Multiple partition in Windows 8 after resetting the PC

Question

Original title: Does upgrading to Windows 8.1 from 8 a second time (after resetting PC) still create a duplicate recovery partition?

A couple of months ago some users still experienced the following problem: 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows\_10-win\_upgrade/upgrade-to-win-10-but-too-many-recovery-partitions/a58f421f-fdfd-4d6d-bd58-82b8168e84f1

"when i upgraded to Win 8.1 from Win 8 the upgrade added a new 350mb Recovery Partition to my hard drive

then i had trouble and had to restore my pc back to factory original (my pc is a HP pc) this took me back to Win 8 but did not remove the new 350mb Recovery Partition that i got with the first upgrade to Win 8.1"

My PC also came with Windows 8 and I upgraded to W8.1 as soon as I could. It came with an OEM recovery partition that obviously has Windows 8 on it. I want to factory reset, so this problem may apply to me. 

Has this problem been fixed? If not, does it affect everyone? Would I be able to safely delete the duplicate partition if I find out that it's still present after resetting back to Windows 8?

Here are pictures of the problem I'm trying to describe:My drive's partitions, Windows 8.1, NORMAL:

Another user's drive's partitions, Windows 8.1, ABNORMAL with duplicate 350 MB partitions:

(taken from https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows\_8-windows\_install/how-many-partitions-to-delete-with-clean-windows-8/b0168b4b-e59e-46a4-94c5-8aa6d316d081 )

Answer 1

Hi,

Thanks for posting your query to Microsoft forum. I will certainly help you with this.

Clean installation should not create multiple recovery partitions. Keep the oldest partition and delete the rest which may help you in future to perform factory reset.

Did you try the steps provided in this link?

If not, follow the step and check the issue.

**Note:**Modifying BIOS/ complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) settings incorrectly can cause serious problems that may prevent your computer from booting properly. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the configuring of BIOS/CMOS settings can be solved. Modifications of the settings are at your own risk.

Hope this information is helpful. If the issue still persists, please post back for further assistance, we'll be glad to assist you.

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Thanks & Regards,

Isha Soni

Answer 2

Hello Isha, thanks for your response

I don't think I will be able to choose drives like John suggested in the link. I want to factory reset using the OEM's recovery partition. which I believe will not give me the option to manually choose drives at any point. 

Say the 350MB Windows 8.1 recovery partition does appear after factory resetting back up Windows 8, will it be safe to delete it manually? (I am not planning on removing any of the other recovery drives, because I understand why I need those.) I assume updating to Windows 8.1 afterwards would create the recovery partition again as usual. 

Thank you for your time

Answer 3

I did a factory reset on my PC back to Windows 8 and the 350 MB W8.1 recovery partition was still there. I manually deleted it using DiskPart in the Command Prompt. I experienced no problems at all afterwards. I then changed the sizes of the C and D partitions. I installed all updates, including the Windows 8.1 update. This update added a 452MB recovery partition, which is correct according to other people's experiences. This is what my drive looks like right now:

So, to answer my own question: factory resetting back to Windows 8 does NOT remove the Windows 8.1 partition. Manually removing it and then updating to Windows 8.1 seems to be the way to go.