Hidden volumes empty or not?

[jifjaf]

Hi all, new forum member here (I’m currently training as a technician so advance apologies for any daft questions or omissions!)

.............................................................................

Disk management/diskpart show that I've got 3 volumes - see attached screenshots.

My machine didn't come with any disks so I think the 12GB 'nameless'/recovery partition contains all the system files I'd need to do a fresh reinstall of the OS, but it's shown as having 100% free i.e. empty. But when, in command line, i assign it a letter (diskpart > list volume > select volume 3 > assign letter....) then when it appears in 'computer' it shows as only having 1.97 of 12GB free.... i.e not empty

• Does anyone know why...what's going on there?

• Also, what's the 102MB 'system reserved' volume for?

• Are they both for recovery i.e. the recovery partition is split in two?

• if so why & what's the difference between the two?

• & if not what's the difference between the two?

Also, I think I read somewhere that the recovery partitions are created by/for the h.ware manufacturer - in that case I guess the contents as a whole won't be much use for another machine....?


TIA



p.s. I've removed all assigned letters from hidden volumes to avoid the BIOS not being able to boot the recovery partition, if I ever need to.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

System reserved contains the boot files necessary for your current installation of Windows. Without it, you won't boot. If you were to do a clean install using diskpart, you could omit that partition and force the boot files to be on C instead. But as it is, you need to keep that system reserved partition.

The recovery partition is something else entirely and is used to restore the PC to factory specs.

It's normal for the recovery partition to appear empty, but as you discovered, it really isn't.

 

[jifjaf]

Thanks...

ignatzatsonic wrote "It's normal for the recovery partition to appear empty, but as you discovered, it really isn't."

Is there a particular reason for that?

 

[rraod]

The two hidden partitions 102MB and 12GB partitions are made on purpose without drive letters. 102MB partition is used for booting the system. 12GB partition contains the setup files for returning the system as it came from factory.

When these two partitions are without drive letters, they appear to be empty. But once drive letters are assigned to them they show the contents and also indicate space occupied and free space. You should not assign any drive letters to these two partitions for normal usage.

 

[jifjaf]

You should not assign any drive letters to these two partitions for normal usage.

That's why I removed any assigned letters from the hidden volumes, as I mentioned in my initial post - so as to avoid the BIOS not being able to boot the recovery partition, if I ever need to use it.

Are there any other potential risks from assigning letters to hidden volumes?

Thanks

 

[theog]

(I’m currently training as a technician so advance apologies for any daft questions or omissions!)

Using your wording

Some daft people add or delete DATA to/from the partitions, making them unusable.

 

[jifjaf]

yeh, I do know enough not to do that!!

Thanks