How to recover a hidden laptop partition. What is a Windows Recovery Disk and what is it for? What file system does the hidden recovery partition have?

Regardless of the manufacturer, there is a hidden section on laptops. You can also create it yourself. It is needed to restore the operating system Windows. This is not difficult to do, but not everyone can do it.

If your Windows system is “broken” so that it doesn’t even boot and you can’t do anything about it, then one of the surest options to bring the system back to life is to restore it from a previously created image, i.e. from a backup copy. And to do this, you will need a special boot disk, called a recovery disk, which will allow you to start the recovery process from the image. A regular installation disk or USB flash drive with Windows will also work. In this article I will talk in detail about what a recovery disk is and what exactly you might need it for.

What is a system recovery disk and what is it for?

A system recovery disk is a bootable CD/DVD disk or flash drive on which a special program is recorded that allows you, if Windows breaks down, to use various options for restoring it. You can boot from this disk even before Windows boots, that’s why it’s called bootable, this is what makes it special and useful when critical situations arise.

How does it happen during the standard Windows startup? You turn on the computer, after which, within a few seconds, the computer components are checked (you don’t even notice this process) and then Windows begins to load.

If you boot from a system recovery disk (as from, in general, any boot disk or flash drive), after conducting test checks of the computer hardware, Windows will not load. Instead, the computer will start booting from the inserted disk or flash drive.

Further, I will use the concepts of “recovery disk” and “boot disk”, without mentioning the flash drive each time. Because the recovery disk and boot disk can always be not only a CD/DVD disk, but also a flash drive!

Below is an example of a common situation that can arise for any user, from beginner to advanced...

At one point, Windows crashes and everything is fine, even if you could even load it. That is, in this case, you could, already in the system itself, try to fix the problem that has arisen in various ways, for example, roll back the system to a previous state or start a Windows restore from a previously created image (backup).

But what to do in a situation where Windows refuses to even boot? You, as usual, turn on the computer, but Windows does not load, for the life of you, neither this way nor that, and no additional recovery tools are launched.

In this case, the Windows recovery disk can help you out. When you boot from this disk, a special graphical shell (program) will open, with which you can run various Windows diagnostic and recovery tools.

This is what this shell looks like using an example of a recovery disk for Windows 8:

The shell looks the same as a regular Windows installation disk. It will provide you with various options for diagnosing Windows and methods for restoring it.

For example, here you can start restoring the system to a previous state, i.e. perform a rollback. If this does not help, then through the same shell you can start the Windows recovery process from a previously created image.

A recovery disk and a Windows backup (image) are not the same thing!

Do not confuse the concept of “recovery disk” and “Windows backup” (image), these are completely different things!

Recovery disk, as you should have already understood from the above, is a boot disk that allows you to launch a special shell in which you can try to restore Windows in various ways if it does not boot.

Windows image is a backup copy of Windows (otherwise known as an “archive”), i.e. a copy of the entire partition of the hard drive on which you have Windows installed, along with all programs, settings, and your files. Using this copy, you can restore Windows at any time with all programs installed at the time the copy was created.

Learn how to create a backup copy of Windows to restore it if the system does not boot.

So, if you do not have a recovery disk, then you will not be able to restore the system from an image if your Windows does not boot. Simply because you will not be able to start this recovery process in any way.

You need to understand that the recovery disk is just a shell for the ability to launch various recovery options!

How to create a recovery disk for the desired version of Windows?

On the issues of creating recovery disks for various operating systems, I wrote several articles separately, so as not to pile up a lot of information in one.

In the articles you will not find the possibility of creating a recovery disk for Windows XP, because this system has long been outdated, is not officially supported by the developer Microsoft and there is no such thing as a recovery disk yet.

Conclusion

A recovery disk can help you out in a critical situation when the system crashes, won’t start, and you don’t find simple solutions to the problem or can’t apply them for some reason. It’s better to have such a disk just in case, or, if you have it, then an installation disk with the required operating system, because it also has recovery functions!

The number and contents of hidden sections vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. But as a rule, you can find the following sections on Windows computers.

Section "Reserved by the system"

Windows 7, 8 and 10 create a "System Reserved" partition when you install them. Windows doesn't assign a letter to this partition, so it's usually not visible in File Explorer. But if you've run Partition Manager or a similar utility, you've probably noticed this section. Why does the system need it?

The System Reserved section performs two functions.

• First, it contains the manager and system boot data. This is where the system boot begins.
• Secondly, here are the files used by the system utility for BitLocker encryption. This is necessary to boot the system if you decide to encrypt the system partition.

The System Reserved partition takes up 100 MB of space in Windows 7, 350 MB in Windows 8, and 500 MB in Windows 10. The partition is usually created during system installation and is located before the main system partition.

