Windows 10: Small Wrinkle in Anniversary Update....MBR Disk

The 450mb at the end of the SSD is the new recovery Partition , I can tell by the Date Stamp , 2hrs ago, the one on the front of the SSD is dated in July 2015 when you made the MR Template is my guess.

 

That's normal. When you do an upgrade, Windows will create an extra 450MB to store the new WinRE.wim there. You are OK.

Depend on the UEFI firmware that came with the MB. You could also put them on the same disk without setting the partition "Active" but you have to select UEFI boot mode from the boot menu.
The screen shot below shows
1- My Linux Mint OS
2-My own built Recovery disk similar to KYHI's
3-Macrium Rescue

 

Yep not sure why it doesn't overwrite the old one but I guess it want's it in case the Update goes sideways and it needs to recover to a pre-update state

I'll most likely move it with reagentc later, once I know all is well and get my 450mb back.

I didn't realise W10 Disk Management can't even see the 16mb partition , I guess they really don't want you in there *Smile

I see it in Minitool Partition Wizard though.

Thanks again.

 

GPT boot and UEFI etc is all new to me with this New Build , the MB is fully UEFI capable unlike my old Computer, so I was not even aware of the MSR Partition ......

looks like the Update has overwritten Brink's .reg files I use too.... eg Numlock at Boot On.

 

As I mentioned above , I have moved the WinRE Environment Back to the Front of my SSD into the 450 mb partition that was already there before the Win10-1607 Update. this Is how I did it incase someone else needs to do it too.


Moving WinRE to The New Separate Partition


1.) Give the Recovery Partition a Drive Letter in Disk Management ...

I use B: (A: & B: were once reserved for Floppy Drives)

if you don't use B:\ you will need to change the following comamnds to YOUR choice of Drive Letter

***Update...this may not be possible in Disk Management if the Partition is already seen as a True Recovery Partition ie Type 0x27 on MBR disks.

2.) Copy the Recovery folder from whever Windows installed it to B:\ Drive (assuming B: was used in No#1)

DO NOT disable WinRE 1st ( see no#4) or you will have nothing to copy !


3.) Open a Command Prompt with Admin Rights ( RC the Start Button>Command Prompt (Admin) )


4.) Disable Win RE if active with the command reagentc /disable ( Completed sucessfully should be the answer)


5.) Inform Win10 where the new Recovery Partition you copied to B:\ is with this command :


reagentc /setreimage /path B:\Recovery\WindowsRE ( Completed sucessfully should be the answer)


6.) now re-enable the Recovery Drive with this command:

reagentc /enable ( Completed sucessfully should be the answer)


7.) Check Recovery Environment is ok with this command


reagentc /info


and you should see something similar too below in response:


Windows RE status: Enabled
Windows RE location: \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition1\Recovery\WindowsRE
Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: efd8c481-36c0-11e6-962e-1c6f6537fa59
Recovery image location:
Recovery image index: 0
Custom image location:
Custom image index: 0
REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.


8.) Remove the drive letter B: in Disk Management again ( if desired )


9.) Remove the old Win RE Folder from whereever windows installed it ie C:\Recovery or C:\Windows\System32\Recovery ?


10.) Or as in my Case, it was in the 450 mb new partition Win10 created at the end of the Disk 0 (my SSD) , (even though there was one already at the front of the Disk) so I just used Minitool Partition Wizard to delete the whole New Partition instead and then resized C:\ Drive back to maximum size into the unallocated space.


Additional Info:
The recovery partition is a hidden partition of 450MB.
( turn on show hidden files and system files in File Explorer>Options )

On BIOS systems with an MBR formatted drive, the recovery partition has the type 0x27.

On UEFI systems with an GPT formatted drive the recovery partition has the
GUID {DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC}.

Good Luck ,

KB.

 

Very good @Kbird. However, you could have done it with ease using Macrium while Windows is running.

• From Restore tab. Select your Backup image as Source, select your current C drive as Destination (should already be selected).
• On Destination, click on the first Recovery Partition (Partition 1) then click delete existing partition, do the same for last Recovery partition. Drag the last partition (New Recovery) from Source and drop onto the first empty space of Destination, click Next->Finish
• Extend C. Use ReAgentc to point to the first partition.
  Note: No need to assign any letter. Use:
  reagentc /setreimage /path \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition1\Recovery\WindowsRE
  instead of
  reagentc /setreimage /path B:\Recovery\WindowsRE

 

Sweet ! Thanks I will add that trick to my notes for next time *Smile

 

Hi
Sorry to hijack this thread, I have W10 installed on a SSD.
Looking at disk management, I do not have the second 450mb recovery partition after the C drive, I only have one 450mb partition which is the first position partition.
Is this normal?
Do I have to have the second one?

Thank you

 

sounds like you are Ok , one is normal for a Clean install for example, but Win10 uses a new one when it does major updates like Anniversary or Creators Update , I had the 2nd Recovery partition after Creators Update too but have since done a reinstall on this computer and it now only has one.

KB

 

Thank you very much.
This is what it looks like ( photos attached ).
It was a fresh install long time ago, since then it was updated, it's now on version 1703

 

I am unsure why Win10 sometimes makes the extra partition or not but it maybe related to using GPT Disks or MBR diskes and what Win10 was originally installed on etc.

Attached is a small shortcut to DiskManagement someone posted here on 10 Forums that shows a bit more info in a better layout than the STD Win10 look, you can use it as a shortcut on the desktop for example...

I usually use the Free MiniTool Partition Wizard now, to look at Disk structures , its easier to read and shows info that Disk Management doesn't like the MSR Partition.... I have stuck with version 9.1 as it seems to have less issues than the Version 10 I tried.

 

Thank you
Yes, i also use partition minitool, i find it very good, i do see the 16mb hidden partition on there.
OK so i guess i don-t have to worry about anything

Cheers