W10 recovery partition for W7 - or is it?

[aekyall]

Not sure whether this belongs under W10 or Hardware - happy for it to be moved if necessary:

I have a 450MB partition on C: which is annotated as a recovery partition. Is this likely to be the partition MS created when installing W10 over W7, which would have allowed me to revert back to W7 if I wished (an option now timed out)? Or is it a W10 recovery partition? I can't see what, if anything is in the partition as the only option I get when I 'right click' on it is 'help' - which leads me to MS KB article on disc partitioning in general. If the 450 MB is sitting there empty and doing nothing then I'd like to free it up. I have a system image of W10, which I keep updated weekly, on the other HDD (T:)

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[HansV]

No, it has nothing to do with Windows 10 - Microsoft stores the previous version in two folders on the C: drive.

Many systems suppliers provide a hidden partition that contains the installation files for the Windows version it came with. See Remove Your PC’s Recovery Partition and Take Control of Your Hard Drive and read the entire article carefully before you decide anything.

[aekyall]

Thanks. Will do

[JoeP]

The recovery partition has nothing to do with reverting back to the prior OS. The Windows 10 install procedure creates folders in the main Windows partition for rollback.

The 450MB recovery partition contains the Windows Recovery Environment (WInRE) tools. See BIOS/MBR-based hard drive partitions or UEFI/GPT-based hard drive partitions for more details on recommended partitioning.

I'd leave it alone.

Joe

[aekyall]

Thanks Joe - The link provides a good explanation for the 450MB partition - as you suggest, I'll leave it well alone!!

[PJ_in_FL]

Unlike the mirrors on cars, the objects (partitions) in DISKMGMT are much SMALLER than they appear. This partition is only 0.1% of your 500 GIGAbyte HDD. I have many individual files that wouldn't even fit on that partition. MEGAbytes just aren't what they used to be <sigh>.

Don't worry! Be happy!

[aekyall]

Okay! I'm happy!!

[chrunos]

this 450MB recovery partition allows you to boot into recovery environment where you can restore or fix your system. You should keep the recovery partition because you may need the recovery options when your system is in problem.
If you do need to delete it, you can do it safely by creating a Windows 10 recovery USB disk. after that, you will be given an option to delete recovery partition.