Recovery partition

This section contains system images from the manufacturer necessary to restore the system and return to factory settings. If you delete this partition, you will make it impossible to return to factory settings in the Windows Recovery Environment or through the manufacturer's recovery utilities.

Manufacturer Sections

Some laptop manufacturers, such as HP and ASUS, create another additional partition on their disks. It may contain laptop drivers, additional software, firmware for updating the BIOS and other system data.

How to delete or hide system partitions

Before changing or deleting system partitions, consider these points.

• This should not be done if your computer or laptop is under warranty.
• It's worth making a copy of the section just in case. For example, to save a license for a system purchased with a laptop.
• Have a Windows boot disk with you so you can reinstall the system if you break something.

How to delete a partition

If you still want to delete system partitions in order to get rid of pre-installed applications that you do not need, this can be done in several ways.

Firstly, you can use partition management programs such as Acronis Disk Director or Paragon Partition Manager. Or delete the partition in the standard Windows Partition Management.

Secondly, you can simply delete unnecessary partitions via the command line.

Open a command prompt as administrator and type:

Then we display the list of sections:

Note your section number and enter:

select partition partition_number

Finally, we enter:

delete partition override

And the unnecessary section is deleted.

How to hide a section

Typically, system partitions are not displayed in Explorer and are not particularly visible to the user. But if for some reason one of the system partitions has become visible and is annoying you, you can easily hide it.

Call "Manage Partitions". To do this, you can press Windows + R and enter diskmgmt.msc. Then find the partition you need, right-click on it and select the menu item “Change drive letter or drive path.” Then remove the drive letter.

Now the unnecessary section will no longer be displayed in Explorer.

How to prevent creation of a reserved partition

You can prevent the creation of a reserved partition during Windows installation, although it is not recommended. But you can install boot files directly to the system partition.

• Start installing Windows and press Shift + F10 to bring up the Command Prompt window.
• Enter diskpart and press Enter.
• Create a new partition in the unallocated space. For example, if you are installing the system on an empty disk, you can simply select the entire disk. Or create a separate section for documents and your other data, if you want.
• Continue with installation. When you are prompted to create a new partition for the system, simply select the one you created in the previous paragraph.

This way you will fit both boot files and the system into one partition. However, you won't be able to use BitLocker. But reduce the number of partitions occupied by the system. This can be useful if you are installing Windows as a second system and do not want it to create multiple partitions.

A feature of the Windows 7 operating system, as well as a big surprise for users who first installed this system on their computer, was the hidden partition System Reserved(Reserved by the system). In this article I will try to reveal the functions and advantages of this innovation.

Purpose of the hidden section

If Windows 7 is your first operating system, then you may not suspect anything about the existence of this partition. It is not visible in Windows Explorer. Over time, if the main purpose of the computer is not gaming or surfing the Internet, you will reach “Disk Management” and see that in addition to one or two partitions, there is little space on the hard drive. It looks like a separate section, but it doesn’t have a letter and the name is unclear. Why then is it needed?

The main purpose of this section is to protect operating system boot files. This partition contains the boot store configuration files (BCD) and the system bootloader (bootmgr file). It is believed that this partition can be used to perform a system recovery (sometimes called the recovery partition). This is not entirely true, since the volume of all files located on the partition System Reserved, does not exceed 30-35 MB, while the volume of recovery files is about 150 MB. Although you can log into the recovery environment using this partition, there is no image of the recovery environment on this partition. It is located in a hidden system folder Recovery on the partition with the operating system

Do not confuse the hidden partition, reserved by the system for boot files, and the recovery partition, created by manufacturers to return the computer to its “factory state”. Such sections have completely different attributes. Moreover, on modern computers (especially laptops) both of these sections are necessarily present.

Automatic partition creation during operating system installation

To be honest, it was a mystery to me why in one case, when installing the system, a hidden partition is created, but in another - not. The answer to the question emerged as a result of experiments.

There are several prerequisites for creating a section:

1. The first and main condition is loading from an external device (DVD, USB), because when running the installation program from Windows, you will not be able to work with hard disk partitions;
2. The total number of main (primary) hard disk partitions before installation should not exceed 3. That is, if before installation the space of your hard drive is already divided into 4 such partitions, in this case a hidden partition of 100 MB in size will not be created, and the download files will be located on the existing active partition. Moreover, this may not be the partition on which the system is installed. The number of logical partitions on an extended one does not matter.
3. The partition into which installation is performed must be the first one (top, in the graphical representation of disk space);
4. The operating system must be installed into an unallocated area of ​​the disk. If the disk is already partitioned, then when choosing a partition to install the system you need to not only format it, but also create it again, that is, the partition for installation must first be deleted. Accordingly, if you do not want a partition to be created on your hard drive System Reserved, do not delete the existing one;

One point is interesting in this regard. If the system installation partition and the active partition are not the same, the active partition becomes invisible after installation is complete. This happens because the installer first places the Windows 7 boot files on the active partition, and then “unmounts” it - removing the letter. This is why many users since the beta version of Windows 7 (and even now, sometimes it happens), installing the system on an inactive partition, “lost” the partition with the already installed system (with Windows XP, for example). The cause of “invisibility” can be easily corrected by assigning a letter to the active partition in Disk Management.

