Windows 10: WinRE/Recovery partition in W10 system created from MS-supplied media

I am rather confused by a 'heated discussion' I’ve been having in another forum , and wonder if anyone can help clarify matters for me.

Every Windows 10 system I’ve seen (albeit not a vast number) has (unless people have deleted it/them) had at least one ‘recovery’ partition. Whilst many of them will have OEM partition(s), even if they don’t, I’ve always seen at least one, often with a name relating to WinRE (or sometimes just ‘recovery’).

For example, the Lenovo E560 laptop on which I’m writing this has a partition called “WinRE_DRV” (and no other ‘recovery’ or OEM partitions) and examination of its contents (which requires a bit of use of diskpart) shows that it essentially just contains WinRE.

I’ve never undertaken a ‘clean install’ of Win10 myself, but everything I’ve read (e.g. in the tutorial in this forum) seems to indicate that if one installs Win10 from MS-supplied media (e.g. MCT-derived), this will result in creation (and population) of a recovery/WinRE partition.

However, I’m being told by someone who builds Win10 systems using MCT-derived MS media that he has never experienced such partitions being created. He denies ‘doing anything’ to stop the partition being created, and is suggesting that ‘this simply does not happen’ when one installs Win10 with MS-supplied media. - and is telling me that “I should not believe everything I read on the Internet” (which seems to include this forum#s tutorials!).

I am therefore confused. I can but assume that what this person is saying is correct in terms of his personal experience, but I don’t know how to reconcile those experiences with everything else I am reading. Can anyone clarify what the situation/truth actually is? Thanks.

Kind Regards, John

:)

 

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)

 

Windows 10: Can I safely remove WINRE or RECOVERY partitions?

I'm attempting to install Ubuntu Linux alongside Windows 10 in a dual-boot configuration. However, my hard drive comes with four Primary partitions already created, as seen here in gParted:





Thus, I must remove a partition to allow for an extended partition, in which I can place my logical partitions for Linux. I'll shrink the Windows partition to create space.

• I created a recovery USB drive using the HP Recovery Media Creation tool desktop app. Does this drive fully replace the functionality of either the WINRE or RECOVERY partitions? If so, can I safely remove either partition without messing up my Windows 10 installation in any way (including boot process), voiding any warranties, or preventing myself from restoring Windows 10 in the future?
  
• I know that holding Shift while clicking the Restart button will restart your computer into a special menu where you can change certain settings or boot from removable media (source, step 4 in the article). Is this special menu reliant on either the WINRE or RECOVERY partitions? Is the computer in fact booting into one of these partitions to display this menu?
  
• What exactly are the purposes of these two partitions?
  

NOTE: I've read other questions regarding hard drives with four primary partitions already created. They don't resolve my issue, as they don't address the WINRE and RECOVERY partitions on a Windows 10 system specifically.

 

Add WINRE to partition, Win10

Thank you for posting back.

Apologies for the confusion. I was actually referring the the reserved partition not recovery or WinRE partition. WinRE or Windows Recovery Environment is automatically installed on your system partition. This doesn't create a separate partition for just
WinRE.

You can check it yourself by going to Settings > Update & Security >
Recovery, then click on Restart now. Your computer should boot into Windows Recovery Environment. In most cases, you computer will automatically enter the Windows Recovery Environment if it fails to load the operating system.

Let us know if you have other concerns.