Windows 10: Deleted Recovery Partition

I have an HP laptop that shipped with Windows 8.1. I upgraded to Windows 10 weeks ago and tonight I accidentally reformatted my D: drive recovery partition.

I have recovery media on a USB pen drive that I made back when I first set up my computer.

Has Windows 10 changed the D: recovery partition during the upgrade or will it be the exact same image the computer shipped with?

Also, any idea how I can get the recovery files back on the D: partition?

:)

 

Can I delete Recovery, EFI and OEM Partitions?

Hi,

Thank you for posting on Microsoft Communities.

Recovery partition consists of some important boot files and other tools. Recovery partition is created by the System Manufacturer, in case you may want to revert back to the factory settings and for troubleshooting purposes.
It is not recommended to delete the recovery partition. If you wish to delete this partition, then you will have to get in touch with the system manufacturer.

I suggest you not to remove the recovery partitions. If the partitions are deleted you will not be able to use the recovery options.

Hope this information is helpful.

Thank you.

 

Is it wrong or will cause any issues if i delete recovery partitions ?

Hi Salma,

Let me help you in answering the question.

I suggest you not to remove/delete the recovery partitions. The system recovery options are used to troubleshoot in case you have any issues with the computer. If the partitions are deleted you will not be able to use the recovery options.

When installing a Windows operating system (OS) on a hard drive, and if you use Windows Setup to create new partition on an MBR disk, Windows will create a system reserved partition, and if it is a GPT disk, then Windows will create a recovery partition
and a EFI system partition without drive letter. The recovery partition on Windows 10 consumes about 450MB. This recovery partition is to hold the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE), If you delete this partition, you won’t be able to use Windows Recovery
options.

Keep us posted on Windows related queries and we will be happy to assist you further.

 

Here's how to make a recovery flash drive :
Recovery Drive - Create in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

I know it doesn't answer your question but it is an alternative. If you need to recover from a failed hard drive, the recovery partition on that failed hard drive isn't much good. Just something to consider.

I think this still works for Windows 10:
Recovery Partition - Create - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

So I understand:

1) You have a USB with the HP Recovery Media on it.
2) You made this using the HP software when you first set up the machine.
3) The HP Recovery media is Windows 8.1, the same version installed on the machine by the OEM.

good so far?

4) You upgraded the machine to Windows 10
5) You recently removed the HP Recovery partition (normally D: Recovery)

still good?

6) These questions are difficult to answer:

Q: Has Windows 10 changed the D: recovery partition during the upgrade
A: The upgrade would not change the HP D: \Recovery ... a clean install might, depending on how you Clean installed.

or will it be the exact same image the computer shipped with?
-> The upgrade might have created a new recovery partition or expanded the System Reserve partition. I'm not exactly sure what you're trying to determine.

Q: Also, any idea how I can get the recovery files back on the D: partition?
A: Yes, but you don't need the partition since you have the USB Recovery media. I'm not sure if the HP F11 key would still work or not after the upgrade. That's the real power of the partition, being able to boot to it. You can do that with the USB.

I have a few HPs and I always create the HP Recovery media, then remove the D: Recovery drive to reclaim the space (and free up one MBR partition). My HP machines shipped with four partitions allocated (System Reserve, Windows, Recovery, HP_TOOLS) - this makes it difficult to manage an MBR initialized drive.

As long as the HP Windows 8.1 Recovery USB is good, you don't need D:\Recovery.

If you really want to get it back, I'd like to see your Disk Management

If you've already downloaded the custom MMC, go to Step 2 to launch it and then grab the screen shot.

Step 1: Download this zip file (contains dmDskmgr-vd.mmc)

dmDskmgr-vd.zip
Step 2: Double click dmDskmgr-vd.zip to open the compressed folder
Double click dmDskmgr-vd.mmc to launch the custom Disk Management console
You'll get an output similar to this:




Press Alt+PrtScn to grab a snapshot of just the Disk Management window
Open Paint and Ctrl+V to paste it, then save the image
Attach the image to a new post.
Option 2: Use Disk Management in the x-Menu (right click the Windows logo, select Disk Management)
Select View > Bottom > Disk list
Maximize the window and grab the screen shot.

 

I thin you can try some partition recovery tools, like Easeus data recovery wizard or Unformat. But they can only recover the files on D drive, while the partition/drive letter cannot be recovered. But you can create a new one after recover the data.

 

Yeah that's a possibility.

I thought about suggesting Partition Wizard, Partition Recovery (which works well), but decided to wait until I knew more about why to see if stevog6 really needs to do anything.

I try not to make more work for anyone *Wink

 

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If you plan on keeping Windows 10, why are you concerned about a recovery drive that would be for the original operating system?
You already have discs to use if you need to go back to factory condition, so no need for the recovery partition.

 

I'm not telling you what to do, but I never keep the recovery partitions. Once I make the recovery media and put that in a safe place, I format the drive completely and do a clean install of the OS. I can reclaim that as usable space. Besides, if the hard drive dies, that recovery partition is going to be useless. As long as you have recovery media created and safe, you'll never need that partition.

 

Thanks for the updates. If you're concerned about losing the flash drive - make a clone of it (or a few clones).

You might also consider downloading the Win8.1 ISO that matches the edition originally installed on your machine. This allows you to do a clean install without all of the OEM 'bloat'. If you really need (or want) the OEM bloat, you can always download it from theOEM support page for your machine (put it on a Flash drive as well).

Win8.x Media Creation Tool: Create installation media for Windows 8.1 - Windows Help


You might as well grab the Win10 ISO while you're at it.
Win10 Media Creation Tool: Windows 10

As DeaconFrost said: I'm not telling you what to do
These are best practices recommendations.

I'll have to think about the OEM Recovery part, but for now just copy the contents of the OEM Recovery Flash drive back to the D: part you created. There are for some reason two Recovery parts shown (one with drive letter D: and one without- I've seen this once before but I don't recall a resolution ... or if it's just an artifact of how you created the parts.

I'm not sure if the OEM boot to recovery Fkey will work, probably not, but at least the OEM recovery data is on the drive as you want.

The recommendation is still : forget about the OEM recovery part and create a number of install media flash drives (Win8.1, Win10, OEM Recovery copy2).