What is this partition?

[Edward78]

Is it swap? GParted tells me Windows 10 might not boot if I move it.

[Fuzz_Ball]

The one that is between the Win10 (C:) and the D:/ ?

It's a partition Windows creates when it gets installed onto the machine. 

[Edward78]

So the boot.

[Nayr438]

538MB, it is probably the EFI Partition. It also probably holds the System Recovery Tools and the Windows Advanced Options Menu.

[GoodBytes]

16 hours ago, Edward78 said:

Is it swap? GParted tells me Windows 10 might not boot if I move it.

What the heck is this mess of partitions you have...

Ok, first your answer... Between C:\ and D:\ is your recovery partition. It contains various recovery tools to troubleshoot and repair Windows in the case something goes horrible wrong with your system. Microsoft creates this at install time. It is not recommended to remove. While, yes it is over 500MB, and you might be tempted to gain it back, it can very useful the day bad luck strikes, and something goes bad. You'll save more space by cleaning up the other RAW partitions (I am assuming you only have 1 OS: Windows)

 

What you are missing in Disk0 is your boot partition, which I am assuming is on Disk 1 for some reason as you got into Windows.

 

This is the setup you should have for a 1 OS environment, where you run Windows. Additional non-Windows OS's differs based on configuration, so I can't comment.

Windows will take 3 or 4 partitions depending on your configuration.

 

UEFI compatible system:

• Recovery Partition: ~530MB
• Boot Partition: 100MB
• Microsoft reserved partition (MSR): 16MB (Will not show in Windows Disk Management panel nor Diskpart command line tool)
• Windows (C:\)

 

Legacy BIOS based system (or UEFI is disabled):

• Boot Partition: ~550MB
• Windows (C:\)
• Recovery Partition: ~520 MB

 

Note 1:
For either configurations above, an addition partition might exist if your system is a pre-build system, which is typically the system recovery image. An image of your system from day 1 when the system was purchased.

 

Note 2:

If order of partitions are different, that is fine

 

Note 3:

All partitions mentioned should be on the same disk. If, upon a default, clean install of Windows, your partitions are split between your disks, then this usually caused by the disk selected for Windows to be installed on, is not the first disk from the system perspective. This could be a motherboard issue from your perspective (Example: if you have an NVMe drive and an SSD drive, your NVMe might be Drive 0 from your perspective, but from the motherboard manufacture perspective, they might favor SATA ports first, and NVMe after all the SATA ports). Under such case, there is no fix, beside unplugging your secondary drive when you are installing Windows, and only plug it once the OS is installed (of course, while the system is turned off). If all your drives are SATA, then it could simple matter of swamping SATA cable, ensuring that your main drive is on the first SATA connector from the main/first SATA controller (if you have additional SATA controller). This is usually labeled as "SATA-0" or "SATA-1" on the motherboard.

 

If your system is UEFI compatible, your disk layout doesn't correspond the above mentioned, this is because your UEFI is disabled on your motherboard. If it is a pre-built system, it may have been turned off due to compatibility issue with another hardware which may or may not be embedded in the motherboard, and the manufacture couldn't care less of providing a fix as it cost time and money. From experience, it is stuff like boot time speed which goes up to the roof for some reason, or sleep/hibernation doesn't work anymore, or some hardware just doesn't work anymore. It could have been done simply due to laziness, or please IT enterprise who are too lazy to make a proper image UEFI ready.

 

If the system is custom built and UEFI ready, you probably have something you miss configured or forgot to change. While descriptions of items and availability of items varies between motherboard manufacture and your CPU platfform, typically you want the following to be configured:

 - UEFI mode: enabled

 - CSM (Compatibility Support Module): disabled

 - "Windows 8 mode": enabled (the manufacture really means: "UEFI mode".. I don't know why MSI, in this case, likes to do things special.., maybe to they knew that a new version of Windows would come out, and make people think that their system isn't compatible with that new version of the OS, and buy a new motherboard ?.. no idea)

 

Non-related to your disk layout story, but might as well check:

 - If used: SATA controller set to AHCI mode

 - If used: NVMe drive 

 - HPET: Enabled and set to 64-mode

 - XMP (eXtreme Memory Profile) / AMP (AMD Memory Profile):  set to Profile 1.

 - Default GPU is set to your correct PCI-E slot used

 - All unused feature disabled

 - Secure Boot: Enabled

 - Fast Boot: Enabled

 - Boot Delay / Post Delay: Set to 0sec / Disable (toggle this once your system is in working order)

 - TPM: Enabled or Disabled. If Enabled (if you have the TPM chip), Windows 10 will auto enable BitLocker, and encrypt the C:\ partition from the moment it installs itself)

 

[Edward78]

The sys works fine, drive 1 is a SSD (Windows) drive 2 HDD (Linux) just wanted to know what the partition was. Had no idea none prebuilts had a Recovery partition.