Learn how to delete the recovery partition in Windows to free up disk space and optimize storage on your computer. Follow our step-by-step guide for a safe and easy process.The recovery partition is an area on your hard drive or SSD that stores an image of the Windows operating system in case of a factory reset. If you want to delete it for some reason, our guide will help you with this.
What is a recovery partition in Windows
For convenience, Microsoft has provided a recovery partition in Windows 10 and 11, which is created automatically when the OS is installed. It is a protected area containing a system image with factory settings. Do not confuse it with another partition that is often created by laptop manufacturers. It contains proprietary software and drivers.
How to Delete Recovery Partition in Windows 10 and 11.
Usually, owners of small SSD drives want to delete the recovery partition to free up additional space. We do not recommend doing this, because otherwise you will need a bootable media to return the OS to its original state.
If you don’t see a problem with this, then getting rid of the recovery partition is very simple. You can delete it using third-party utilities (for example, Acronis Disk Director or Paragon Partition Manager ) or Windows tools.
Let’s consider the second option, since all the necessary functionality is already present in the OS – accordingly, there is no need to install additional software.
Procedure:
- Click on the search icon on the taskbar;
- Type cmd in the line, then right-click on the command line icon and select “Run as administrator”;
- Type the command diskpart and press Enter;
- Next, type list volume and press Enter again.
At the beginning of the article, we just talked about the fact that you should not confuse the Windows recovery partition with the one created by the laptop manufacturer. In our case, it is ASUS TUF Gaming A17. And the Windows recovery partition is called RECOVERY. Remember its volume label and do the following:
- Type the command select volume x, where x is your volume number, and press Enter;
- Type delete partition override and press Enter;
- Once the process is complete, type exit and press Enter again.
How to Restore Recovery Partition in Windows 10 and 11
If you change your mind and decide to return the recovery partition, don’t worry – it can be done, but the process is more tedious. At least if you are unlucky and the winre.wim file is not found in the C:WindowsSystem32Recovery folder. It is very easy to check:
- Click on the search icon on the taskbar;
- Type cmd in the line, then right-click on the command line icon and select “Run as administrator”;
- Type the command reagentc /enable and press Enter.
The system will “freeze” for a while, after which it will display one of two messages. If the file is in the folder, you will see “The operation was successful”, and this will complete the partition recovery procedure. If not, the message “Recovery environment image not found” will appear.
You can take it from the official ISO image of Windows. Since Microsoft has restricted access to its products for Russians, you won’t be able to download the file from the official website without “cheats”. Fortunately, there are alternative resources — for example, this one . Select the image you are interested in, then the language and wait for the download to complete.Now we need to extract the file we are interested in from the image. To do this, follow these steps.