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Explanation wanted for partitions and ATI

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I recently created an AIT 2017 Linux recovery USB, booted it and did a C: drive disk backup. I noticed that only two of the three partitions were selected for the backup.

Looking at the WIndows Disk Management, the partitions see are:

1. Recovery Partition, healthy, 450MB, 100% free. This was not selected by ATI for backup.
2. EFI System Partition, healthy, 99MB, 100% free. This was selected for backup.
3. C:, Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition, healthy, 85% free. Of course, this was selected for backup.

Why was the Recovery Partition not selected? What would this mean if I did a full recovery? Should I select the Recovery Partition when I next run it.

Why would the EFI System Partition be completely empty?

This is a new Windows 10 PC with recent UEFI BIOS.

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Bruno, when you did the disk backup, did you select the top Disk selection box to select all partitions?

The Recovery partition can be considered as being optional as you can boot into Windows without this, but you would lose some of the Windows recovery options that you would otherwise see, either during Boot, or if this is Windows 8.1 or 10, from the Action Centre.

It is possible that the EFI partition does have a very small hidden folder that is insignificant and the free size still show as 100%.

Hi Steve, thanks for your reply. Yes, the top Disk selection box was checked, but when I expanded it I saw the Recovery Partition was not set.

This PC is a custom made unit by a local. Windows 10 Pro OEM was installed but I assume nothing was put into a recovery partition as many PC manufacturers do. At only 450MB, how much could be there?

A new Recovery partition is created for each new major Windows update such as the Anniversary and Creators updates, so you can end up with more than one of these partitions!

See webpage: How to Delete Recovery Partition in Windows 10/8/7 Safely? which has a good write-up about these partitions.