@counciler EaseUS Partition Master here is a popular choice for repartitioning, but if WinRE isn't even enabled now, then it sounds like it's not set up correctly in the first place. If you're not too far along in your system rebuild, you might consider just download Windows 10 directly from Microsoft, using their Media Creation Tool to create bootable media, and using that. Then you can use Dell Update to grab any necessary drivers if you don't want to get them manually from support.dell.com. I've never been a fan of manufacturer recovery tools, mostly because they bring back junk that I didn't want in the first place, and in these Windows 10 days because they often don't incorporate the latest release of Windows 10.
All that said, I'm not remotely surprised that a factory reset tool deleted everything on your disk. A factory reset is designed to return your system to its factory state, not give you the option to preserve things. I have no idea how it created a Windows RE partition that large and apparently didn't even set it up correctly if ReagentC /info shows it's disabled, but as I said I've never used the tool you did. I just boot into regular Windows installation media, press Shift+F10 to open Command Prompt if I want to do anything in diskpart first like clean the disk, and then I move forward.
If you want to have a second partition for Data, I would actually recommend a manual Windows install by booting into Windows Setup and then opening Command Prompt to partition your disk and perform the whole Windows installation via command line instead of using the Windows Setup wizard at all. That's what I do because I too like having a Data partition. The reason this is useful is because the Recovery partition should always be immediately after the C drive so that if future Windows releases need to extend it, they'll just do so by slightly shrinking your C partition. If you instead have your C partition, some additional partition, and THEN a Recovery partition, then the next time a Windows 10 upgrade needs a larger partition, it will shrink your C partition by the full amount necessary for that new partition and then create a new one -- so you'll end up with C, new Recovery partition, some additional partition, and then a defunct Recovery partition.
If it helps, here's my diskpart script for setting up a disk in preparation for a manual Windows install and later creating one or more Data partitions in unallocated space that will exist at the end of the disk. Change the size of the OS partition to suit your preferences. This is appropriate for a UEFI system. If you need a Legacy BIOS system diskpart script, let me know.
select disk 0
clean
convert gpt
rem CREATE EFI PARTITION
create partition efi size=100
format quick fs=fat32 label="System"
assign letter="S"
rem CREATE MSR PARTITION
create partition msr size=128
rem CREATE OS PARTITION (120GB)
create partition primary size=122880
format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"
assign letter="W"
rem CREATE WINDOWS RECOVERY PARTITION
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label="Recovery"
assign letter="R"
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
list volume
exit
And then in terms of performing a manual Windows install, you'll need to figure out what drive letter your installation flash drive has been assigned and then which index in the \Sources\install.esd file on that flash drive corresponds to the edition of Windows you want to install, then substitute the drive letter and index values appropriately below. To see the edition info, run "dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:D:\sources\install.esd", substituting the drive letter as appropriate. The other drive letters below, namely W, R, and S, all assume that you used the diskpart script above to assign those letters to the OS partition, Recovery partition, and EFI partition, respectively. Do NOT worry about assigning W to the OS partition here. It will still be C when Windows boots. W is just handy because the C letter might have already been assigned to something else in Windows Setup.
rem CHANGE THE DRIVE LETTER IN THE PATH TO THE INSTALL.ESD FILE
rem CHANGE THE INDEX VALUE APPROPRIATELY TOO
dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:D:\sources\install.esd /Index:1 /ApplyDir:W:\
W:\Windows\System32\bcdboot W:\Windows /s S:
md R:\Recovery\WindowsRE
copy W:\Windows\System32\Recovery\winre.wim R:\Recovery\WindowsRE\winre.wim
W:\Windows\System32\reagentc /setreimage /path R:\Recovery\WindowsRE /target W:\Windows
That is a recovery partition. There is more information in the following posts. Could you delete it, yes but make a recovery drive on a USB first. And remember that if you delete it you cannot use Dell recovery again. That partition is needed to use Dell Recovery.
So based on all of the things I'm looking at, the partition usually isn't more than a few gigs of space. Why on earth would it be 200 gigs on my drive? This is almost half the size of my whole hard drive! I'm looking at the instructions for reclaiming disk space in this article you provided:
It looks like this is the solution by reducing my winretools to 2 GB, though it has a caveat of I will lose the dell factory image. I have two other partitions on my computer as well, one says "image" that is 11 GB and a "dellsupport" partition that is 1 GB. Does that mean this method will delete both of these partitions? It also confuses me a bit because I thought the Winretools was the image. Does this mean I wouldn't be able to restore my PC to factory without an external recovery disk?
Did you perhaps replace your hard drive at some point with a drive that has a different capacity? That might have caused the factory reset tool to partition your disk oddly. If the WinRE partition is immediately AFTER your C partition, then yes you can fix this. If you want to use a live repartitioning tool, some of which are free, that might be easiest. Otherwise, doing this properly would involve using ReagentC to disable WindowsRE first so that Windows copies the contents of that partition back to the C drive, deleting the partition, expanding your C drive so there’s only about 1GB left, creating a new 1GB WinRE partition, setting the GPT Type ID of that new partition to the standard value for WinRE partitions, and then enabling WinRE again so Windows copies those files back.
