Many recovery partitions. Can I safely delete them?

[Guest]

I have a MSI GX60 laptop that comes with Windows 8. Few years ago I did the upgrade to 8.1 and some time back to Win 10. Due to some boot issue I was unable to boot the laptop normally and reinstalled Win 10 using a bootable USB. I did the installation by deleting C Drive in the installation wizard and then installed the OS onto C Drive. I noticed that there are many recovery partitions:

Partition 1: WinRE Tools (600MB) (Recovery)
Partition 2: System (300 MB) (System)
Partition 3🙁128 MB) (MSR Reserved)
Partition 5: (494 MB) (Recovery)
Partition 6: (350 MB) (Recovery)
Partition 8: Bio_RVY (12.8 GB) (Recovery)

So which are the ones I can delete safely to recover the space? Any help would be appreciated!

20160816_092605 by Tee-Kheang Ng, on Flickr

20160816_092616 by Tee-Kheang Ng, on Flickr

20160816_093353 by Tee-Kheang Ng, on Flickr

 

[Scottybo2]

Um looks like you've had a few operating systems on here, Hmm i think the following you should delete is:
WinRE Should be removed there's no need for that
2,3,5,6 Need to stay! Those are the ones that Windows makes but if your gonna reinstall just delete them. And then the new one will make it's own but it won't make 4 it'll make 1!
So just delete them all if your reinstalling! And keep the ones you wish!
Happy computing!

 

[Hlsgsz]

Assuming you have nothing other than windows on that drive, it's safe(and recommended) to clean it completly durind a windows install. Barring an install, leave everything as is.

 

[Samer1970]

Thats a notebook right ? Leave them , the have Windows recovery , Drivers Partition , Tools , etc , dont delete any hidden partition.

 

[Colif]

All the extra partitions that would have recovery info in them are empty though, so hard to use them to roll back to win 8.1 anyway. Only ones that should have info in it is EFI and the 350mb recovery as they made by Win 10 on install Not sure where the MSR partition is.

I agree with Hilsgsz, do a fresh install of win 10 on that hard drive and claim back at least 12gb and only have 4 partitions instead at end.

 

[Samer1970]

All the extra partitions that would have recovery info in them are empty though, so hard to use them to roll back to win 8.1 anyway. Only ones that should have info in it is EFI and the 350mb recovery as they made by Win 10 on install Not sure where the MSR partition is.

I agree with Hilsgsz, do a fresh install of win 10 on that hard drive and claim back at least 12gb and only have 4 partitions instead at end.

in case of emergency he can factory reset it , it will go back to factory setting . it is not recommended to remove them , even if he upgraded to Win 10 ..

 

[Hlsgsz]

All the extra partitions that would have recovery info in them are empty though, so hard to use them to roll back to win 8.1 anyway. Only ones that should have info in it is EFI and the 350mb recovery as they made by Win 10 on install Not sure where the MSR partition is.

I agree with Hilsgsz, do a fresh install of win 10 on that hard drive and claim back at least 12gb and only have 4 partitions instead at end.

in case of emergency he can factory reset it , it will go back to factory setting . it is not recommended to remove them , even if he upgraded to Win 10 ..

SO he can recover to an unlicensed W8? And then upgrade to 10? That would be masochism
No.

 

[Samer1970]

All the extra partitions that would have recovery info in them are empty though, so hard to use them to roll back to win 8.1 anyway. Only ones that should have info in it is EFI and the 350mb recovery as they made by Win 10 on install Not sure where the MSR partition is.

I agree with Hilsgsz, do a fresh install of win 10 on that hard drive and claim back at least 12gb and only have 4 partitions instead at end.

in case of emergency he can factory reset it , it will go back to factory setting . it is not recommended to remove them , even if he upgraded to Win 10 ..

SO he can recover to an unlicensed W8? And then upgrade to 10? That would be masochism
No.

it is licensed , The key is in the Bios, it will work . besides , I said for emergency ... If his Notebook System is broken anywhere away from home , he can reset and use the notebook ...

 

[Hlsgsz]

All the extra partitions that would have recovery info in them are empty though, so hard to use them to roll back to win 8.1 anyway. Only ones that should have info in it is EFI and the 350mb recovery as they made by Win 10 on install Not sure where the MSR partition is.

I agree with Hilsgsz, do a fresh install of win 10 on that hard drive and claim back at least 12gb and only have 4 partitions instead at end.

in case of emergency he can factory reset it , it will go back to factory setting . it is not recommended to remove them , even if he upgraded to Win 10 ..

SO he can recover to an unlicensed W8? And then upgrade to 10? That would be masochism
No.

it is licensed , The key is in the Bios, it will work . besides , I said for emergency ... If his Notebook System is broken anywhere away from home , he can reset and use the notebook ...

