Troubleshoot Too Many Recovery Partitions

VirusAttak

Level 4
Thread author
Verified
Aug 31, 2014
182
Hello Mods and Tech Geeks ;)

I'm having too many recovery partitions it was not there before until i used a defrag Software from the maker of CClener ,now my question is can it be fixed some how ? and why I'm getting so many recovery partitions around 13 each takes 350MB ...there is also a recovery partition sized 20Gb i understand about it it has OS and other Drivers and softwares...

here is ScreenShot
Thank you ...
PS: I Apologize If Posted In wrong Section

Screenshot (1).png
 

VirusAttak

Level 4
Thread author
Verified
Aug 31, 2014
182
I would like to add something if you try to defrag thru any third party Software these Partitions Didn't show there it only present in Disk management and windows default defragmentation @jim lin
 
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jim lin

Level 8
Aug 6, 2012
505
yes but i use Piriform Defraggler portable and under settings/options if you put a checkmark in
show unmounted drives Defraggler will show them

but i'm not sure it's ok to try and defrag them since Windows can't

:)

James
 
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VirusAttak

Level 4
Thread author
Verified
Aug 31, 2014
182
@jim lin here comes the deal I deleted all those recovery Partition expect 22GB, and one 350MB and now I can't go to recovery during boot expect that pc is working fine

1:-Got some visual studio related errors I don't think it relate to recovery any way...

2:-Getting some run time errors during installation of malwarebyte

Everything else is ok!

Edit : now do anyone have any idea how can I make my recovery working aging I don't have a recovery disk
Also I'm trying to restore my system maybe it works finger crossed
 
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jim lin

Level 8
Aug 6, 2012
505
hello

dang i hope all went well with this :)

i can say that i worked on a friends HP Windows 8 Allinone pc a few months ago that
was updated to Windows 8.1 and i had to restore back to Windows 8 then update back
to Windows 8.1 and it did the samething with the added second 350mb partition

so something is wrong with this update and how meany other people it is doing the
samething to that have OEM computers

this update should not add that 350mb partition everytime one would have to use there
OEM restore partition to restore back to Windows 8 and then update back to Windows 8.1
again

:)

James
 
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VirusAttak

Level 4
Thread author
Verified
Aug 31, 2014
182
@jim lin

Here comes what's happened with me... I removed all recovery Partition and I lost my recovery stock recovery as well as built in recovery..
I restored my pc but it fails to do so
Then I removed OEM recovery 22GB as well because was frustrated Lol (don't try this at home, office or school) :p

Now the real deal...

Every time you reinstall or restore windows it will create a new Partition even if you already have a recovery Partition somehow it forget about it... And it applies only on Windows 8.1 windows 8 didn't create any recovery Partition when I clean installed... So I was living without any recovery.

I have windows 8.1 pro licence so I downloaded 8.1 and again clean installed windows now it creates a new recovery Partition 350MB

So The conclusion is...

You have to live with it.. If you don't want to live with it I would suggest you or anyone else facing same issue create a recovery disk then delete those Partition

Keep in mind as soon as you removed those Partitions you will lose you built in recovery

Hope it will help thank you for reading

For Me time to reinstall everything dmm I hate it... I have no choice :D

Edit : if you try to defarg them it will fail


VirusAttak.
 
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jim lin

Level 8
Aug 6, 2012
505
WOW thanks so very much for the info

it's what i was thinking would happen if thay where deleted :(

i'm glad you had a backup plan :)

now how meany other people are in the same boat?

and what happens if Microsoft gives us Windows 8/8.1 users Windows 9 lol

all the people with all them 350mb partitions that had to restore multiple times

crazy

:)

James
 
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VirusAttak

Level 4
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Verified
Aug 31, 2014
182
There are thousand of People facing same issue it will help them :)

if Microsoft gives us Window 9 it will create two more recovery partitions One Day we will out of Memory :D
 
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tonibalas

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Sep 26, 2014
2,973
virusattack if you want i can suggest something but i'm not sure it 'll work because i have windows 7 installed and i don't know anything about win8
 
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VirusAttak

Level 4
Thread author
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Aug 31, 2014
182
are you sure piriform's defraggler did that to your computer ?
actually no!! let me explain i hardly use windows built in defrag after using piriforms's defrag i opened windows built in defrag i noticed too many recovery partitions which i was not able to defrag so i thought this all happen because i used piriforms's defrag but the real answer was different i restore my laptop a lots of time every time i restored it window was creating a new recovery partition so issue coming straight from windows not from any other software :)
 
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jim lin

Level 8
Aug 6, 2012
505
hello

there is a bug in the way the upgrade from Windows 8 to 8.1 happens on some OEM computers and
has to do with that added 350mb partition

i'v also found that Acronis True Image 2014 see's trouble in the 350mb partition's and will not
make a full image backup i have to uncheck them to get a image

so i wonder what else is going on with them ?