I didn't install a new drive, but I did have 2 partitions. It deleted both of the partitions for some reason, I thought I would get the option of choosing which partition I wanted to install windows to like I used to be able to do when I would put a disc in. But it did a bunch of stuff automatically which appears to include converting the entire second partition into a recovery drive.
I might have to use the more proper method that you defined. I'll look at the partition tools that exist, but I imagine all it will do is create a second partition that is not contiguous with my primary partition. Do you know any virus free partitioning programs I can use? I looked at my REAgentC /info and it says it's already disabled. Using this route looks like it's going to take some time to learn how to do this manually. I can't believe what a nightmare reinstalling windows is turning out to be.
It seems like this is the best option. Thank you for the help. This will also help with, as you said, having a clean install of windows without some of the Dell bloatware.
Okay. Quick update. I used your method by installing windows and making the recovery partition using command prompts only. That was pretty crazy, but it worked like a charm. I don't have the Dell image anymore, but who needs that noise when I have this flash drive with windows installed on it, giving me even more precious gbs on my internal hd!
@counciler awesome!! Fyi if you want to stash that for future use, you can save a bit of time by saving the diskpart file as a text file, and then you can call it from Command Prompt by entering "diskpart /s MyScript.txt" so that diskpart will just run all of those actions as a script. Just remember to customize it as desired beforehand for things like the desired size of your C partition. And for the second script block that actually sets up Windows, after customizing that as necessary as well, you can save it as a batch file (.bat extension) and then run it via Command Prompt by just calling that batch file. Just make sure those files are on your flash drive so you can access them easily. Last tip: Since you can't always know how you'll need to customize those files until you've booted into Windows Setup, especially the second file since you'll need to know the drive letters involved, you can open Notepad in Windows Setup. Just launch Command Prompt and type "notepad" to open it, and then in Notepad you can open those script files to modify and save them as needed. Or at the very least, having Notepad open will allow you to copy/paste those commands into Command Prompt, which is especially handy for the "set id" command for the Windows Recovery partition.
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
1
November 17th, 2019 08:00
@counciler EaseUS Partition Master here is a popular choice for repartitioning, but if WinRE isn't even enabled now, then it sounds like it's not set up correctly in the first place. If you're not too far along in your system rebuild, you might consider just download Windows 10 directly from Microsoft, using their Media Creation Tool to create bootable media, and using that. Then you can use Dell Update to grab any necessary drivers if you don't want to get them manually from support.dell.com. I've never been a fan of manufacturer recovery tools, mostly because they bring back junk that I didn't want in the first place, and in these Windows 10 days because they often don't incorporate the latest release of Windows 10.
All that said, I'm not remotely surprised that a factory reset tool deleted everything on your disk. A factory reset is designed to return your system to its factory state, not give you the option to preserve things. I have no idea how it created a Windows RE partition that large and apparently didn't even set it up correctly if ReagentC /info shows it's disabled, but as I said I've never used the tool you did. I just boot into regular Windows installation media, press Shift+F10 to open Command Prompt if I want to do anything in diskpart first like clean the disk, and then I move forward.
If you want to have a second partition for Data, I would actually recommend a manual Windows install by booting into Windows Setup and then opening Command Prompt to partition your disk and perform the whole Windows installation via command line instead of using the Windows Setup wizard at all. That's what I do because I too like having a Data partition. The reason this is useful is because the Recovery partition should always be immediately after the C drive so that if future Windows releases need to extend it, they'll just do so by slightly shrinking your C partition. If you instead have your C partition, some additional partition, and THEN a Recovery partition, then the next time a Windows 10 upgrade needs a larger partition, it will shrink your C partition by the full amount necessary for that new partition and then create a new one -- so you'll end up with C, new Recovery partition, some additional partition, and then a defunct Recovery partition.
If it helps, here's my diskpart script for setting up a disk in preparation for a manual Windows install and later creating one or more Data partitions in unallocated space that will exist at the end of the disk. Change the size of the OS partition to suit your preferences. This is appropriate for a UEFI system. If you need a Legacy BIOS system diskpart script, let me know.
And then in terms of performing a manual Windows install, you'll need to figure out what drive letter your installation flash drive has been assigned and then which index in the \Sources\install.esd file on that flash drive corresponds to the edition of Windows you want to install, then substitute the drive letter and index values appropriately below. To see the edition info, run "dism /get-wiminfo /wimfile:D:\sources\install.esd", substituting the drive letter as appropriate. The other drive letters below, namely W, R, and S, all assume that you used the diskpart script above to assign those letters to the OS partition, Recovery partition, and EFI partition, respectively. Do NOT worry about assigning W to the OS partition here. It will still be C when Windows boots. W is just handy because the C letter might have already been assigned to something else in Windows Setup.
