Windows 10 drive partition with no information associated with it -- what exactly does this mean?

Question

I'm trying to understand why I have a partition without any information on it on my c: disk 0 drive.

For clarification, please look at Disk 1 in the Disk mgmt report (attached here for reference).

Disk 0 (a 2TB SSD NVME drive) started out as a clone of Disk 1 (2TB SATA drive) -- using an EaseUS Clone feature.
When I later converted the new OS SSD drive to UEFI boot mode, using MBR2GPT, the repartitioning done by this utility is what you see on Disk 0 now (no OEM partition, no labeled recovery partition -- but a new EFI system partition added). (I had to do this to get the EaseUS WinPE flash drive to boot properly, plus I thought it would be a good idea to move to a UEFI boot mode anyway).

The EaseUS software detail is basically irrelevant, but I wanted to mention it here as part of the overall picture.

Anyway, when you now look at disk 0, it looks like I have essentially 11.73GB of space in a partition that I assume I could utilize if I knew for sure it would not cause any issues. However, I'm not proficient enough at Windows to be sure this is the case.

Can someone please clarify what my options are here for reclaiming this space to use in the future?

Answer 1

The 11.73 GB partition appears similar to a computer manufacturer's recovery partition.
For example: Dell, HP, or Lenovo often had had recovery partitions.

Nowadays end users typically make backup images and no longer need computer manufacturer recovery partitions.

The typical layout for a UEFI / GPT drive is: (see partition layout image)
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/configure-uefigpt-based-hard-drive-partitions

Third party software often allows end users to view the contents of a partition.

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Answer 2

Hello,

If you have a disk that doesn't appear in File Explorer and is listed in Disk Management as Not Initialized, it could be because the disk doesn't have a valid disk signature. Basically, this means that the disk has never been initialized and formatted, or the drive formatting has become corrupted somehow.

Ignore any partitions that are listed as EFI System Partition or Recovery Partition. These partitions are full of really important files your PC needs to operate properly. It's best to just leave them alone to do their jobs starting your PC and helping you recover from problems.

For Further information on disk management do follow the below link

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/disk-management/troubleshooting-disk-management

Hope this answers all your queries, if not please do repost back.
If an Answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it : )

Answer 3

Disk 0 , the disk with the 11.73GB partition that has no tags associated with it except the size, is the disk my Windows 10 OS is running on.
So, the disk itself certainly does appear in File Explorer (at least the OS C: partition) and is not listed in Disk Management as Not Initialized.

However, I just ran DISKPART and got the attached report.
It shows the 11.73GB partition on Disk 0 as a Recovery partition -- so I will leave it alone.

It must be something about the graphical disk management that has some bugs in it.
It seems to be missing basic information that you get from DISKPART.

Thank you for your response.