8

 

I used AOMEI Partition Assistant and was able to get rid of them. It also allowed me to merge c: with them all including the space before it. Took about 20minutes as it moved my entire C drive.

Those last 2 partitions there I am unable to remove so I assume they are important. Edit: Although I just noticed there is nothing in them...

I just don't know what I am going to do if I ever need to do a fresh install on Win10. If what I have been reading around is correct I might even have to use a pirated copy, which I don't really want to do.

 

DO NOT DO THIS.

You will break the system. Although EFI partitition is showing as free (same on my pc), it is not. You need this partition. The other is less important.

 

Yes, don't delete those partitions but move your C partition to the end with AOMEI partition assistant.
https://www.partition-assistant.com/...partition.html

 

I tried google. Looked at quite a few places but found it hard to find a definitive answer. But it seems the EFI partition is the boot partition?? So without it I would not be able to boot windows?

Is there any reason I should move it to the end?

 

Just leave it alone. Do not change anything now. The two partitions are tiny now.

 

That is true. The main reason I started this little endeavour was to free up some room. I got an extra 25.55GB so I am happy.

Thanks *Smile

But yeah, is the EFI the boot partition? Or does it have another function?

 

see

Understanding Disk Partitions

 

Thank you. That explained it all *Smile