Windows 10: I got two recovery-partitions

" The most simple and obvious thing thing would be to do nothing at all. It is a perfectly sensible response. These partitions are not taking much space and are not doing anything "..........I will go for safety first , so will leave it as it is now.
Remains one question ; when fresh installing with DVD/USB ,can we join everything together again ( so starting with one formatted SSD , WITHOUT any other partitions ( from previous installations!).
Do I have to do this first or does the Windows-DVD this for us , before the new installing .........?

 

Yes.

If you do a clean install (where you don't care about what is on the disk), when you get to the part of the installation that says "Where do you want to Install Windows?" delete all the partitions.

Windows will then create whatever it feels it needs although interestingly it the Microsoft Windows Installer doesn't create partitions in the same order that Microsoft suggests.

Microsoft suggests the recovery partition is at the end of the disk to allow for changes in size.

Windows installer is having none of that and is determined to live in the year 2000 and stick it at the front.

It doesn't matter really as partitions can be in any order but the contradiction is interesting (I think anyway). I guess the person who did the bit of code to do partitioning on a clean install has retired and no-one has bothered about it for a decade or so.

 

@pietcorus2,

What would you like to accomplish? Here is a summary:

1. You do not currently have any recovery partition active.

2. As @lx07 stated, every function of the recovery partition can be performed by booting from a Windows 10 installation USB flash drive or DVD anyway, you can operate without any recovery partitions at all.

3. It is very simple to delete the two recovery partitions you have and add the space to your existing Windows.

4. It is almost as simple to delete the extra recovery partition and activate the remaining recovery partition and you would have the standard Windows 10 installation format. The space from the extra recovery partition that was deleted can be added to the Windows partition.

5. You can create a custom recovery, as @lx07 mentioned, but, to be honest, there is not much to be gained from that because whatever event would require you to use the tools from that custom recovery partition would likely also wipe it out since it will be on the same drive as your Windows. If you have a second hard drive or SSD installed, that is where you would really want to run a custom recovery partition from.

6. Regarding the clean install - boot from the Windows 10 DVD or USB flash drive. Select the custom install option when you get that choice. A list of existing partitions on the hard drive or SSD will be shown. Delete every partition listed. Highlight the uncallocated space that is created. Click Next. Windows will set up the SSD or hard drive in the standard format, including 1 recovery partition, for you during the setup.

So what do you want to do?

 

" delete all the partitions ".............we can make this choise with the installation-DVD, sure ??
So, all is gone ,and we get 3 partitions again,afterwards.
1. MBR-partition 100MB
2. OS Win10
3. Recovery-partition ,about 450MB
Right..........?

 

Yes. But it is very simple to obtain the same result without wiping out your current Windows installation if you don't want to start over.

If you want to get to the standard disk layout without the extra Recovery partition, open a Command Prompt (Admin) and run:

diskpart
select disk 0
select part 3
delete partition
select part 2
extend
exit
exit

Then there would be one more command to run that would set and activate the remaining recovery partition.

 

" So what do you want to do? "............will keep my existing Windows10 ,(1607.14393.1066), NOT upgrading yet, coz I dont think its better then what we have , and wait some time untill bugs,etc. are wiped out and then have to try again..........
Then,maybe,will make a clean install , its better then upgrade.
Clean install costs me really loooots of time ,have to reinstall very much software,office,etc.etc.
not talking about the tweaks and settings you have to make also.
Anyway, you guys made me a lot wiser and Im very thankfull ( appreciate) to all of you..............

 

" Then there would be one more command to run that would set and activate the remaining recovery partition. "....what command is this ? And is it really safe, I mean can we do this without getting blue-screens etc..??

Do we have to insert this commands one by one , and do we have to take any precautions first......??

Im asking this ,coz had some serious problems ,blue-start screens ( when cold start not the restarts !),with messages like; ACPI.sys ,NETIO.sys ,IRQL and NONPAGEDAIREA .( and; "something wrong,system must restart")
A few seconds later it made good restart, but its very annoying of course.
These things started after I joined on of the Recovery-partitions with the OS-partition. I did this with a partition-boot CD.

 

You don't really have to take any precautions first - this would be one of the safest operations to do, as long as you don't delete partition 2. It is always a good idea to have a backup image of your system created because you never know when something could happen to it, whether or not you are actually messing with the partitions.

You would run the diskpart commands one by one, pressing enter key after each one. The command to run in a command prompt (admin) after all the diskpart commands would be:

reagentc /setreimage /path \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition3\Recovery\WindowsRE
reagentc /enable

 

Its no trouble with mixing these two partitions ?
I thought they have different formats ., NTFS and UEFI .......
Will try, first new backup of the OS-partition, restart and will give it a try !
Let you know if all goes well, or else ......Im dead ( dead OS , format etc.),will take some more time......

 

You won't be mixing two partitions. You will be deleting a partition and then filling up the empty space.

 

Just made some backups and did as you told in CMD, when I pressed enter after the extend-cmd , I got ; Virtual Disk Service error ; " the extension is smaller then the minimal size "
Further no way, so I had to quit and did not make the reagentc , coz it did not do anything at all.............!
What more can we do, maybe before restart , so not in Windows................?

 

What does:

diskpart
select disk 0
list part

look like now?

 

Well, it looks like before , so if nothing has happend.............

 

Well that is why the extend command failed, are you sure you ran the command to delete the extra recovery partition?

diskpart
select disk 0
select part 3
delete partition

What happens at that point?

 

Its "can not delete a protected partition if the parameter fo forced protecion not is set "..........it does not do anything,it seems to be blocked by security somehow.
Sorry, Dutch machine ,and worse, my English is not as it should be............