SOLVED Strange situation with Windows Recovery Tools

[Saltgrass]

In most systems, the recovery tools (winre.wim) is placed on a small recovery partition. But it seems something may have changed.

I checked one of my Dell systems and the recovery tools had been moved to the larger "OEM Image" partition. I thought it was just something with that system so I checked a second system. The tools had also been moved on that one so it isn't just an isolated incident. There is a possibility it had been done prior to the 17134 build upgrade and I just did not notice. But quite a few folks are showing drive letters on their recovery partitions which might be related to this situation.

Anyone heard anything about this?

Thanks

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Saltgrass,

what is "Disk Manager" showing you?:

 

[Saltgrass]

Disk Management looks normal. The only reason I know about this, and it may be by design, is someone was having a problem with their recovery options so I thought I would check mine. I have not actually tried to use the tools but the reagentc /info command showed the Tools were in a different partition.

I am wondering if it is related to the 10 day rollback period after the update to 17134.1. I will make sure and check then to see if anything changes.

My system which does not have a second recovery partition still shows the tools in the small recovery partition.

Thanks... This situation is on a UEFI configuration.

 

[Norton]

Saltgrass Not showing any changes with 1803 or 1709 with Recovery.
I have 3 Dells running 1803. Using reagentc /info this is what it returns.

this is what I see.

 

[Saltgrass]

@Norton, thanks. Of my 3 systems, 2 changed and one did not. The one that did not is an older system and the Recovery Tools partition is 852 MB after the OS partition. One system did not have the large Recovery Image partition so it was not affected.

That older system was also installed using the download from online using normal Windows Update. The two systems which changed were both done using the downloaded install media made with the Media Creation tool.... I had not considered the installs were from a different source, so possibly related..

I will watch after the 10 day period to see if something changes, thanks again..

 

[Norton]

I used the USB install on all 3 machines too. I just checked my Laptop and noticed partition 1 is a Healthy OEM partition, 2 Is the Recovery and 3 is the OS. May be wrong, but, I believe that is a complete order of reversal.

My other 2 PCs the layout is OS is on Partition 1, 2 Data, 3 & 4 Recovery.

 

[Saltgrass]

My other 2 PCs the layout is OS is on Partition 1, 2 Data, 3 & 4 Recovery

Are we talking all UEFI configurations?

The reagentc listing shows the Recovery Tools partition is 1, which is totally normal. Usually followed by the EFI system, MSR and the OS.

Moving the Recovery may be related to the install needing a larger Tools partition and will use the 11 GB partition in Lieu to making a new partition. Somewhere around 750 MB seems to be the size Microsoft is looking for. This would, however, depend on you exact configuration and space needed.

You remember, back in the old days, we would install Win 7 without the System Reserved partitions and the Recovery Tools would go into C. Of course, this would be disastrous in situations where the C drive had the problem.

 

[Norton]

I was looking in Computer Management. What you say about moving the recovery position makes sense.

 

[Saltgrass]

I just updated a system which was my primary gaming system. A new 487 MB Recovery partition was added to replace a 450 MB partition.

In that process, I finally saw the errant drive letter situation we see mentioned in the forums. I checked the old Recovery partition, which was the one getting the drive letter, and saw the attributes for it had been changed from 0x8000000000000001 to 0x0000000000000001. After I changed it back, removed drive letter and shut the system completely down, the drive letter has not come back.

The following is from a Microsoft Tech site which explains. If you put more than one number the attribute takes on the effect of both numbers so 8 keeps it from getting a drive letter and 1 tells the system it is essential. Now that I think about it, I suppose I could remove the 1 since it is no longer used for recovery.

0x0000000000000001. Specifies that the partition is required by the computer to function properly.

0x8000000000000000. Specifies that the partition will not receive a drive letter by default when the disk is moved to another computer or when the disk is seen for the first time by a computer.

 

[shockwaveriderz]

detail disk

Samsung SSD 970 PRO 512GB
Disk ID: {98134DA5-1370-4F3C-B5D1-94AE97E6F582}
Type : NVMe
Status : Online
Path : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0
Location Path : PCIROOT(0)#PCI(1D00)#PCI(0000)#NVME(P00T00L00)
Current Read-only State : No
Read-only : No
Boot Disk : Yes
Pagefile Disk : Yes
Hibernation File Disk : No
Crashdump Disk : Yes
Clustered Disk : No

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
Volume 1 Recovery NTFS Partition 499 MB Healthy
Volume 2 C Win10Pro NTFS Partition 855 GB Healthy Boot
Volume 3 NTFS Partition 852 MB Healthy
Volume 4 NTFS Partition 475 MB Healthy
Volume 5 FAT32 Partition 99 MB Healthy System

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Reserved 128 MB 17 KB
Partition 2 Recovery 499 MB 129 MB
Partition 3 System 99 MB 628 MB
Partition 4 Primary 855 GB 727 MB
Partition 5 Recovery 852 MB 856 GB
Partition 6 Recovery 475 MB 857 GB

DISKPART> select partition 2

Partition 2 is now the selected partition.

DISKPART> detail partition

Partition 2
Type : de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac
Hidden : No
Required: Yes
Attrib : 0X8000000000000001
Offset in Bytes: 135266304

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- --------- --------
* Volume 11 Recovery NTFS Partition 499 MB Healthy Hidden

Your Recovery Partition must have the attributes of : 0X8000000000000001 and a type of :
de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac to be a recovery partition. It is these 2 parameters that determine what a Recovery Partition is.

gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001. This attribute is cumulative and the sum of 0x0000000000000001 (set as required partition by system) and 0x8000000000000000 (prevent assigning drive letter automatically on new machines).

set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac" to set Recovery Flag on the partition.

 

[Saltgrass]

I am not seeing a question and the thread is over a year old... Could you clarify the situation? Are you just showing your configuration?

 

[shockwaveriderz]

I am not seeing a question and the thread is over a year old... Could you clarify the situation? Are you just showing your configuration?

I posted the information for people who in the future might stumble across this post. As I did. Does that "clarify the situation" for you?