24 Partitions on C:\

[Archie_SnC]

Hi everyone,

I've got a relatively new PC (less than a year old) and ever since a Windows update pushed late last year (around September, I think) it's been acting really strangely.

It'll regularly fail to install updates and have to restore, but more odd is that it's started creating lots of partitions on the system drive.
They're not massive, but it's starting to add up.

Any advice would be massively appreciated.

Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 6800K @ 3.40GHz 25 °C
Broadwell-E/EP 14nm Technology
RAM
64.0GB Unknown @ 1197MHz (17-17-17-39)
Motherboard
Alienware 09G12C (SOCKET 0)
Graphics
DELL S2817Q (3840x2160@60Hz)
DELL S2817Q (3840x2160@60Hz)
3071MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Dell) 35 °C
Storage
476GB SK hynix SC308 SATA 512GB (SSD) 27 °C
3726GB Seagate ST4000DM005-2DP166 (SATA) 37 °C
447GB SanDisk SDSSDHII480G (SSD) 26 °C
3726GB Western Digital WDC WD4004FZWX-00GBGB0 (SATA) 46 °C
Optical Drives
HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GS40N
Audio
Sound Blaster Recon3Di

 

[Comp Cmndo]

I've never seen one do this.
It doesn't have enough space on Disk0 for Recovery Partition, so it keeps taking some from C-partition.
Reduce the size of C-partition. OS doesn't need 400GB.
Partitions 4-24 could be combined into one & moved after the C-partition.
Recovery Partition doesn't need more than 1GB after the C-partition; you have 22 halfGB.

 

[Trouble]

One question.....
IS this an ASUS branded motherboard and....
Did you install ASUS Live Update??
Technically, I guess that's actually two questions.
Was just checking, because I've never seen anything like this either, but I ran into a couple posts on the web that blamed ASUS Live Update for the issue, and uninstalling it resolved the problem.

it's been acting really strangely.
It'll regularly fail to install updates and have to restore,

Normally, I suggest leaving it alone unless you are concerned about disk space. I see you are getting down around 23% free on C: so it may soon need some attention, and....
The fact that it is behaving strangely might also be a consideration.
My second suggestion is, before you do anything, backup all your critical data and create a full disk image of the problem hard drive.
THEN....
Find out which recovery partition, your system is actually using.
Open an Admin Command prompt and type
reagentc /info
and hit enter.
That should tell you the Windows RE location

I would think that the remaining so called "Recovery" partitions could be safely deleted, IF that is something you choose to do.
BUT..... Make sure you have your critical data backed up AND a full disk image, so you have a strong fall back position just in case things don't go as planned.
It's not something I would typically suggest doing unless you are confident of your skill set as it will likely require either using
The native DiskPart utility
OR
A third party partition management tool.

 

[Archie_SnC]

Thanks for your replies, folks!

I've never seen one do this.
It doesn't have enough space on Disk0 for Recovery Partition, so it keeps taking some from C-partition.
Reduce the size of C-partition. OS doesn't need 400GB.
Partitions 4-24 could be combined into one & moved after the C-partition.
Recovery Partition doesn't need more than 1GB after the C-partition; you have 22 halfGB.

Can I create a bigger Disk0 manually? I certainly wouldn't miss a gigabyte.

One question.....
IS this an ASUS branded motherboard and....
Did you install ASUS Live Update??
Technically, I guess that's actually two questions.
Was just checking, because I've never seen anything like this either, but I ran into a couple posts on the web that blamed ASUS Live Update for the issue, and uninstalling it resolved the problem.
...
I would think that the remaining so called "Recovery" partitions could be safely deleted, IF that is something you choose to do.
...it will likely require either using
The native DiskPart utility
OR
A third party partition management tool.

Asus software definitely not installed. The board is:
Alienware
Model 09G12C (SOCKET 0)

The RE location is on Disk 0 partition 24.
Aside from that I'm not overly comfortable proceeding. Disk Management in control panel certainly isn't letting me merge/delete the others so I'm nervous about doing more without clear instructions of how to proceed.

The update it seems to be tripping up over which was the cause of all of this from the beginning is Feature Update version 1709. It's convinced it requires a restart, but it never finishes the update. I'm convinced the two issues are related.

 

[Saltgrass]

Edit:

Normally, Windows will create the Current Recovery partition just after the C partition which it has done, numerous times. We just need to confirm which partition is the correct one, they are not always in the order they appear.

If you have made configuration changes on the drive or restored the drive, you might let us know what was done.

 

[Saltgrass]

It's convinced it requires a restart, but it never finishes the update

I really hate to ask this because it will be such a mess, is to open an administrative command prompt and copy and paste the command below. When done, put the text file in a Zip file and attach.

bcdedit /enum all > %userprofile%\Desktop\bcdtext.txt

 

[Saltgrass]

I may have been looking at Trouble's Reagentc listing. If yours is showing Partition 24, and Diskpart shows that the last partition is 24 then you can just go from there and remove the other partitions.

 

[clifford_cooley]

This is a new one on me as well.

Technically C is a partition of its own. All the other partitions are independent from C that do not have a drive letter designation of their own.

