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In the process of helping a friend with a task, we have run into a little snag.

They are using Windows 7 SP1, which came pre-installed by the system's manufacturer. They have never had any other operating systems installed on their computer.

According to Windows 7's Disk Management, their hard drive has 3 partitions:

  1. The first is about 2GB and is listed as "Active, Recovery Partition". That makes sense, as it's likely the recovery partition from the system's manufacturer. No file system is listed for that partition.

  2. The next partition is about 10GB and is listed just as "Primary Partition". No file system is listed for that partition.

  3. The final partition is listed as "Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition". The file system is listed as NTFS. This is obviously their Windows 7 partition.

How does one figure out what is the purpose of that 10GB partition?

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  • Is this using MBR or GPT? If MBR, what is the partition "Type"/"id" of the second partition, as reported by "fdisk" (from another operating system) or DISKPART (in Win7). e.g. In Win7, use these commands: SELECT DISK 0, SELECT PARTITION 2, DETAIL PARTITION (then report the Type). That may provide a clue. Other than that clue, the main way to ultimately figure out the purpose may be to investigate what data is in that partition.
    – TOOGAM
    Jul 19, 2016 at 23:29
  • Provide a screenshot of the partitions on the drive, be sure, the used and free space for each partition is listed.
    – Ramhound
    Jul 19, 2016 at 23:47

2 Answers 2

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2GB seems pretty small for a recovery partition. We're talking about Windows here, which comes on a 4GB DVD (or two). 10GB is a more likely size for a recovery partition, especially if it contains pre-installed apps (or crapwear) from the manufacturer.

Best guess is that the 2GB partition may be some sort of stripped-down recovery OS, and the 10GB partition contains the data to be restored (the factory image). I'm basing this unscientifically off this forum post about a Dell computer.

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  • Thanks! Very useful info. I thought about that as well, and you might very well be right. Even compressed, I don't think Windows 7 could fit in 2GB, do you?
    – End Anti-Semitic Hate
    Jul 19, 2016 at 22:09
  • @RockPaperLizard Probably not, especially if it's bundled with lots of manufacturer "extras". But it's the perfect size for a small, stripped-down recovery OS.
    – supertanker13
    Jul 19, 2016 at 22:11
  • I agree. I think you and Blerg figured it out. Any good tools to inspect that partition?
    – End Anti-Semitic Hate
    Jul 19, 2016 at 22:15
  • Windows itself may be hiding information about it to "protect" it (from you, the user). That's why we recommended a Linux Live CD. You could try the GParted Live CD which already has the partitioning tool (GParted) set up. You boot from the CD instead of Windows, so Windows' protection is bypassed and you can see what the partition really is. It also can identify more types of partitions than Windows can.
    – supertanker13
    Jul 19, 2016 at 22:31
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It's possible that it's a diagnostic utility of some sort that the manufacturer put on the hard drive as a convenience. Another possibility is that it is used as an addition to the system restore partition for extras such as drivers or junkware that the manufacturer wants to have pre-installed when you restore the OS.

Since it's an unknown partition, you can attempt to boot a Linux LiveCD and have gparted see if it can tell what type of partition it is. If not, Clonezilla has an option to do byte-for-byte clones that can ensure that it will remain intact should you wish to restore the disk to its original state. I added that since you posted a question about cloning just a short while ago.

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