Windows 10 Multiple Recovery Partition – Why and How to Fix

User Case

Why There Are Multiple Recovery Partitions in Windows 10?

The recovery partition is the part of the disk drive that is set aside by the manufacturer to save the system image before it leaves the factory. The recovery partition contains system backup image files and files that guide system recovery. In short, the recovery partition is a one-click function to restore the computer when the system fails.

Each time you upgrade Windows to the next version, the upgrade program checks the space on the system reserved or recovery partition. If the previous recovery partition does not have enough space for the upgrade, Windows will create an additional recovery partition with hundreds of MB of disk space. So you will encounter situations where you have multiple recovery partitions in Windows 10.

Can I Delete the Extra Windows 10 Recovery Partitions?

When users encounter problems with multiple recovery partitions in their Windows 10, they ask new questions like "Can I delete the recovery partition" and "Which recovery partition should I delete". Of course, you can delete additional recovery partitions without affecting the operation of the operating system. However, you must check which recovery partition is currently in use.

1. Type cmd in the Search box. Right-click the Command Prompt app and select Run as administrator.
2. Then enter the following command in the Command Prompt window and press Enter to execute this command:

• reagentc /info

3. It will then display the recovery partitions you are using, counting from left to right. Once you have determined which one you are currently using, you can use the guidelines in this article to delete the unused recovery partition.

Backup System Before Deleting the Redundant Recovery Partition

The recovery partition is used to restore the system to factory settings in case of system problems. In order to protect the recovery partition from unintentional changes or deletions, the partition usually has no disk letter and only a Help option is provided in Disk Management.

To prevent you from making irreversible mistakes when deleting additional recovery partitions, I recommend that you first create a bootable media and make a system backup. AOMEI Backupper Standard is a full-featured free backup and recovery software that works with all Windows systems.

If you deleted the recovery partition by mistake, causing problems such as a computer crash, you can use this bootable media to successfully boot your computer and restore it to its previous working state from the previously created system backup.

If you are using this software for the first time, you can refer to the following illustrated tutorial to create a system backup.

1. Click the download button below to install this freeware on your computer.

2. Open AOMEI Backupper, navigate to Backup -> System Backup.

3. Modify the “Task Name” to distinguish it from other backup tasks. The program will select the system and boot partitions by default as the source. And then choose a destination path to save the system backup. You can backup computer to USB, external drive, network share, NAS, etc.

4. Then click Start Backup to begin system backup in Windows 10.

📝 Tips: Before starting a backup, you can customize your backup task by clicking on the three options in the bottom left corner of the word program.

• Options: You can comment backups to distinguish them from other backups, compress backup image files, split large image files into smaller ones, enable email notifications to be alerted when a backup is complete, and more.
• Schedule Backup: You can specify the interval here to automatically backup your system at regular intervals, such as Daily, Weekly or Monthly. (Event triggers and USB plug in are available in Professional version).
• Backup Scheme: It enables you to choose the backup method from full/incremental/differential backups. After upgrading to Pro version, you can also set rules to automatically delete old backups so that there is enough space in your backup location.

5. Click Finish option when the system backup operation is done.

Safely Delete Windows 10 Multiple Recovery Partitions

After doing the system backup, you can delete the extra recovery partition according to the two methods provided below. You can use Windows' Diskpart command line or professional third-party software AOMEI Partition Assistant to help you do this.

Way 1. Delete Multiple Recovery Partition with Diskparf Command

To delete unused recovery partitions on Windows 10 using the Windows built-in tool – Diskpart, follow the steps below.

1.  Type diskpart in the Search box, then right-click on the Diskpart app and select Run as administrator.
2. In the pop-up window, type the following commands in order and click Enter after each command.

• list disks (display all the disks)
• select disk n (replace n with the number of the disk containing the recovery partitions)
• list partition (list all the partitions on the selected disk)
• select partition n (replace n with the partition number of the unused recovery partition).
• delete partition n

 

Way 2. Delete Unused Recovery Partitions with AOMEI Partition Assistant

AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is a completely free program that allows you to delete recovery partitions and regain storage space. You can download this software and follow the graphic steps below.

1. Install this freeware on your computer and open it.
2. Right-click on the recovery partition you want to delete, then select Delete Partition, and click OK.

3. Select a method to remove the recovery partition and click OK.

4. The recovery partition will be displayed as unallocated space. Make sure this is the partition you want to delete and click Apply.

After deleting the recovery partition, the remaining space is unallocated space. You can use the unallocated space to create a new volume or extend an existing partition to make full use of the disk storage space.

Final Words

This article tells you why Windows 10 has multiple recovery partitions. And provides you with two ways to safely delete the extra recovery partition. However, to avoid being overwhelmed by any unexpected problems during the operation, it is still recommended that you make a backup of your system in advance.

Also, to run backup and restore operations without booting Windows, you can also create recovery environment in advance with AOMEI Backupper. If you just want to restore individual files or folders instead of the entire backup, you can mount the system image as virtual partitions with "Explore Image".