Windows 11 & Windows 10 Clean install setup not creating Recovery partition on second system disk.

OK, with UEFI systems, it uses only the one EFI System partition, as you stated earlier.

The recovery partition is created as necessary. I do not know for sure what the partitions on Disk 2 are but I assume they are left over Dell recovery partitions. Had you checked the reagentc /info command before the clean install, you would have known where the Original Win 11 Recovery Tools Partition was.

The upgrade does what upgrades do and created a new partition on the second drive to try to keep it together with the OS.

Maybe I am missing your point. So starting from a Clean Disk 1, what would you have expected to see after the clean install? Do you feel the original install should have added the Recovery partition on Disk 1?

There are many unknowns in your process. The 150 MB System EFI partition, I assume you pre-partitioned the drive in some manner. Since you have the 13 MB unallocated space at the end of Disk 2, that install may have been a clone from a Dell system. And a normal Windows install will not create a 1 GB recovery tools partition.

"If you really want to test, do it with clean drives, and start with just the primary install, then add the second drive and install to it. I am not asking for clarification, just pointing out the situation. An install will do what it needs to do, based on your configuration. If you test, let us know what happens."

Hi again,

The Disk 2 SSD is the same it was when it came from the factory, nothing was changed on that including the 150MB EFI partition. Since I have a backup I can always restore it with the same layout.

Disk 1 SSD was added to install Windows 11 and the clean install setup should have added the recovery partition on first try, not after an Update in place.

What you suggest in your last comment was already tried and did not make any difference.

It created the correct 4 partitions on the first install EFI, MSR, Windows, Recovery

Then the second install on the second drive just created 2 partitions MSR and Windows, no recovery.

EFI minimum is 100MB can be bigger, it is 150 on the original Dell probably because they have multiple recovery boot options. I saw that already had 90MB occupied.

The EFI can be 260MB, I have that size on multiple of my machines. That is required when you use 4K sectors disks. Here is another sample on a different UEFI machine:

Could you repost your images. What normally happens is designed to work that way but is not always understandable.

C: in this instance is your OS (Boot) partition. The EFI System partition is on Disk 2.

You added a new Recovery Partition to Disk 1? Do you set up the recovery tools?

A Dual Boot System will usually set up a Recovery Tools partition for Win 11. At least that is what mine did.. In the first attachment it may have used one of the other Recovery partitions available. The only way to know for sure is run the reagentc /info command in an admin command prompt. It will point to the recovery tools for the current active OS..

The rule of thumb is, if you don't want any surprises, remove all other drives that the one to which you are installing.

And here is after I fixed it preparing the partition before clean install.

Could you repost your images. What normally happens is designed to work that way but is not always understandable.

Hi,

You can see all the pictures on page 17 and 19 of this thread that is now locked.

Please take a look and let me know what you think.

Thanks.

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