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I have to many partitions and I don't know why

Anonymous
2020-11-29T22:59:00+00:00

Hello,

I was cleaning some space today and while checking my partitions I found out I've got way to many and don't know why.

Which one would it be safe to delete? Or what can I do to remove some of them? It looks very unpleasant and messy.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-11-29T23:27:35+00:00

    Hi Iezii, I am Rob, an independent and a 15 time and dual award MVP specializing in Windows troubleshooting and Bluescreen analysis. Please remember as independents we are not responsible for the development of Windows or the computer hardware and drivers. If you will work with me I will be here to help until the issue is resolved.

    Frankly, I would not worry too much about them as you are only losing about 1 GB of space.

    Those happen at times when you are doing a Hard Reset, Clean Install, Major Upgrade, or even a Repair Installation (In-Place Upgrade).

    If you ever Clean Install then you can remove them during the Installation Process.

    If you really want to remove the unneeded ones (and you risk making Windows unbootable and/or data loss if you make a mistake) then here are some partition tools to use. Refer to their online Help for methods.

    This will allow you to resize/move - merge/split partitions - recover partitions

    Use EaseUS Partition Master for Home User- Free

    https://www.easeus.com/download/partition-manag...

    Check the "Product User Guides" and "Hot Articles" here.

    https://www.easeus.com/support.htm

    There are a lot of good free ones out there.

    10 Free Disk Partition Software Tools

    https://www.lifewire.com/free-disk-partition-so...

    Here to help,

    Rob

    Standard Disclaimer: Those may be non-Microsoft websites. The pages appear to be providing accurate, safe information. Watch out for ads on the site that may advertise products frequently classified as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Products). Thoroughly research any product advertised on the site before you decide to download and install it.

    Please let us know the results and if you need further assistance. Feedback definitely helps us help all.

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-11-30T02:20:53+00:00

    Let's see where your MSR (Microsoft Reserved) partition is. DiskPart will show it, & it would be nice, if it is just left of the Windows partition. It might be 16 or 128 MB...

    (a) Type "CMD" into Search, & click "Run as Administrator".

    (b) Enter the following commands...

    DiskPart

    List  Vol

    Select  Disk  0

    List  Part

    Exit

    ReagentC  /Info

    Use Ctrl-A & Ctrl-C to copy, then post it to us.

    I expect ReagentC will indicate your 705 MB Recovery partition at the end is the active one. That is where an upgrade puts them, right after C:. Then, the one with the label is empty & can be deleted.

    So -- you probably can delete the 1st 4 partitions to get about 6 GB of unallocated space. Then you might merge that space into C:, but it will take a 3rd-party app to merge it. And, as was said, the app might make a mistake & make the computer unbootable. I did similar with Partition Assistant twice. The first occasion was fine, but the second caused the computer to boot into an automatic repair that failed. However, running my own Startup Repair did get things back into shape.

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-11-30T19:19:18+00:00

    I thought so.

    (1) It says partition 8 is the active Recovery partition because it counts the MSR that is hidden to Disk Management. You should do the "List Part" to see where it is. It wouldn't be nice to see it between the first 4.

    (2) Do a "ReagentC /Info" after you delete them. I think it will self-adjust & name partition 4, but I know how to fix it, if necessary.

    (3) If the one labelled Recovery won't delete in Disk Management, delete it this way in DiskPart...

    DiskPart

    Select  Disk  0

    List  Part                                <<<Note the partition number of the 529 MB Recovery partition

    Select  Part  X                       <<<Focus on that number (use instead of X)

    Delete  Partition  Override

    Exit

    (4) I think there will be no problem booting after deleting those. It's if/when you merge the newly unallocated 6 GB of space into C: that the problem might arise. Do you know how to do a Startup Repair?

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-11-30T13:55:13+00:00

    Thank you! You have shined the light on me. Can I stop windows from making these partitions in the future?

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-11-30T13:45:05+00:00

    Yup you were right

      Windows RE status:         Enabled

    Windows RE location:       \?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition8\Recovery\WindowsRE

    Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: 709adc9f-d7d8-11ea-a4e3-040e3c50db91

    Recovery image location:

    Recovery image index:      0

    Custom image location:

    Custom image index:        0

    REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

    I might go on and delete all 4 of this partitions

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