Windows 10: Microsoft appears to have fixed the Recovery Partition hell in Windows 10

Windows 10 users who perform a fresh install of the operating system won't run into issues related to the creation of Recovery Partitions on the operating system anymore starting Windows 10 version 2004 according to reports.

The Recovery Partition is an essential part of the Windows installation; it may be used to restore the operating system if issues are encountered.

One of the main issues associated with the Recovery Partition on Windows was that it was often placed at the very beginning of the disk. The layout would start with the Recovery Partition and then the main partition with Windows itself. The problem with that layout is that Windows cannot extend the Recovery Partition easily, e.g. when it lacks the space for the required data. Windows would then create another Recovery Partition on the disk; systems would end up with multiple Recovery Partitions and seemingly little options to detect or delete old ones.

Tip: read about the differences between GPT and MBR style partitions.

Diskpart and third-party partition tools can remove old recovery partitions from the operating system, and some tools may also help in adding the freed up space to an existing volume. Most computer users may not feel comfortable running these applications, especially considering that the amount of disk space that is gained is minimal.

The correct layout puts the Recovery Partition behind the operating system partition on the disk. Some manufacturers and Microsoft itself may do so already for devices that they sell. The following Disk Management screenshot is from a Surface Go device that I bought some time ago.



Microsoft itself recommends that manufacturers place the Recovery Partition right after the Windows partition on the drive on Windows.

We recommend that you place this partition immediately after the Windows partition. This allows Windows to modify and recreate the partition later if future updates require a larger recovery image.
​

Starting with Windows 10 version 2004, Windows will use the correct partition structure for new installations. The company has not officially confirmed the change, but Windows Latest reports that a Microsoft support member confirmed it to them when asked about it.

How to detect and delete old Windows Recovery Partitions


You can use Disk Management to display the list of partitions on the system. One option to open the interface is to use Windows-X to open the admin menu and select Disk Management from the menu that opens.

If you notice multiple recovery partitions, you may want to delete old ones. But how do you determine which partitions are old and which is the current one?

1. Open an elevated command prompt, e.g. by opening Start, typing cmd.exe, holding down Shift and Ctrl, and selecting the Command Prompt result.
2. Run the command reagentc /info, it displays which Recovery Partition, if any, is active.
3. Open Start again, type PowerShell, hold down Shift and Ctrl, and select the result to open an elevated PowerShell window.
4. Type get-partition, it displays information about the partitions including the partition number.

All that is left to do is compare the number of the active partition that you got under (2) with the partition numbers under (4).





You can run diskpart from an elevated command prompt to remove any recovery partition volume that is no longer in use. Here is how that is done:

Attention: we recommend that you create a full system backup of the disk before you run any commands that manipulate partitions; this way, you are able to restore the system should things go wrong-

• Open an elevated command prompt as described under 1) above.
• Type diskpart to launch the environment.
• Type select disk 0 to select the first disk. Note: Disk 0 is usually the correct disk but if you have multiple, you need to make sure you select the disk with the Windows volume on it.
• Type list volume to display all available volumes.
• Type select volume x (with x being an inactive Recovery Partition).
• Type delete volume x to remove the partition.
• Repeat the process for any other inactive Recovery Partition.

Now You: how many Recovery Partitions does your system have?

Thank you for being a Ghacks reader. The post Microsoft appears to have fixed the Recovery Partition hell in Windows 10 appeared first on gHacks Technology News.

read more...

 

Download Windows 10 TH/RS

For the convenience of not having to use the installation media for startup repairs. But you should be able to use your installation media to do whatever the recovery partition does(including startup repairs). AFAIK. I could be wrong about that though.

I'm not sure if I follow you there. But if you clean install Windows 10 there will be at least 3 partitions.

• (EFI System Partition)
• (Primary Partition)
• (Recovery/OEM Partition)

If you install from an OEM installation media there might(should?) be 4 partitions. Since there might(should?) be a Recovery partition and an OEM partition.




Back on topic...

Download May 8 CU KB4103721 x64 (326.5MB)

Brings system to 17134.48

List of improvements and fixes found here.

 

Lost recovery partition

Hello, I see that you are having issues with recovery partition. I would suggest you using the diskpart command in the command prompt. First, open up the comand prompt as an administrator, then type in diskpart. Now, type in list disk, and look for the
recovery partition drive. Follow the steps in the link below:

https://www.windowscentral.com/how-clean-and-fo...

Hope this helps, and let me know if you have further questions!

 

How To: Create recovery partition.

it worked when i copied all the files of the disk to the recovery partition i created, but i had to use WinPE tab to add the entry.

Type: WIM Image (Ramdisk)
Name: Recovery
Path: Z:\Sources\boot.wim
and hit Add Entry
I tried it in VirtualBox and it worked.
At first, it would add a second "Windows 7" entry to the list, but when the installation is finished, the old one is deleted. (I formatted only C: partition)