450 MB Recovery Partition on primary drive

[+Thom Vee Subscriber²]

I just discovered that there is a 450 MB recovery partition on my primary drive, this is in addition to the 100 MB System Reserved partition. What is the purpose of this, and is it supposed to be there? I did a google search, and apparently this was removed in one of the earlier builds.

[xendrome]

This has been around since Windows 8.x I believe, it's the Mini WinPE that runs when you restart into advances boot options and recovery image.

[Gotenks98]

You definitely want to keep that in case something goes wrong and you need to do a reset of the PC or get to the command prompt in the even the system wont boot.

[LaP]

This has been around since Windows 8.x I believe, it's the Mini WinPE that runs when you restart into advances boot options and recovery image.

Not for clean install using mbr or an update of a clean install. As far as i know that's the first version of windows to create a recovery partition after you update a previous version installed using mbr and not having a recovery partition. Anyway my windows 8.1 update did not create a recovery partition.

[LaP]

Windows XP

• Setup creates only a single Windows partition.
• The Windows Recovery Console is not part of the default installation, but can be easily added to the Windows partition where it gets installed in a directory and takes roughly 7MB of space.
• Only 512-byte native (512n) drives supported. Advanced Format (AF) 512-byte emulation (512e) and 4K native (4Kn) drives not supported officially and not recommended.
• No GPT support for booting. XP 64-bit can use GPT drives for data only.

Windows Vista

• Setup creates only a single Windows partition in both BIOS/MBR and UEFI/GPT (for 64-bit only) modes.
• The WinPE-based WinRE made its debut on the Vista DVD but there is no easy way to install it on the hard drive since no installation routine is provided for it. Instead tools and scripts provided as part of WAIK need to be used to do this manually.
• WinRE must be installed on a separate partition from the Vista System partition. Can be combine with BitLocker Drive Encryption (BDE) partition if required.
• Recommended WinRE partition size is around 1GB when it is installed as an expanded image.
• AF 512e drives supported with some updates/hotfixes but AF 4Kn not supported.

Windows 7

• Setup in BIOS/MBR mode creates a 100MB System Reserved partition and a Windows partition.
• In early pre-RTM builds (until at least 7057) the System Reserved partition was 200MB in size.
• The System Reserved partition contains Boot Manager (bootmgr), Boot Configuration Data (BCD) and startup files used for BDE. Can also contain WinRE.
• The System Reserved partition minimum size is 100MB, but it can be larger. It is marked active and must not be encrypted. In BIOS/MBR mode it can be formatted as either FAT32 or NTFS (Setup uses NTFS).
• If WinRE is not installed in the System Reserved partition (for example if the partition is never created because Windows is installed on a pre-partitioned drive), it is installed in %SystemDrive%\Recovery instead.

• AF 512e drives supported with some updates/hotfixes but AF 4Kn not supported.

• Setup in UEFI/GPT mode (for 64-bit only) creates a minimum 100MB EFI System Partition (ESP), a 128MB Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR) and a Windows partition.

• The ESP contains the NTLDR, HAL, Boot.txt, and other files that are needed to boot the system, such as drivers. The MSR is used by the OS for disk management.
• The ESP must be formatted as FAT32.
• Same rules apply for WinRE in UEFI/GPT mode as in BIOS/MBR mode.

Windows 8

• Setup in BIOS/MBR mode creates a minimum 350MB System Reserved partition and a Windows partition.
• The System Reserved partition contains WinRE and BDE-related files. In BIOS/MBR mode it can be formatted as either FAT32 or NTFS (Setup uses NTFS).

• AF 512e drives supported in both BIOS/MBR and UEFI/GPT modes.

• Setup in UEFI/GPT mode (for 64-bit only) creates a minimum 300MB WinRE partition, a minimum 100MB EFI System Partition (ESP), a 128MB Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR) and a Windows partition.

• The ESP must be formatted as FAT32. On AF 4Kn drives the minimum ESP size is 260MB due to FAT32 partition size being calculated as sector size (4KB) x 65527 = 256 MB.
• AF 4Kn drives supported in UEFI/GPT mode only.

Windows 10

• Setup in BIOS/MBR mode creates a minimum 100MB System Reserved partition, a Windows partition and a 450MB WinRE partition (minimum 300MB).

• AF 512e drives supported in both BIOS/MBR and UEFI/GPT modes.

• Setup in UEFI/GPT mode (for 64-bit only) creates a minimum 100MB EFI System Partition (ESP), a 128MB Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR), a Windows partition and a 450MB WinRE partition (minimum 300MB).

• The ESP must be formatted as FAT32. On AF 4Kn drives the minimum ESP size is 260MB due to FAT32 partition size being calculated as sector size (4KB) x 65527 = 256 MB.
• AF 4Kn drives supported in UEFI/GPT mode only.

http://superuser.com/questions/915238/what-is-this-recovery-partition-for-on-a-fresh-installation-of-windows-10

 

[leafwarbler]

It  stores some data to recover system and you need to keep it in case the os system would be broke down. At that time, you need use the backup data to recover system.

[binaryzero]

It's 450mb....

[LaP]

I actually delete this partition from my retail windows 10 install and it did not change anything. I have an external backup anyway and i don't trust recovery partition for backup.