JOcean
9 Legend
•
12.6K Posts
0
November 17th, 2019 04:00
That is a recovery partition. There is more information in the following posts. Could you delete it, yes but make a recovery drive on a USB first. And remember that if you delete it you cannot use Dell recovery again. That partition is needed to use Dell Recovery.
https://www.disk-partition.com/articles/can-i-delete-winretools-partition-5740.html
https://www.tenforums.com/installation-upgrade/37068-safe-delete-dell-created-partitions-when-upgrading-os.html
Recovery drive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UzphLuk5II
Also
https://www.dell.com/support/article/th/en/thdhs1/sln151672/how-to-reclaim-hard-disk-space-by-minimizing-the-size-of-the-windows-recovery-partition?lang=en
counciler
1 Rookie
•
5 Posts
0
November 17th, 2019 05:00
So based on all of the things I'm looking at, the partition usually isn't more than a few gigs of space. Why on earth would it be 200 gigs on my drive? This is almost half the size of my whole hard drive! I'm looking at the instructions for reclaiming disk space in this article you provided:
https://www.dell.com/support/article/th/en/thdhs1/sln151672/how-to-reclaim-hard-disk-space-by-minimizing-the-size-of-the-windows-recovery-partition?lang=en
It looks like this is the solution by reducing my winretools to 2 GB, though it has a caveat of I will lose the dell factory image. I have two other partitions on my computer as well, one says "image" that is 11 GB and a "dellsupport" partition that is 1 GB. Does that mean this method will delete both of these partitions? It also confuses me a bit because I thought the Winretools was the image. Does this mean I wouldn't be able to restore my PC to factory without an external recovery disk?
Thank you for your time.
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
0
November 17th, 2019 06:00
Did you perhaps replace your hard drive at some point with a drive that has a different capacity? That might have caused the factory reset tool to partition your disk oddly. If the WinRE partition is immediately AFTER your C partition, then yes you can fix this. If you want to use a live repartitioning tool, some of which are free, that might be easiest. Otherwise, doing this properly would involve using ReagentC to disable WindowsRE first so that Windows copies the contents of that partition back to the C drive, deleting the partition, expanding your C drive so there’s only about 1GB left, creating a new 1GB WinRE partition, setting the GPT Type ID of that new partition to the standard value for WinRE partitions, and then enabling WinRE again so Windows copies those files back.
counciler
1 Rookie
•
5 Posts
0
November 17th, 2019 07:00
I didn't install a new drive, but I did have 2 partitions. It deleted both of the partitions for some reason, I thought I would get the option of choosing which partition I wanted to install windows to like I used to be able to do when I would put a disc in. But it did a bunch of stuff automatically which appears to include converting the entire second partition into a recovery drive.
I might have to use the more proper method that you defined. I'll look at the partition tools that exist, but I imagine all it will do is create a second partition that is not contiguous with my primary partition. Do you know any virus free partitioning programs I can use? I looked at my REAgentC /info and it says it's already disabled. Using this route looks like it's going to take some time to learn how to do this manually. I can't believe what a nightmare reinstalling windows is turning out to be.
counciler
1 Rookie
•
5 Posts
0
November 17th, 2019 17:00
It seems like this is the best option. Thank you for the help. This will also help with, as you said, having a clean install of windows without some of the Dell bloatware.
counciler
1 Rookie
•
5 Posts
0
November 17th, 2019 19:00
Okay. Quick update. I used your method by installing windows and making the recovery partition using command prompts only. That was pretty crazy, but it worked like a charm. I don't have the Dell image anymore, but who needs that noise when I have this flash drive with windows installed on it, giving me even more precious gbs on my internal hd!
Thanks for all of the help!
jphughan
9 Legend
•
14K Posts
1
November 17th, 2019 19:00
@counciler awesome!! Fyi if you want to stash that for future use, you can save a bit of time by saving the diskpart file as a text file, and then you can call it from Command Prompt by entering "diskpart /s MyScript.txt" so that diskpart will just run all of those actions as a script. Just remember to customize it as desired beforehand for things like the desired size of your C partition. And for the second script block that actually sets up Windows, after customizing that as necessary as well, you can save it as a batch file (.bat extension) and then run it via Command Prompt by just calling that batch file. Just make sure those files are on your flash drive so you can access them easily. Last tip: Since you can't always know how you'll need to customize those files until you've booted into Windows Setup, especially the second file since you'll need to know the drive letters involved, you can open Notepad in Windows Setup. Just launch Command Prompt and type "notepad" to open it, and then in Notepad you can open those script files to modify and save them as needed. Or at the very least, having Notepad open will allow you to copy/paste those commands into Command Prompt, which is especially handy for the "set id" command for the Windows Recovery partition.
Misty8
1 Message
0
June 30th, 2021 18:00
Can this script be used in the win re command prompt too?