Tripredacus Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 If you have a computer with Windows 8 that was installed by an OEM on a GPT disk, the Windows 8.1 update from the Store will create a second recovery partition! Alternatively, if your OS is installed on an MBR disk, the 2nd partition is not created. This second partition is seen as a 350MB Recovery partition. For example a standard deployment of Windows 8 on GPT with recovery partition and diskpart: DISKPART> list part Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- ------- Partition 1 Recovery 300 MB 1024 KB Partition 2 System 100 MB 301 MB Partition 3 Reserved 128 MB 401 MB Partition 4 Primary 50 GB 529 MB Partition 5 Primary 5000 MB 50 GB The above is outlined as: Part 1 = WindowsRE (winre.wim) Part 2 = BCD/boot file location Part 3 = MSR Part 4 = OS Part 5 = Recovery Image (install.wim) After the update to Windows 8.1, it will stick a new Recovery partition after the OS. Here is the new layout including details: DISKPART> sel disk 0 Disk 0 is now the selected disk. DISKPART> list part Partition ### Type Size Offset ------------- ---------------- ------- ------- Partition 1 Recovery 300 MB 1024 KB Partition 2 System 100 MB 301 MB Partition 3 Reserved 128 MB 401 MB Partition 4 Primary 50 GB 529 MB Partition 5 Recovery 350 MB 50 GB Partition 6 Primary 5000 MB 51 GB DISKPART> sel part 1 Partition 1 is now the selected partition. DISKPART> detail part Partition 1 Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac Hidden : Yes Required: No Attrib : 0X8000000000000000 Offset in Bytes: 1048576 Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- * Volume 3 Windows RE NTFS Partition 300 MB Healthy Hidden DISKPART> sel part 5 Partition 5 is now the selected partition. DISKPART> detail part Partition 5 Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac Hidden : Yes Required: Yes Attrib : 0X8000000000000001 Offset in Bytes: 54401171456 Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info ---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- -------- * Volume 5 NTFS Partition 350 MB Healthy Hidden The update goes through a checklist when updating: 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP F Suspend bitlocker if needed 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Boot WinPE 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Prepare SafeOS for rollback 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Set SafeOS boot entry as the default boot entry 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Cleanup safe OS mount directory 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Apply WIM file PathForNewOS, index 4 to C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\NewOS 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Set boot command %SYSTEMDRIVE%\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\SetupPlatform.exe /postoobe for phase 3 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Set boot command %SYSTEMDRIVE%\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\SetupPlatform.exe /presysprep for phase 0 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Set boot command %SYSTEMDRIVE%\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\SetupPlatform.exe /postsysprep for phase 1 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Set boot command %SYSTEMDRIVE%\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\SetupPlatform.exe /preoobe for phase 2 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Set entropy for C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\NewOS 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Add boot entry for C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\NewOS\WINDOWS. Locale = en-US2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Set OS Switch rollback checkpoint 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Backup the recovery partition to C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\RecoveryPartitionBackup 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Apply EAs for C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\NewOS 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Install Dynamic Updates 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Install Driver DU Updates 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Install OS updates (DU) to keep installation up-to-date 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Relocate OS from C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\NewOS to C:\ 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Add boot entry for C:\WINDOWS. Locale = en-US 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Prepare the new OS for first boot 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Setup the recovery partition 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Orchestrate OS switch for NewOS with safe OS SafeOS and rollback OS ExternalRollback. DelayedSwitch: 0 2013-10-25 09:41:16, Info SP S Copy log files from C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\Sources\Panther to C:\WINDOWS Attached is selected entries from the setupact.log after the update, which shows some of the things that the update does. Things left out is when the update downloads and install.wim, mounts it with DISM, scans the existing OS for applicable drivers and packages and injects them, unmounts the image and them uses DISM to apply it to the hard drive. Regarding the extra recovery partition, there does not seem to be a way to prevent it from happening. neatstuff.txt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted October 28, 2013 Share Posted October 28, 2013 All your hard disk space are belong to us! jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boostcraver Posted October 26, 2014 Share Posted October 26, 2014 (edited) Just fixed this on my laptop. Essentially you can just move the WinRE environment to the original Recovery Partition (Partition 1). Step Zero obviously is back up your entire system with clonezilla or something else nice. First note the time stamps of WinRE.wim or other files everywhere:c:\dir /ah c:\windows\system32\recovery Backup your disk partition info:diskpart> list volumediskpart> list diskdiskpart> select disk 0diskpart> select par 1diskpart> detail pardiskpart> select par 2diskpart> detail par...Until you have saved all the partition details. You will use the GUID to make the Recovery partitions accessible.select the old recovery partitionset id=07 # Many of the guides show to do this, but it didn't work for me. My other system with Win8.1 Enterprise shows it as 07 hIdden, but my Win8.1 corporate OEM edition showed it differently... so try setting it as a GUIDORset id=GUID of a basic didks...set id=EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7 Refer to this wiki for more info about GUIDs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GUID_Partition_Table#Windows:_64-bit_versionsNow assign a drive letter for the old partitionselect the volume for the old recovery partitionassign letter=o # O for Olddir /ahdir /sNote time stamps of the old recovery folder and recovery files... probably from before you re-installed windowsNow make a new sub directory:mkdir o:\Recoverynew\WinREnow disable WinRE globallyreagentc /disableCheck the date / timestamp of any new files in c:\windows\system32\recovery... if it is brand new you can copy this one to the Old partition, or you will grab it from the "new recovery partition"Now perform the same partition change to basic disk type to unhide and assign a drive letter (N) to the "new recovery" partition which you will be removing:Either copy the WinRE.wim and its associated attributes (hidden, system) from the C: or the N: drive:\ Robocopy.exe C:\Windows\System32\Recovery\ O:\Recoverynew\WindowsRE\ Winre.wim /copyall /dcopy:t /move Now re-set reagentc and re-enable it:Configure Win RE: reagentc /setreimage /path Q:\Recovery\WindowsRE Enable Win RE: reagentc /enable (thanks: http://www.sepago.de/e/nicholas/2012/07/25/windows-recovery-environment-re-explained ) Kill the new partition... reboot and testThen test winre environment by going to PC settings - Update and Recovery - Recovery - Advanced - Restart Now - Advanced - Advanced Command prompt...Once you know that WinRE is working, go back to windows, and expand your Primary Partition. That's why I had to do all the above. I had the extra second recovery partition blocking my C: drive from being able to expand into some unused disk space (hey! 11G on a 250G SSD is worth it for all this). Enjoy. Edited October 26, 2014 by boostcraver Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tripredacus Posted October 27, 2014 Author Share Posted October 27, 2014 select the old recovery partition set id=07 # Many of the guides show to do this, but it didn't work for me. My other system with Win8.1 Enterprise shows it as 07 hIdden, but my Win8.1 corporate OEM edition showed it differently... so try setting it as a GUID Of course, Disk IDs like 07 are for MBR disks, not GPT. GPT uses GUIDs as you found out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boostcraver Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 Cool... thanks for that tidbit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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