:)

James
 
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jim lin

Level 8
Aug 6, 2012
505
this is a warning to anyone that has had this happen to them and plan to upgrade to Windows 10

i asked about this problem on July 8 2015 at the Microsoft Community

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-fdfd-4d6d-bd58-82b8168e84f1?tm=1436349885439

Too Many Recovery Partitions

ok i have a question

when i upgraded to Win 8.1 from Win 8 the upgrade added a new 350mb Recovery Partition to my hard drive

then i had trouble and had to restore my pc back to factory original (my pc is a HP pc) this took me back to Win 8 but did not remove the new 350mb Recovery Partition that i got with the first upgrade to Win 8.1

so now after the restore back to factory original i install Win 8.1 again and Win 8.1 add's a new 350mb Recovery Partition so now i have 2 350mb Recovery Partitions and 1 351.8mb Windows RE tools

Windows Defrag see these partitions as Local Disk (\\?\VOLUME and can not defragment them

now i found someone that had restored his computer the same way i did and had 13 350mb Recovery Partitions

Too Many Recovery Partitions
http://malwaretips.com/threads/too-many-recovery-partitions.32625/

now for my question

what happens to all the people like me that has had this happen to there computers and have a lot of added 350mb Recovery Partitions when thay upgrade to Windows 10

thanks

:)

James


reply from Jayant Gupta Microsoft Support Engineer



Hello James,

Thank you for visiting Microsoft Community and providing us with the detailed description about the issue.

As per the description, I understand that you are experiencing issue with you want to upgrade to Windows 10 and you see too many recovery partitions in the computer.

I certainly understand your concern and will try my best to help you.

I would like to provide you with the information that, if you have another HD then I would suggest you to re-install the OS and get ready to upgrade to Windows 10. Having too many reserved partitions might cause Windows 10 upgrade to fail.

Instead of trying to recover 8.1 from the factory reserved partition which might have been broken due to the extra partitions being created, I suggest to download the correct edition of Windows from the link below and start it fresh. Please refer to the article given below.

Create installation media for Windows 8.1

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/create-reset-refresh-media

A normal 8.1 OS installation will have 4 partitions: 300 MB reserved partition containing Winre.wim, 100MB Fat32 partition which contains the Boot Manager, 128MB unallocated MSR partition which you don't see via Disk Management and last is the C: drive.

After fresh OS installation, you might have to download any drivers/Tools needed by your Laptop from the Laptop manufacturer. Please refer to the link given below to download the drivers.

Download and install drivers

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows-8/all-drivers

I hope this information is helpful.

Please do let us know if you need any further assistance, we will be glad to assist you.

Thank you.


in reply from me

hello and thank you

i want to make sure you understand

first my pc is a HP p7 1439 it came with Windows 8 and the factory reserved partition is Windows 8

second the added 350mb Recovery Partition came when i upgraded to Windows 8.1

third i had to restore back to Windows 8 from the factory reserved partition still on the pc (the added 350mb partition is there still also)

forth now from a fresh factory restore back to Windows 8 from the factory reserved partition i upgrade again to Windows 8.1 it add's a second 350mb partition now i have 2 and as you can see others have restored back to Windows 8 from there factory reserved partition more than 2 times the link i gave shows that guy had 13

i'm not the only one who has done this and it looks like a bug in the upgrade to Windows 8.1 because you would think that buy restoring back to Windows 8 it would delete that 350mb partition or see that it is there and not add more

so now i'm not sure if the upgrade to Windows 10 is worth it if i'm going to have trouble installing Windows 10 with those 350mb Partitions on the hard drive

you guy's are in a world of poo lol when this go's live all those poor people that do not know about this

so the best thing i can do is wipe my hard drive and use a ISO to upgrade to Windows 10 ?

will you guys give me a ISO to download and KEY? from the KEY in my PC

i think i need more info on this i know how to wipe and reinstall a OS but i see trouble with drivers and such


please help

and help others that do not know if they upgrade to Windows 10 and have like 30 or 40 350mb partitions because they restored that much


:)

James
 
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Paul B.

Level 4
Verified
Dec 21, 2014
186
I haven't tried this, and I don't have a Win8 box in front of me, so proceed at your own risk. But my guess is the way to clean this up would be to go into BCDEdit in an elevated command window, and then find the GUID for the partition its recovery function points to. Then use DiskPart to find the recovery partition that has that ID. The others "should" be deletable without consequence (But from experience I would recommend a full disk image backup!).

Presumably the working partition will be the last one in the series, having been added last. If so, that would leave a bit of space before it. That's inconsequential, probably, but you could move the true recovery partition forward, and then use Windows repair to get the whole thing working again - I think...

MS doosn't want to mess with other partitions, but this is rather sloppy. Doesn't engender a whole lot of confidence.
 
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jim lin

Level 8
Aug 6, 2012
505
thank you

the thing is i'm not trying to fix it

i'm trying to tell others that has had this happen to them on OEM computers and has used there restore partition and get the added 350mb partitions

the Microsoft Support Engineer says that if i upgrade to Win 10 with the added 350mb partitions there could be trouble with the upgrade

now i know there are others out there with this problem just look how meany people have looked at this post

it looks like the only way to fix it is if Microsoft gives me a Win 10 ISO and a KEY to upgrade so i can wipe my hard drive and start new

:)

James
 
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