Deleting/Moving Partitions

[Need2No]

W10 Pro 64 bit, Toshiba Satellite C55 B5100
UEFI/GPT
500GB SATA HD

See image of partitions: https://s21.postimg.org/lt3yl0zfr/Partitions.jpg
The D partition (50GB) has W8.1 which is what the laptop came with originally.
The added C partition has an up-to-date W10.
I don't really know what the purpose is of first three partitions, the sixth (819 MB) and the last, RECOVERY.

I now have no need for W8.1 so I am thinking about deleting that partition. I have the MiniTool Partition Wizard Pro program with which I could do that.

I'm confused by the proper method to do so without causing HD corruption.
1. Delete D.
2. Move C to where D was, keeping C the same size as it is.
3. What about (NTFS) 819 MB (Used: partition, does that need to be move along with C or deleted?
4. Leave RECOVERY alone? I'm guessing that it is related to the original W8.1 OS and is not needed but would removing it cause problems?

Suggestions/Advice please.

 

[Saltgrass]

Do you have a Recovery Drive or Install Media ready to boot if necessary?

Some of your partitions are normal but I don't know what the first one, labeled "System", is. Perhaps an partition placed by the OEM. But all partitions in front of an OS partition should be left alone.

Have you removed the options to boot to Windows 8?

 

[Need2No]

I have an image of the full hard drive created by Macrium Reflect.

The current boot setup is W10 first and the option for W8 second.

W10 Disk Management shows a slightly different partition layout, with one less partition. The third partition shown by MiniTools [(Other) 128 MB] does not exist in W10 Disk Management.

W10 Disk Management labels three out of the four none operating system partitions that it shows as "Recovery Partition".
Image:
https://s18.postimg.org/d4r5bnqa1/Partitions_Mini_Tool_vs_Disk_Management.jpg

 

[Saltgrass]

The 128 MB partition is the MSR partition and you can only see it in Diskpart and during an install in the partitions window. It is a partition Windows puts on GPT drives.

If you are sure you want to remove the partition you might be able to use msconfig.exe to delete that option from the boot menu, then delete the partition. If it won't delete using Disk Management we can use Diskpart and the override command should do the job.

You can move or extend C into the space without messing with the Recovery Tools and Recovery Image partitions. But the warning is always, such operations can mess you your install and stop it from booting. That is why I strongly suggest you have the Install Media or a Recovery Drive available.

You have several options available for your system. I like to make only one change at a time but you can do them all at once if you choose. Since the C partition is only 50 GB you may want to consider increasing that.

When you are all done and booting normally we can check your recovery options to see if they need to be reset.

 

[Need2No]

Thanks for your advice.

I see in the System Configuration (msconfig) where I can disable the W8 boot option.

I'll have to give this more thought. Perhaps I'll just leave well enough alone, if a isn't broke don't fix it.

Should I make changes, I'll post updates.