Delete them all and stretch C to use the un-allocated space afterward. Windows will create a new one at some point. I personally hate that Windows will do this. Every system that I have manually setup without this partition eventually had it automatically. In the beginning it pissed me off every time, but I've grown to accept it.

I also noticed the use of EFI which is only needed for more than 4 primary partitions or boot drives larger than 2TB. Legacy MBR only supports 4 primary partitions on drives smaller than 2TB. In this case I don't see where EFI is needed.

 

[Comp Cmndo]

...Disk Management in control panel certainly isn't letting me merge/delete the others so I'm nervous about doing more without clear instructions of how to proceed..

.
Use MiniTool Partition Wizard instead of Disk Management.

 

[Archie_SnC]

Edit:
If you have made configuration changes on the drive or restored the drive, you might let us know what was done.

I haven't personally, but this is my first pre-built system in years. It's my work PC and we had to use a 'trusted' hardware partner (hence Dell & Alienware). Not sure if they've performed any shenanigans on the drive.

I really hate to ask this because it will be such a mess, is to open an administrative command prompt and copy and paste the command below. When done, put the text file in a Zip file and attach.

bcdedit /enum all > %userprofile%\Desktop\bcdtext.txt

Firmware Boot Manager
---------------------
identifier {fwbootmgr}
displayorder {bootmgr}
timeout 0

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\bootmgfw.efi
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {cf3a163e-86f5-11e7-b92b-f8b156ff9184}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {43b1747b-8701-11e7-9b40-f8b156ff9184}
device ramdisk=[\Device\HarddiskVolume24]\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim,{43b1747c-8701-11e7-9b40-f8b156ff9184}
path \windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows Recovery Environment
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
displaymessage Recovery
osdevice ramdisk=[\Device\HarddiskVolume24]\Recovery\WindowsRE\Winre.wim,{43b1747c-8701-11e7-9b40-f8b156ff9184}
systemroot \windows
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard
winpe Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.efi
description Windows 10
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {43b1747b-8701-11e7-9b40-f8b156ff9184}
displaymessageoverride Recovery
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {cf3a163e-86f5-11e7-b92b-f8b156ff9184}
nx OptIn
bootmenupolicy Standard

Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {cf3a163e-86f5-11e7-b92b-f8b156ff9184}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.efi
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-US
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
recoverysequence {43b1747b-8701-11e7-9b40-f8b156ff9184}
recoveryenabled Yes
isolatedcontext Yes
allowedinmemorysettings 0x15000075
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
bootmenupolicy Standard
debugoptionenabled No

Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
path \EFI\Microsoft\Boot\memtest.efi
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes

EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems No

Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Local

RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}

Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}

Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}
{hypervisorsettings}

Hypervisor Settings
-------------------
identifier {hypervisorsettings}
hypervisordebugtype Serial
hypervisordebugport 1
hypervisorbaudrate 115200

Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}

Device options
--------------
identifier {43b1747c-8701-11e7-9b40-f8b156ff9184}
description Windows Recovery
ramdisksdidevice partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume24
ramdisksdipath \Recovery\WindowsRE\boot.sdi

I also noticed the use of EFI which is only needed for more than 4 primary partitions or boot drives larger than 2TB. Legacy MBR only supports 4 primary partitions on drives smaller than 2TB. In this case I don't see where EFI is needed.

Sorry, what is EFI? Is this a reformat job for the drive?

.
Use MiniTool Partition Wizard instead of Disk Management.

Nice one, I'll give this a try!


Thanks, everyone! I'll report back

 

[Saltgrass]

The EFI system partition is the boot partition on a UEFI system. DO NOT mess with it.

Your BCD Store seems to look normal. It does show volume 24 as the tools partition. I am guessing the one just behind the OS partition is the correct one, but cannot be sure. The ones in the center are probably safe to remove but try just one.

If you run Diskpart you can get a listing of your partitions. So open an Admin command prompt and type the commands below. They only use the first three letters of a command so list is lis, etc.

Diskpart
lis dis
sel dis X <-- Substitute your OS drive from the prior listing for X
lis par

DISKPART> lis dis
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ------------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 476 GB 0 B *
Disk 1 Online 238 GB 0 B *

DISKPART> sel dis 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> lis par
Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Recovery 499 MB 1024 KB
Partition 2 System 100 MB 500 MB
Partition 3 Reserved 16 MB 600 MB
Partition 4 Primary 476 GB 616 MB

 

[Archie_SnC]

Hi everybody! Long time no see.


SO, using Partition Wizard, I deleted all the extra partitions and extended the Reagent partition to 8GB to hopefully ensure it never needs more space. A week later and still no new partitions, so hopefully it's working.
I deleted my reagent XML and re-enabled it, too. It's definitely looking at the correct partition.

Hopefully I'll have no more issues like this. Now I just need to figure out how to get Windows Update to stop failing on the 1803 upgrade. I've tried so many things, but it always restores to the previous version.

 

[Comp Cmndo]

Partition Wizard is the best.
As for upgrading to 1803, use MCT to download it as an iso file. No need to create a USB.
Put the iso file on a separate partition so it won't get backed up to Windows.old during the install.
Double-click the iso file (this mounts it), then double-click setup.exe.