cloned recovery partitions don't 'work' - can I just repurpose them for my own recovery volume?

[stefancurl]

I recently cloned my Windows 10 drive to a new and larger disk. However the recovery partitions didn't copy "properly" - for one they visible, and I'm unable to use them for actual recovery steps.

(there should be an image above, shared from Imgur, here: https://imgur.com/gallery/ga9mw But it doesn't seem to appear above when I save. Maybe it just needs extra time to load? If you don't see it, it means I'm workin' on it!)

Rather than attempt to 'put them back', can I just remove them, and make my own 'recovery drive', with my copy of Windows 10, some utilities, and room for restore points? Is there a need to keep anything as-is?

I might apply some of the unallocated free space to the C: volume, but the rest could be used for backups and utilities...

The D: drive is pretty much empty, but the E: drive still has the boot files:
Folders: $RECYCLE.BIN, boot, Recovery, System Volume Information
Files: bootmgr, BOOTNXT, BOOTSECT.BAK

Thoughts? Am I at risk of entirely hosing my boot disk, if I try to make it work as described? Is there a utility that might assist with getting the partitions set up correctly (i.e., idiot-proof myself)?

Thank you!

After many hours of efforts I finally traced my early BSOD problem to bad RAM (the fact that the RAM passed ALL TESTS totally sent me off on a wild goose chase), and I'd like to make any future recovery easier.

 

[CountMike]

You can merge last 2 partitions safely either thru Disk management or a program like EAsus Patition Master or any similar one. Restore points don't do much if system is borked, best to use something like Macrium Reflect to make full system backup but on separate disk because if backup is on same physical disk and that one dies/gets damaged you'll still loose everything.

 

[ArtPog]

1. We're NOT going to comment on your statement re "bad RAM". We assume that's a "throwaway" comment and bears no relevance to your query. All we're interested in at this point is that your system currently boots & functions without ANY problems with your 1 TB boot HDD. If that's the case, read on.

(BTW, your screenshot of Disk Management is visible to any viewer of your post. All he/she has to do is click on the link you indicated. The screenshot displays in a separate screen. Capiche?)

2. It would be best if you would first clone the contents of your 1 TB boot drive to another drive before undertaking what I'm going to suggest. This is just a safety feature in case things go awry during the different configuration I'm going to outline. It's probably unnecessary, but we always undertake that process since we've learned (as probably you have) that in this PC world s#!* happens! Are you with me?

Fortunately your boot drive contains a rather modest amount of data. I can't tell precisely because you didn't create a screenshot that would have contained that info, but it appears the drive contains not more than 150 GB of data (if that). So if you have another drive - either internally connected in your system or externally as a USB device that has available disk-space of about 150 GB that you could use as the recipient of the cloned 1 TB contents...use it.

3. So reconfigure your boot drive as follows...
A. Delete the 450 MB Recovery partition. You will need to use the DiskPart utility to accomplish this; you can't use Disk Management for that purpose (although at rare times DM will do the job). I don't know if you know how to use DiskPart. If you don't, use Google for a search. Diskpart is a most valuable Windows utility and PC users should be familiar with it. The FINAL command when using Diskpart (after selecting the desired partition) is "delete partition override" (no quotes). You need that "override" flag for the command to work for the Recovery partition (in most cases). Are you still with me?

B. Delete the "Recovery image" (D partition). You probably can use Disk Management to do so but if not, use DiskPart along the lines I indicated in A. above.

C. After those two partitions are deleted you can use Disk Management to extend the C partition to encompass all the disk-space that will be unallocated.

4. Now after all this is done and the boot drive boots & functions without problems, YOU MUST PROMISE THAT YOU WILL CLONE THE CONTENTS OF THAT DRIVE ON A ROUTINE BASIS SO THAT YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE AT HAND A COMPREHENSIVE BACKUP OF YOUR SYSTEM. The recipient of the clone can be either a internally-connected drive large enough in disk-space capacity to contain the TOTAL contents of the boot drive or a USB external drive (which many users prefer for greater security).

Good luck.

 

[EDab]

You may need to manually specify where the Winre.wim file's location on the cloned hard drive.
use this command to specify the location path of the recovery image file:
Reagentc /setreimage /path S:\Recovery\WindowsRE
also run this: reagentc /enable

 

[RolandJS]

"...CLONE THE CONTENTS OF THAT DRIVE ON A ROUTINE BASIS..."
"...YOU WILL HAVE AT HAND A COMPREHENSIVE BACKUP OF YOUR SYSTEM..."
+1, excellent advice!
Consider also making full image backups of each partition onto another reliable external media (such as an ext HD) as a 2nd backup. That way, if either external HD develops a logical or a physical failure, you still have a backup. I have two backup drives for each computer because that rare happening did knock out one of my two backup drives.

 

[stefancurl]

1. We're NOT going to comment on your statement re "bad RAM". We assume that's a "throwaway" comment and bears no relevance to your query. All we're interested in at this point is that your system currently boots & functions without ANY problems with your 1 TB boot HDD. If that's the case, read on.

Good luck.

Thank you! and thanks also for the detailed explanation - extremely relevant and useful. And apologies for a late response.

Yes, that BSOD stuff was background trivia, and also it was a somewhat challenging experience I hope to ease if there's a next time. That's why I mentioned at the end, more like a PS.

And, I promise to clone my disks! I currently keep a fresh backup of my data, in multiple forms - but will do full clones as well.

 

[CountMike]

I would suggest Macrium Reflect Free https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree for regular full system backup. I'm using it for few years now and keep backups on an external disk. It makes one file of about 75% of size all files and partitions take on disk being duplicated, takes about 12 minutes to backup my 250GB SSD with OS on it. Backup file can be mounted as a virtual disk and files in it can be accessed and even changed at any time. It also makes a rescue CD/USB to boot from and restore from but also to solve some BOOT problems.
Newest version can also do planed and scheduled differential backups which saves time and disk space updating only changed content. I wouldn't be caught dead without it.