If a moonth has passed since teh upgrade, that key is no longer valid. regardless, Op wanted to clean those partitions. yes, he can on a reinstall. We shall agree to disagree on whether he should or not.

 

[Samer1970]

All the extra partitions that would have recovery info in them are empty though, so hard to use them to roll back to win 8.1 anyway. Only ones that should have info in it is EFI and the 350mb recovery as they made by Win 10 on install Not sure where the MSR partition is.

I agree with Hilsgsz, do a fresh install of win 10 on that hard drive and claim back at least 12gb and only have 4 partitions instead at end.

in case of emergency he can factory reset it , it will go back to factory setting . it is not recommended to remove them , even if he upgraded to Win 10 ..

SO he can recover to an unlicensed W8? And then upgrade to 10? That would be masochism
No.

it is licensed , The key is in the Bios, it will work . besides , I said for emergency ... If his Notebook System is broken anywhere away from home , he can reset and use the notebook ...

If a moonth has passed since teh upgrade, that key is no longer valid. regardless, Op wanted to clean those partitions. yes, he can on a reinstall. We shall agree to disagree on whether he should or not.

are you sure ? it always worked for me . and windows server never refused it. anyways I recommend he keeps them.

 

[Karadjgne]

Since the windows key is now tied to a registered copy of win10, I'd make a install USB, then use something like partition magic and wipe out the whole thing, start fresh install, which will create it's own recovery partition, containing any necessary cab files and recovery/repair options. That is unless op has any desire whatsoever of maybe reverting to win8.1.

Samer is partly right. (I said that?). There are several brands that have a separate partition that contains a factory reset option, over and above the windows recovery partition, but what that partition basically does is return windows back to factory specs, drivers, windows etc including all the factory bloatware and trial versions, stuff that's not contained in Windows itself. Some of those factory drivers for proprietary hardware can be a royal pain to track down, so consideration should be given to keeping that particular partition.

 

[Samer1970]

Since the windows key is now tied to a registered copy of win10, I'd make a install USB, then use something like partition magic and wipe out the whole thing, start fresh install, which will create it's own recovery partition, containing any necessary cab files and recovery/repair options. That is unless op has any desire whatsoever of maybe reverting to win8.1.

Samer is partly right. (I said that?). There are several brands that have a separate partition that contains a factory reset option, over and above the windows recovery partition, but what that partition basically does is return windows back to factory specs, drivers, windows etc including all the factory bloatware and trial versions, stuff that's not contained in Windows itself. Some of those factory drivers for proprietary hardware can be a royal pain to track down, so consideration should be given to keeping that particular partition.

yes you said that ... but dont think if we disagree on Issues any one of us should act superior to another ... or judge the other knowledge ... each has his own opinion and judgement and experience.

Thank you very much

 

[Colif]

i was about to look on MSI web site for laptop to check its driver supply for win 10 and I see 4 MSI GX60 laptops there and have to wonder which he has,. There is a 1AC, 3CC, 3BE & a Hitman edition. It doesn't make a great deal of difference as none of them have win 10 drivers anyway. Plenty of 8.1 64bit drivers so in most cases they good enough for 10

 

[Karadjgne]

Yeah, windows has enough generic drivers to get anything working at a basic level, its just the hardware specific drivers like Nvidia or Renesas drivers that'll make or break performance.

 

[g-unit1111]

If a moonth has passed since teh upgrade, that key is no longer valid. regardless, Op wanted to clean those partitions. yes, he can on a reinstall. We shall agree to disagree on whether he should or not.

I've never heard of this happening. Please elaborate.

 

[Hlsgsz]

If a moonth has passed since teh upgrade, that key is no longer valid. regardless, Op wanted to clean those partitions. yes, he can on a reinstall. We shall agree to disagree on whether he should or not.

I've never heard of this happening. Please elaborate.

After a month from the free upgrade, the key becomes invalid as a W7/8 key and the activation becomes tied to the motherboard as a W10 license(no longer key, but hardware based). Uncoincidently, that is also the moment from which on one may no longer roll back to W8/7.

 

[Samer1970]

If a moonth has passed since teh upgrade, that key is no longer valid. regardless, Op wanted to clean those partitions. yes, he can on a reinstall. We shall agree to disagree on whether he should or not.

I've never heard of this happening. Please elaborate.

After a month from the free upgrade, the key becomes invalid as a W7/8 key and the activation becomes tied to the motherboard as a W10 license(no longer key, but hardware based). Uncoincidently, that is also the moment from which on one may no longer roll back to W8/7.

we are talking about notebooks with bios key . it works for me.