Advantages and Disadvantages

As I already noted, the purpose of the hidden partition is to protect the boot data storage. Since this partition is not connected to the others, operations such as disk space compression do not affect boot files, which avoids compression-related problems such as boot messages "bootmgr is compressed". With certain knowledge and skills, boot restoration is not such a difficult process, but it does take some time. If they are absent, the matter may end with reinstalling the system.

The second advantage is the less labor-intensive process of reinstalling one of the systems if you have several of them on the same computer. You can read about this in the article “Restoring a joint boot of Windows 7 and Windows XP when reinstalling one of them” - section “Option two - the recovery partition has been created”.

Finally, having a hidden section is another type of foolproof protection.” To be honest, the experience of helping users solve problems with the operating system allows us to conclude that problems often arise due to a lack of experience and knowledge, as well as a lack of understanding of many of the processes that ensure the stable operation of the operating system.

A few words can also be said about the shortcomings, although it would be more correct to classify them as inconveniences. They are connected with the fact that when organizing a joint boot with Windows XP, you have to assign and delete the letter of the hidden partition to place the XP boot files on it. But I think the advantages of this section outweigh this disadvantage.

Conclusion

The hidden "System Reserved" section in Windows 7 was another step in the evolution of Windows boot, which underwent significant changes in Windows Vista. Thanks to this section, system booting becomes more reliable and less dependent on user actions.

I express my deep gratitude to Vadim Sterkin for reviewing the article and helping with publication.

Introduction

Purpose of the hidden section

The main purpose of this section is to store and protect operating system boot files. Attributes of this section:

• System
• Active
• Main section

Let's start with the "Main Section" attribute. It's not even an attribute, it's a section type. There are several types, but only a partition of the "primary" type can host download files, and only the "primary partition" can be active. If your hard drive is missing primary partitions, you will not be able to install the operating system.

The “System” attribute does not mean that operating system files are located on it, but that one or more operating systems installed on your computer are launched from this partition. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article KB314470.

The "Active" attribute is needed by the BIOS to quickly determine which of the main partitions the boot files are on. The combination of these attributes makes it impossible to delete this partition using Windows tools, indicating its extreme importance.

Some users, for some reason that is inexplicable to me, strive to get rid of this section at any cost. In principle, nothing is impossible, but is it worth spending several hours and risking system performance in order to add 100-350 MB to the remaining gigabytes? So I won't talk about it.

Let's compare the "System Reserved" sections in the Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems.

What are the similarities and differences between hidden partitions in Windows 7 and Windows 8?

This partition of both operating systems contains boot storage configuration files (BCD) and a system boot manager file (file bootmgr). It is not difficult to notice (compare Figures 1 and 2) that the size of the “System Reserved” partition in Windows 8 is 1.5 times larger than that in Windows 7. This is due to the fact that, unlike Windows 7, in which the recovery environment files are located in a hidden system folder Recovery on the partition with the operating system, in Windows 8 this folder is located on the “System Reserved” section. This is the main and very important difference. This way, even if there is serious damage to the system or partition with it, you always have a recovery tool at hand.

Do not confuse the hidden partition, reserved by the system for boot files, and the recovery partition, created by manufacturers to return the computer to its factory state. Such sections have completely different attributes.

Automatic creation of a hidden partition during operating system installation

1. The first and main condition is loading from an external device (DVD, USB), because when running the installation program from Windows, you will not be able to work with hard disk partitions;
2. The total number of main (primary) and additional hard disk partitions before installation should not exceed 2. That is, if before installation the space of your hard drive is already divided into 3 such partitions, in this case the hidden partition will not be created, and the download files will be located on the existing active partition. Moreover, this may not be the partition on which the system is installed. The number of logical partitions on the additional one does not matter.
3. The operating system must be installed in an unallocated area of ​​the disk. If the disk is already partitioned, then when choosing a partition to install the system you need to not only format it, but also create it again, that is, the partition for installation must first be deleted. Accordingly, if you do not want a partition to be created on your hard drive System Reserved, do not delete the existing one;

Advantages and Disadvantages

Conclusion