Recovery partitions not detected after restore

Gerhard, in reality the three partitions are still present and will contain the same data as they did on the original source disk.

One of those partitions (15.54GB) is a factory restore partition installed when your PC was built originally to allow it to be reset back to its factory ship state with whatever OS version it came with.

There should only be one Windows Recovery partition (1.42GB) thus the smaller one (900MB) is a left-over from either an earlier version or build of Windows.

You can check the actual state of the correct recovery partition by using the command:

REAGENTC /INFO

C:\WINDOWS\system32>reagentc /info
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) and system reset configuration
Information:

    Windows RE status:         Enabled
    Windows RE location:       \\?\GLOBALROOT\device\harddisk0\partition5\Recovery\WindowsRE
    Boot Configuration Data (BCD) identifier: fa089e05-d495-11ec-ae6e-a86daa71efa2
    Recovery image location:
    Recovery image index:      0
    Custom image location:
    Custom image index:        0

REAGENTC.EXE: Operation Successful.

As the above shows, the output shows where the active recovery partition is (disk 0 partition 5) in my system.

The commands: reagentc /disable & reagentc /enable  can be used to disable & enable the partition.

Finally, the reason for the empty / unallocated space at the end of the second drive is caused because Acronis does not move the multiple recovery partitions to the end of the larger drive space.  This issue can be resolved easily by using a partition manager tool to manually move the partitions then expand the C: OS partition.

Thanks, Steve, this is helpful (more helpful than what Acronis sent me as help so far) -- but it doesn't answer my main concern.

The "reagentc /info" command shows the same output on both the original disk and the restored disk. This is good. However, I worry that if Disk Manager doesn't see them as recovery partitions, something else might not, either -- and I find this out just when I need them most.

I checked on my own system and disk management doesn't show my recovery partition as such either and doesn't even list a partition of the same size in the upper panel!

If I run an administrator command prompt and the diskpart command, then it does show correctly!

C:\WINDOWS\system32>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 10.0.19041.964

Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: STEVE-9OP3KKF0

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list partition

  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Reserved           128 MB    17 KB
  Partition 2    System             260 MB   129 MB
  Partition 3    Primary            200 GB   389 MB
  Partition 4    Primary            729 GB   201 GB
  Partition 5    Recovery           977 MB   930 GB

DISKPART>

Steve, I can confirm what you are seeing - it happens even when you have not done a disk recovery, so it is not something being done by ATI/ACPHO.

On two Windows 11 PC, in settings [System > Storage > Disks & Volumes] the partitions are recognised as Microsoft Recovery Partitions. There seems to be a problem with Windows Disk Management App; not a problem caused by ATI/ACPHO.

Gerhard, another tool to use is the MVP Assistant (link in my signature). Selecting the System Configuration page will show you the various disks and partitions and may shed more light on what you have. Also, the proper Windows Recovery partition should be reflected in the top pane. I'd be interested to see what it reports.

Bruno, on the PC that first I noticed this problem the MVP Assistant correctly identifies the recovery partition as a recovery partition. So this confirms that the problem is with the Windows Disk Management App not ATI/ACPHO.

Ian

The change here follows the latest Win 10 Volume management.  The recovery partitions/volumes are unlabeled like the System partition.  The recovery partitions are also Hidden.  You can see this using and Admin Diskpart - List Volume command.  Disk Management reports what it finds here.

I just looked at MVP Assistant vs Disk Management on my system. The MVP Assistant identified all partitions, including hidden. Disk Management shows 4 of the 5 partitions I have on my system disk. Partition 3 is identified as a 16MB Microsoft Reserved partition and is not visible in Disk Management.

When was this latest Windows 10 change effective?

I believe it came with the change to the 21H2 upgrade.

What is missing is the display of hidden volumes in the non-GUI or upper portion of Disk Management.  I assume this is to discourage user from attempting to delete these partitions.  I have not seen anything official from MS on why the change however.

BrunoC  

When was this latest Windows 10 change effective?

The Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition was never visible in Disk Management (even back in Windows 7, VISTA, etc.).  See table at the link below -- replace "(dot)" with periods:

docs (dot) microsoft (dot) com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/hardware/design/dn640535(v=vs.85)#how-can-a-specific-partition-be-mounted

IanL-S wrote:

On two Windows 11 PC, in settings [System > Storage > Disks & Volumes] the partitions are recognised as Microsoft Recovery Partitions.

Thanks, Ian, I didn't know about this new section in Settings. I see the three partitions in question as recovery partitions here, too.

BrunoC wrote:

Gerhard, another tool to use is the MVP Assistant (link in my signature). Selecting the System Configuration page will show you the various disks and partitions and may shed more light on what you have. Also, the proper Windows Recovery partition should be reflected in the top pane. I'd be interested to see what it reports.

Thanks for this tool, Bruno. Not sure what you mean by "top pane". (If you mean the one labeled "Computer System", I don't see them there.)

When I first went into "System Configuration", it didn't see my SSD. After clicking "Refresh", it saw it. Now it also shows the three partitions in question as "Type: GPT Microsoft Recovery" in the "Partition Info".

IanL-S wrote:

So this confirms that the problem is with the Windows Disk Management App

Not sure. In my case, the partitions show up correctly in the Windows Disk Management app when I use the original SSD (the source disk that I backed up/restored to a bigger SSD). It seems that something didn't get copied when restoring. Until I can confirm that a system restore from these partitions still works, I think it's anybody's guess whether what's missing affects only Disk Management or whether it affects something else, too.

Anyway, I'm running with the copied system now without problems and will attempt a restore to original soonish. I'll let you know how it goes. I still have the original SSD around, just in case. Thanks for all the help!

Finally I got around to resetting this system -- and it worked. It still doesn't seem to be clear why some of the partitions look different in Disk Management after the restore, but it seems that is not a problem.

Thanks to all who chimed in here.