Windows 10: My hard drive

No problem, guess I can't see the breakdown in understanding.

450 MB in size means 450 x 1024 x 1024 = 471,859,200 Bytes (MB stands for Megabytes)
481 MB in size means 481 x 1024 x 1024 = 504,365,056 Bytes
464.75 GB in size means 464.75 x 1024 x 1024 x 1024 = 499,021,512,704 Bytes (GB stands for Gigabytes)

Now I see Navy LCDR beat me to it - yes, the total bytes, after adding in the 100 MB is 500,102,594,560 which a manufacturer will sell as 500 gigabytes because they count a gigabyte as 1,000,000,000 bytes - which is of course in their favor from a common perception standpoint.

 

Wordman I agree with you - its not worth the hassle recovering that space (of the original OSes recovery partition), and I just realised that when I made that sum I mixed up gb and mb, but I'm sure you realised that.

 

Well I did, that's why I bolded and underlined GB. Glad you're sorted now.*Smile

 

Now wait a minute. This isn't making sense... How can a full recovery partition only be 481mb in size when Windows 7, 8 or 10 is over 3 gigabytes before it is installed?

 

I don't understand it either. Don't confuse me anymore please. Ive always installed the tp builds via windows update and then let the install process happen by itself. Perhaps its compressed or something.

 

I wouldn't call them "full" recovery partitions by any means. A "standard" recovery partition (calling it that only for sake of discussion), not to be confused with a factory restore partition (like the 7-8 GB one that came on my Dell laptop), only contains the Windows Recovery Environment and can act as an agent for directing a full recovery, i.e., pointing to a system restore image (say an OEM image on another partition that may be 5-20 GB depending on manufacturer and their implementation) or other source if customized to do so.

The largest file on my 450 MB recovery partition, among the 301 MB of files contained therein, is Winre.wim, at 288.8 MB.

I got the above info specific to my recovery partition by mounting my most recent Macrium Reflect disk image and browsing the image of that partition.

Here's what the reagent.xml file looks like on my recovery partition:
Code: <?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?> <WindowsRE version="2.0"> <WinreBCD id="{d63b55f0-4461-11e5-ab29-87830c762365}"/> <WinreLocation path="\Recovery\WindowsRE" id="0" offset="1048576" guid="{abbb3802-a421-46ca-a68f-bf9d3d95b5ee}"/> <ImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}"/> <PBRImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" index="0"/> <PBRCustomImageLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}" index="0"/> <InstallState state="1"/> <OsInstallAvailable state="0"/> <CustomImageAvailable state="0"/> <IsAutoRepairOn state="1"/> <WinREStaged state="0"/> <OperationParam path=""/> <OsBuildVersion path="10240.16384.amd64fre.th1.150709-1700"/> <OemTool state="0"/> <IsServer state="0"/> <DownlevelWinreLocation path="" id="0" offset="0" guid="{00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000}"/> <IsWimBoot state="0"/> <ScheduledOperation state="5"/> </WindowsRE>[/quote] You may be able to infer from
<OsInstallAvailable state="0"/>
<CustomImageAvailable state="0"/>
and
<OemTool state="0"/>

that I blew away my Dell factory restore partition and any hooks to it during my Win 10 clean install and that there has been no custom image or other means of reinstalling the OS in my Windows RE implemented (so far).

But, that's OK, the Macrium Reflect bootable PE media I have provide all the recovery capability I need.

 

Thank you for that info, it makes sense now. When I buy a new computer, I play with factory software for a couple of days to make sure there isn't something that I can't live without. Then I make a restore USB stick or DVD if the factory software allows it (which usually gets lost within a few months). Then I nuke the hard drive and start over with a clean install of vanilla Windows. I think only 1 of my computers (my daughter's) even has a recovery partition left on it because I have the Windows installation media and I keep Macrium Reflect images stored on a NAS.

 

Yep, same here. I have my half dozen or so cheap but reliable 8GB and 16GB USB flash drives in the little empty box I unpacked a USB3 enclosure from (for the factory HDD from my 3 month old laptop, after putting in the SSD). Vowing not to lose any of them!