Windows Server 2022 Recovery Partition At End Of Disk

[Eustacio Gadit]

Using Diskpart make the disk GPT and Partition the drive as necessary for the EFI and Restored Data: EFI/UEFI about 128 MB or what you want, assign it a letter (S:) and the rest as the OS Drive and assign it a letter (C:)

Since the disk is precisely 40GB, I am pretty sure that it is a virtual machine. Make a backup AND a checkpoint/snapshot of the virtual machine -checkpoints-alone-arent-backups/ , remove the recovery partition and extend the system drive the way you want. One more option is booting this virtual machine using GParted ISO GParted -- Download , moving the recovery partition to the end of the disk, and resize the system partition afterward.

Even if you do, you always have an option to mount a virtual disk from any other virtual machine that has a recovery partition present and use it for recovery purposes. That is not a big deal in a virtualized environment.

Hi,
You can use Magic Partition ( Download Partition Magic for Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP to resize partition ) and try to extend the disk. Before extending the disk you can take the snapshot or clone the VM as a Backup.

Firstly, ensure that the hard drive was properly added to the VM and that it is visible within the guest OS. You can check this by going to the Disk Management console and verifying that the additional hard drive is listed there. If it is not listed, then you may need to re-add it to the VM or troubleshoot the disk configuration.

Secondly, make sure that the disk is initialized and formatted. If it is not initialized or formatted, then you will not be able to extend the disk partition. You can verify this by going to the Disk Management console and checking the status of the disk. If it is not initialized or formatted, then right-click on the disk and select the appropriate option to initialize or format it.

Lastly, you mentioned that the recovery drive is next to the unallocated space, which may be causing the extend option to be greyed out. In this case, you may need to move the recovery partition to the end of the disk to make room for the partition you want to extend. This can be done using a third-party partition manager tool.

In any case, it is always advisable to have a reliable backup solution in place, such as Nakivo VMware Backup Solution, to protect your data in case of any issues or failures during the disk partition extension process or any other critical operations. To get more info on this, check out this link .

You can't "swap" them but you can move the recovery partition easily. Any 3rd party partitioning software can do that, like MiniTool Partition Wizard, AOMEI Partition Assistant, EaseUS Partition Master, Macrorit Partition Expert...

Or you can remove the recovery partition completely. There would be no problem since Windows 10 already has built-in refresh and reset feature to do factory reset. You can also create an image of the recovery partition and store it somewhere before removing the partition

However it is possible to create a partition that spans across various spaces with dynamic disk, which is the analog of Linux's LVM. Just convert the disk to dynamic and extend the partition to any available space

where you pick your OS drive by ID and the recovery partition by ID.And then you delete it. This is possible using the override keyword asking Windows to not consider that protected partition a protected protected partition for that short moment where you delete it.

Just note that you might need to change some flags for dism to work with a readonly image. i.e. I needed dism /mount-wim [...] /readonly and dism /unmount-wim [...] /discard when working from a dvd image, and then you also need to re-locate the RE path to your actual partition. just check it with /info to be sure it's in the right spot.

Moving the Windows Recovery partition to the end of the disk is (ironically) much easier with Linux. So if you already can boot a live Linux CD (or USB or over PXE), it probably has gparted which you can use to move the partition.

MacroIT Partition Tool, included on HirensBootCD can easily move the recovery partition to the end of the drive, HOWEVER resizing the primary should be done using windows disk management, as MacroIT Partition Tool leaves the filesystem as RAW (after resize operations).

I recently made this mistake, and whilst it was RAW windows allowed it to boot ONCE into the drive, letting me think that it had worked, then trying it once more made windows 10 fail in it's bluescreen with an NTFS Filesystem failure. (Luckily I took a backup)

Because there is no screen shot, I am going to say this is likely because the areas are not contiguous on the disk. It is common to see the recovery partition placed between the primary partition and the new storage.

Some people like to keep the recovery partition, but the reality is with a VM you can always mount an ISO of the install and do whatever recovery operations you need. I generally just delete the partition and extend the file system.

As I said, I generally just delete the recovery partition because A) on a VM I almost never use it, and B) If I needed to run recovery tools I would just mount the disk. In this case you can just delete it and then extend the space.

However, if you need more capacity on your C drive, deleting the recovery partition could be a choice. You can delete the recovery partition via Diskpart in Windows Server 2022, and after you delete the target partition in Diskpart, you can use the unallocated space to enlarge your C drive if other conditions are also meted.

Before we use Diskpart, you can open Disk Management to check which partitions are recovery partitions. In the following example, the computer has two recovery partitions that devour more than 200GB of space on the disk.

Diskpart can help you easily delete recovery partition in Windows Server 2022, but the recovery partition is useful when your computer has some glitches. And if the unallocated space created by deleting the recovery partition is not right behind the low-storage C drive, you also cannot use it to extend the C drive.

Can I move the recovery partition to another drive?
While it's possible to move partitions using third-party tools, it is not recommended to move or tamper with the recovery partition. The recovery environment relies on its specific location for proper functioning.

Is it safe to delete recovery partition Windows Server?
Deleting the recovery partition on a Windows Server should be approached with caution. While it might free up some disk space, it comes with potential risks and drawbacks. Before deleting the recovery partition, ensure that you have a recent backup of your server. This ensures you can restore the system if any issues arise after removing the recovery partition.

What are the potential risks of deleting the recovery partition?
Deleting the recovery partition may leave the system without a quick and convenient recovery option. If the system encounters issues, you may need alternative recovery methods, such as installation media or a backup.

How can I restore the recovery partition if needed?
If you have a backup of your server, you can restore the recovery partition using system restoration tools. Additionally, reinstalling or repairing the operating system may recreate the recovery partition. Always refer to official Microsoft documentation for accurate and safe procedures.

When searching for a way to do this I discovered that the internet is full of posts about simply deleting the Windows Recovery Partition. I am not a fan of simply deleting a recovery tool. On numerous occasions the recovery partition has been instrumental in helping me to fix a system.

The reagentc /disable command will disable the recovery partition and will move the recovery partition into a file named Winre.wim and will be located in C:\Windows\System32\Recovery (you have to enable showing hidden system files if you want to see it)

Technically speaking we did just delete the Windows Recovery Partition but we did so in a way to keep our existing recovery partition safely intact and then we rebuild the recovery partition and re-enabled it.

Can you open CMD as admin and run reagentc /info if it says Windows RE status Disabled you might have missed enabling it again or if some of the steps were missed it will enable it but put it in a folder on the computer instead of the recovery partition.

Yes technically we are deleting it, as long as you disable the recovery partition first with the reagentc command you can delete the leftover recovery partition without issue and when you create a new recovery partition with the needed parameters then when you enable it again it will go to the new place you defined be it the middle of the disk or the end of the disk.

When you run the reagentc /disable command it takes the recovery image file off of the recovery partition and places it in C:\Windows\system32\recovery because of this you can safely delete the recovery partition effectively deleting partition 4.

In the case of the example I used, I had an already existing recovery partition which was partition 4 but I wanted to add more space to my C drive. The recovery partition was in the way so I turned off the recovery partition to keep it safe then I deleted the left over unused partition 4 turning partition 4 into unallocated space again.

Then I was able to expand my C drive but I left 1gb free at the end of the disk and I recreated a recovery partition by setting the GPT id (or MBR id) . Once a recovery partition is created correctly when you run reagentc /enable the recovery file from C:\Windows\system32\recovery goes back on to the recovery partition as if nothing changed.

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