Surely any user of Windows operating systems knows that in case of unforeseen critical failures, their performance can be restored. The Windows Recovery partition is responsible for this, which stores the files necessary to perform such a procedure. However, they take up quite a lot of hard disk space (sometimes up to 15 GB, as in Windows 8). This is especially felt on hard drives with small volumes. And many, quite rightly, begin to wonder about freeing up space, which is occupied by the notorious recovery partition.
How to remove it and whether it can be done at all, we will consider further. But I would like to immediately warn all users that when performing this procedure, you will have to sweat, as they say, and you should perform such actions only at your own peril and risk.
What is a recovery partition and do I need one?
The partition itself, as it is already clear, is a reserved space on the harddisk, and in the system partition where the installed OS is located.
As a rule, depending on the modification of the system, its size may vary, but usually it is about 300-500 MB. The Recovery folder is located here, in which there is a WindowsRE directory with the Winre.wim image nested in it. It also seems completely logical that all this is hidden from the user's eyes, so that he does not accidentally (or intentionally) delete the necessary recovery tools.
But that's not the end of it. There are two more hidden partitions on the disk, the existence of which the user does not even know. This is an EFI system partition with a volume of about 100 MB and a 128 MB MSR partition responsible for GPT partitioning. Thus, for example, the question of how to delete the recovery partition in Windows 10 comes down to removing not one, but three partitions from the system disk in order to attach them to the available space.
I must say that not all users realize that system recovery tools can be found both on installation media and on special disks for rolling back and fixing system errors. Therefore, in some cases, you can not only hide the recovery partition, but also delete it, as they say, without a twinge of conscience. Several methods can be suggested for this.
Reinstalling Windows 10: will the recovery partition be deleted?
First, a few words about re-installing the system. Someusers naively believe that reinstalling Windows 10 or any other modification with a full format of the system disk will destroy the above partitions as well.
Nothing like that! Yes, at the stage of choosing a disk for installing the OS, absolutely all partitions will be displayed, and formatting will really combine them into one. But after all, in a “clean” system, which the user receives immediately after installation, automatic system recovery is activated by default, so the OS itself, whether you like it or not, again reserves space on the hard drive, where it writes the necessary information immediately.
Recovery partition: how to delete via command line?
So, let's start with the most difficult, but absolutely effective method, which involves using the command console (cmd), which must be run with administrator rights.
But before that, you need to perform a few simple steps. First you need to create a recovery disk. If the "Recovery" menu is used in the "Control Panel", you will need a flash drive, if the backup and restore partition is used, optical media is used. A flash drive with a capacity of 64 GB or more is convenient in that it can be used to perform a full backup of data from the recovery partition itself (but more on that later).
Next, the solution to the problem of how to delete the recovery partition from the hard drive is toin the update and security menu, which is located in the settings section, select the line of special boot options (for Windows 10) or set removable media as the first boot device in the BIOS.
After the restart, at the beginning of the installation of the operating system, the combination Shift + F10 calls up the command line, in which the following commands are written in sequence:
- diskpart;
- lis dis (list all sections);
- sel dis 0 (select drive with OS installed);
- lis par (view sections);
- sel par 1 (select the first section);
- del par override (deleting the first section);
- sel par 2 (second section selection);
- del par override (removing the second section);
- sel par 3 (selection of the third section);
- del par override (deleting the third section);
- create par efi size=100 (create an EFI encrypted partition with a size of 100 MB);
- fs=fat32 (formatted in FAT32);
- create par msr size=128 (create an MSR partition with a size of 128 MB);
- lis vol (browse sections);
- exit (exit diskpart);
- bcdboot C:\Windows (install boot partition);
- exit (full exit from the console).
Disk management with AOMEI
The reload field should use the AOMEI application for ease of further operations, select the disk to which you want to attach the place, and then use the resize/move line in the menu on the left side.
Next, moving the partition is selected, and the slider is dragged to the limit (in order to completely allocate all the space for drive C. Be sure to note that after such actions, there are zeros on the line "Unallocated space before"
Press "OK" and "Apply". In the pending operations window that appears, the transition button is pressed, after which you need to agree with the instructions in the message. After that, a black free space mode window will appear. When the process is complete, the recovery partition will be deleted and the freed space will be attached to the system partition.
Method for Windows 8 and above
Now about how to delete the recovery partition in versions of Windows 8 and above (this solution does not work in the seventh modification and below).
Remember, we were talking about creating a bootable flash drive at the first stage? So, if you check the box next to the backup line, the entire partition, user files and programs can be transferred to this media. True, this may even take several hours and a flash drive larger than 64 GB.
But at the end of the process, the system itself will offer to delete the desired recovery partition. We agree and immediately see how much space has been freed up.
Conclusion
It remains to be said that it is advisable to delete the desired partition only in cases where it is planned to restore in any situation exclusively from removable media,create which you need in advance. If for some reason it is not at hand, it will be absolutely impossible to roll back the system even to the factory state without reinstalling.
