Windows 10: Is my Recovery partition Win 8 or Win 10?

I am doing some OS maintenance on friends Surface Pro 2 currently running Win 10 Pro x64.
One of the things I want to do is implement a backup process using Macrium Reflect.

The HDD has a Recovery partition on it of around 6GB (full) but I don't know whether it's current i.e Win 10 or whether it is a hang over from the original Win 8.x install it came with before being upgraded - in which case I will delete it from the system.

Is there a sure way I can identify what version OS that Recovery partition relates to? I'd love to get that disk space back.

thanks.

:)

 

could delete the recovery partition

My HP PC came with Windows 8 or 8.1 and I have since upgraded to Windows 10. I just created a recovery drive using the Control Panel\Recovery\create a recovery drive.

When the recovery completed it said that I could delete the recovery partition (which I did not do). If I were to use the recovery partition on the hard drive (SS drive) would I have a Win 10 reinstall or a Win 8? Also, if I were to use the USB drive that
I created for a recovery drive would it be a Win 10 or Win 8 reinstall?

OT:

Win 10 Recovery

 

Several tiny recover partition, what are they?

You are welcome. This thread is a learning process for me too. I haven't hit the BING road yet on you (don't tell Bulldog), but...

Partition 1: EFI. Important to boot Windows.

Partition 2: Possibly Win 8 Recovery Tools partition. Inactive now.

Did you upgrade to Win 8.1? Then, that's likely a Win 8 leftover.

But you are right to want to continue your research.

Partition 3: MS Reserved. Important to Windows. A bit less mysterious now, thanks.

Partition 4: C: drive.

Partition 5: Win 10 Recovery Tools partition. Important. Active. Reagentc points to it.

One should also put a copy on USB, at...

"Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Recovery\Create a Recovery drive"

Partition 6: Win 8.1 Recovery Tools partition. Inactive now.

Partition 7: A data partition. Did you make this one for yourself?

Partition 8: ASUS System Image & Recovery Tools. Reagentc acknowledges it.

This one has that de94bba4-06d1, etc., Type ID too.

I'm not sure I buy that about Win 8.1's recovery space being too small for Win 10. My Win 8.1 recovery is 750 MB & my Win 10 recovery is 471 MB. I think MS just wanted to keep it, possibly for revert purposes.

My Win 8.1 Recovery Tools & the Dell Image are strong candidates for deletion. But first I'll want an app better than Disk Management to reclaim the space. Also, of course, research is warranted on the bootstrap, not to mention the order & size requirements
of the remaining partitions. And I'll want to know whether Reagentc ought be run afterward to tell Windows what I've done.

I'm trying to discover why your Reagentc gives you a Recovery Image Index of two - and I've got only one!

 

Open command prompt (admin) and run:

reagentc /info

What are the results?

 

Whatever the system came with originally is what the image in that recovery partition is.

Depending on your situation, you may still be able to use it to return to that install.

 

Here's the reagentc /info output:


Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393]
(c) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition5\Recovery\WindowsRE
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: f2443e0f-c55b-11e3-9a39-3059b7009528
Recovery image location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition6\RecoveryImage
Recovery image index: 1
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

 

Now you can go back to Command Prompt (Admin) and run:

diskpart
select disk 0
list part

Partition 5 will be the Windows 10 recovery partition. It is probably 450mb in size.
Partition 6 will be the factory recovery partition which should be Windows 8 recovery.

If you are looking at Winodws 10 disk management (graphical screen), there is a hidden partition that you will see in the diskpart list. So, my guess is you are only going to see 5 partitions in Windows 10 disk management. Add one to the partition numbers starting with the OS partition. So partition 5 in disk management will be partition 6 in the diskpart list.

In order to add that space to the OS partition, you are going to have to use a program such as MiniTool Partition Wizard to delete partition 6, then you will have to move the Windows 10 recovery partition to the end of the disk and any other partition behind the OS partition, then you can extend the OS partition to fill the free space.

Here you can see the hidden partition I am talking about. It is the 16mb Partition 3 in my diskpart list:

Code: C:\Windows\system32>diskpart Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.14393.0 Copyright (C) 1999-2013 Microsoft Corporation. On computer: MAIN-DESKTOP DISKPART> select disk 0 Disk 0 is now the selected disk. DISKPART> list part Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- ------- Partition 1 Recovery 450 MB 1024 KB Partition 2 System 100 MB 451 MB Partition 3 Reserved 16 MB 551 MB Partition 4 Primary 111 GB 567 MB[/quote]

 

Thank you Saltgrass - on that basis, I will proceed knowing it is Recovery partition for Windows 8 Pro (which the device originally came with).

Thank you NavyLCDR - for the instructions on removing that Partition and reallocating the space to the OS partition (C). I will check out that MiniTool Partition Wizard - sort of thing I like to have in my toolkit.

.