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

Question

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.

Answer 1

Windows 10 needs only 3 partitions:

1. EFI System partition, often abbreviated as ESP, is a data storage device partition that is used in computers adhering to the UEFI specification. Accessed by the UEFI firmware when a computer is powered up, it stores UEFI applications and the files these applications need to run, including operating system kernels. It is typically a 100MB FAT32 partition, and needed for EFI boot. If you still use the old MBR boot, and you can disable UEFI completely in BIOS, you can delete it. However if Windows 10 discovers that your system can boot in UEFI mode while it is being installed it will create and use this partition.
2. 16MB system reserved partition, used for unknown purpose. If you delete or move it, Windows 10 will not boot.
3. Main windows partition. It is usually formatted as NTFS and holds all the files.

If you install Windows 10 on a big disk, then it will allocate more space for these partitions.

The latest (approximately after 2015-12-20) Windows installation image will create the recovery partition at the beginning of the drive, before the unmovable reserved partition, and it makes it very hard to remove it. I only succeeded by interrupting a clean Windows 10 installation, moving the ESP to the beginning of the drive using gParted and then restarting the installation. 450MB recovery partition on a small Acer Iconia Tab is a huge drain on resources, considering that I would never want to recover anything from it.

From the image, you posted, it looks like you have a huge GPT partitioned disk, and you already have five primary partitions. Just delete WINRE and RECOVERY and resize Windows and you will have plenty of space for anything.

Answer 2

The 20GB recovery partition is from HP. It will restore your system to like the day you bought it. Meaning if you bought it two years ago, it will be two years out of date.

My personal opinion is that an OEM recovery partition is worthless. Why roll your system back several years sometimes, and keep all the bloat garbage they put on it.

If you ever need to reinstall Windows 10, you'll be much better off just making a USB installation drive with the Media Creation Tool: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10ISO

This has the added benefit that if your hard drive goes bad, you still have something you can reinstall Windows with.

Windows 10 doesn't really need these OEM recovery partitions anymore because the update process and driver management is so much better now. In addition, Microsoft has made it a much more friendly process, not even requiring product keys anymore. So, if you make your own installation USB drive, you might have to download a couple of drivers afterwards but you'll be way ahead of the outdated, bloat ridden recovery HP gave you.

I believe the media you made with HPs tool is just a copy of the recovery partition they gave you, so what I said above applies to that as well.

I wouldn't remove the WinRE partition. This is part of the Shift-Restart menu you mentioned. It may not be necessary for proper operation of the computer, but potentially useful for sure. You can read all about WinRE here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/windows-recovery-environment--windows-re--technical-reference

If the WinRE partition is in the way you can delete it and you can use various methods to recreate it. First, I would recommend assigning a drive letter to it and obtaining a copy of the WinRE.wim file. You'll need it to move the recovery environment somewhere later. You can obtain a copy of this file in other ways, but it will be easier just to get it ahead of time.

You have options to recreate a recovery partition later, or probably the better alternative is to put the recovery environment back on to your C: drive. Sorry, I couldn't find clear, concise, easy instructions for you to follow. But, I found this which should get you on the right track: https://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=587

It's not a huge loss if you lose this feature, but I don't want to steer you wrong and say you'll never need it.

Answer 3

If it's a GPT partition, then you're not limited to 4 partitions. If it's an MBR partition, you can convert it to GPT without losing your existing data, but taking a full backup is still recommended. This way you'll be able to keep your recovery partition in case you need to repair you Windows installation in the future, and unfortunately you will need it!

Try using a 3rd party application like Mini-Tool or EaseUs to convert it to GPT, they're very easy to use and reliable.

Answer 4

Just chiming in on this older thread in case anyone comes along behind me, looking for the answers for which I was also searching. I can attest to the facts the (actual) Superusers are relating, imo the OP queries were addressed, and I've followed the sage advices of the gurus.

• The mbr2gpt process was relatively smooth, excepting the bumpy (for me) learning curve. But definitely the right choice.

• As a result of using that tool I was also led to learning about recreating WinRE via a process with reagentc. That also was relatively smooth.

• Fortunately my experience was that the recovery partition was placed behind Windows, in this order: boot/EFI > Windows (system/NTFS) > WinRE. So establishing my desired partitions was quite facile at that point.

• I've also learned about creating a bootable WinRE USB stick. So will move to that safeguard (HP's recovery looks like it's about 120 MB, so the partition it made is 450 MB). In fact at this point, my device is so different than fresh OEM that it may be moot anyway.

• So in that regard, even if I were anxious about deleting WinRE I can breathe easier knowing I can boot a copy from USB—the biggest factor being proper labeling and storage. Then I should be good, extrapolating that each WinRE is unique to the specific device and configuration (not sure about that last).

I think that the topics in this thread are genuinely important to those of us with older devices that still have enough base resources to perform reasonably well in the newer OS environments. For instance, I'm working with a circa 2014 HP EliteBook 840 G1. With some simple hardware upgrades this laptop can still perform as a solid, perhaps slightly lower mid-range computer. If I were just patient, my whole process would've been simpler just waiting for the M2.SSD and 8 GB RAM stick to get here. I've learned a lot tho, and I'm more confident moving forward based on the insights and guidance I found in these SU forums and others. Thanks for reading, good luck in the future, I hope that this helps someone behind me.

~ SszZ