 

[Colif]

As soon as the windows.old folder is deleted after 30 days, it also converted your win 7/8 key into a Digital entitlement to always install win 10 on machine again. If you rolled back before the 30 days you get to keep win 8 and still have the digital entitlement to win 10. Win 8 key only converts if you stay on win 10 more than 1 month (Not sure if it counts non consecutive days). You cannot legally run both os on PC at same time, since one is an upgrade of the other.

 

[Samer1970]

As soon as the windows.old folder is deleted after 30 days, it also converted your win 7/8 key into a Digital entitlement to always install win 10 on machine again. If you rolled back before the 30 days you get to keep win 8 and still have the digital entitlement to win 10. Win 8 key only converts if you stay on win 10 more than 1 month (Not sure if it counts non consecutive days). You cannot legally run both os on PC at same time, since one is an upgrade of the other.

you dont run both of them at the same time . you only run one of them at a time on the notebook. you are talking about using the old key and the new one on two different machines .. that is not the case here.

 

[Karadjgne]

Old key and new key are the same key. When you upgrade from 8 to 10, you register online with Microsoft. The key is transfered from a recognised 8 key to a recognised 10 key. If you wipe out the OS, and reinstall, you'll need to use 10 as Microsoft only recognizes they key as legit for 10. To have Microsoft recognised the key for 8,youll need to roll back the upgrade from 10 to 8, which automatically changes the permissions at Microsoft. A simple reinstall of 8 won't work as the key is for 10,accordibg to Microsoft, unless you did a prior roll back.
So, if you replace the OS drive for any reason, install windows via your old 8 install disk, at completion you'll have windows, it'll have limited function and an annoying pop-up for 30 days telling you that you have an unregistered copy of Windows that you'll need to fix. By dl 10 which will then upgrade and inform Microsoft you now have a registered version.
Basically, if you don't roll back, 8 is no longer valid. You are stuck with 10. Same key.

 

[Samer1970]

Old key and new key are the same key. When you upgrade from 8 to 10, you register online with Microsoft. The key is transfered from a recognised 8 key to a recognised 10 key. If you wipe out the OS, and reinstall, you'll need to use 10 as Microsoft only recognizes they key as legit for 10. To have Microsoft recognised the key for 8,youll need to roll back the upgrade from 10 to 8, which automatically changes the permissions at Microsoft. A simple reinstall of 8 won't work as the key is for 10,accordibg to Microsoft, unless you did a prior roll back.
So, if you replace the OS drive for any reason, install windows via your old 8 install disk, at completion you'll have windows, it'll have limited function and an annoying pop-up for 30 days telling you that you have an unregistered copy of Windows that you'll need to fix. By dl 10 which will then upgrade and inform Microsoft you now have a registered version.
Basically, if you don't roll back, 8 is no longer valid. You are stuck with 10. Same key.

sorry I have a notebook here upgraded to Win 10 , and I have 2 different keys , Bios win8 key and Win 10 key . and they are not the same.

 

[Samer1970]

of course they are not same, you now have an active and valid win 10 key, bound to this notebook and an invalid win 8 key, which will should not work on any computer anymore for activation, as it got an "used for win 10 upgrade flag" in MS database 😉

it works . I tried it once and it WORKED . I had windows 10 , got corrupted , I had no win 10 around , Factory reseted it , became windows 8 , and it activated without any problems

It seems notebook with bios key work .

 

[Hlsgsz]

of course they are not same, you now have an active and valid win 10 key, bound to this notebook and an invalid win 8 key, which will should not work on any computer anymore for activation, as it got an "used for win 10 upgrade flag" in MS database 😉

it works . I tried it once and it WORKED . I had windows 10 , got corrupted , I had no win 10 around , Factory reseted it , became windows 8 , and it activated without any problems

It seems notebook with bios key work .

Are you sure 30 days had passed since the upgrade?

 

[Samer1970]

so you just confirmed software piracy, right? The upgrade rules for win 10 are clear, upgrading to win 10 for free, makes the older key invalid, not matter the activation works, it's not covered by the licence agreement.

and do you know what kind of License MS gives to notebook Manufacturer ? dont Accuse me of software Piracy . I am not Using Windows 8 and windows 10 at the same time on two different machines . and you dont know the license Agreement between Microsoft and Lenovo notebooks. you are just comparing it to standard OEM/Retail windows.

 

[Samer1970]

of course they are not same, you now have an active and valid win 10 key, bound to this notebook and an invalid win 8 key, which will should not work on any computer anymore for activation, as it got an "used for win 10 upgrade flag" in MS database 😉

it works . I tried it once and it WORKED . I had windows 10 , got corrupted , I had no win 10 around , Factory reseted it , became windows 8 , and it activated without any problems

It seems notebook with bios key work .

Are you sure 30 days had passed since the upgrade?

Not Sure I dont remember , But I can test it again and see ...