Move the partition on the disk
Last modified 09 Jun 2022 17:00 +02:00

About

In some situation we need to move the partition’s location on the hard drive. The Recovery environment (the hidden partition) cannot be simply moved. In case there is recovery partition between the Drive C and the unallocated partition the extension of C is not possible. Firstly the recovery partition have to be moved to the end of the drive.

This description is using diskpart and dism tools which are automatically available with the installation of windows system.

Initial state

We have 38 GB free space, but it can’t be used for extending system partition - location of the recovery partition prevent to extend it.

DISKPART> list disk
  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online           50 GB    38 GB

Please note the last column. As there is no asterisk (*) there is MBR tables. If the asterisk is present the GPT would be used. This information will be needed at the end of the process to properly set the partition (to make it hidden again).

DISKPART> list partition
  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Primary            100 MB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    Primary             11 GB   101 MB
  Partition 3    Recovery           524 MB    11 GB

We will operate with the situation only one hard disk is available (disk 0) on the system. The location is of the recovery partition is 3 (need to be moved to the end of the disk).

Move the partition

For the purpose of the process we will utilize the letter R for recovery partition (3) and the letter T for temporary partition (4). In case you have any of the letter in use feel free to use any other letter just update the command with correct letter.

It is not easy to get information for proper offset for new partition. The easiest way is to create new temporary partition (4) over all remaining space and shrink it for the size we need. This way we will get the space for temporary image of the recovery partition (3) and force location of the new partition to the end of the disk.

We will create the same size of the recovery partition (3) - in our case it will be 524 MB.

Create the image of the recovery partition

To create the image we will need to assign the letter to the recovery partition (3). We will also create temporary partition (4). It will be used also for the image location.

run the diskpart (system / powershell environment)
diskpart
assign the letter to the partition and create temporary partition (diskpart environment)
select disk 0
select partition 3
assign letter=R

create partition primary
shrink desired=524
format quick fs=ntfs label=temp
assign letter=T
exit

Now we can create the image in the temporary partition (4). We should remove / deactivate current Windows RE setting pointing to this recovery partition (3).

create the image and disable WinRE setting(system / powershell environment)
Dism /Capture-Image /ImageFile:T:\recovery.wim /CaptureDir:R:\ /Name:"Recovery"

ReAgentc.exe /disable

Remove the old recovery partition and recreate new one

We are now ready to remove the partition (3). We will remove the current recovery partition (3). Next step will be to extend system partition (2) over the new free space after just deleted partition - it will force the new partition to be created at the end of the disk. The newly created recovery partition (3) will be created afterwards in the space prepared at the end of the drive.

run the diskpart (system / powershell environment)
diskpart
remove old recovery partition and create new one at the end of the disk (diskpart environment)
select disk 0
select partition 3
delete partition override

select partition 2
extend

create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs
assign letter=R
exit

The partition numbers are persistent over the diskpart session. The numbers correspond with the records in the partition table.

As the partition with id 3 has been deleted there have been "free spot" in partition table. The information about the new partition have been stored to this free spot.

That is the reason why the new partition has the same ID as previously deleted one. The physical location on the disk is not the same.

Restore image to the new recovery partition

Now we are ready to restore the content of the image to the newly created recovery partition (3). Next step will be set the Recovery environment to use this content and enable it.

Restore the image to the partition and enable it (system / powershell environment)
Dism /Apply-Image /ImageFile:T:\recovery.wim /Index:1 /ApplyDir:R:\

reagentc /setreimage /path R:\Recovery\WindowsRE
reagentc /enable

Finalize the partitions setting

We are now ready to remove temporary partition (4) and extend the system partition (2) over the free space.

run the diskpart (system / powershell environment)
diskpart
remove temporary partition and extend system partition (diskpart environment)
select disk 0
select partition 4
delete partition
select partition 2
extend

The content and system setting is done. The remaining is to finalize the partition setting. At this moment the steps differ based on the used partition tables (MBR or GPT). The last step will be to remove the assigned letter.

set the partition - the case of MBR / BIOS (diskpart environment)
select disk 0
select partition 3
set id=27
remove
exit
set the partition - the case of GPT / UEFI (diskpart environment)
select disk 0
select partition 3
set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"
gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
remove
exit

Final State

We have moved the recovery partition to the end of the disk. The system partition has been extended to all free space.

DISKPART> list disk
  Disk ###  Status         Size     Free     Dyn  Gpt
  --------  -------------  -------  -------  ---  ---
  Disk 0    Online           50 GB      0 B
DISKPART> list partition
  Partition ###  Type              Size     Offset
  -------------  ----------------  -------  -------
  Partition 1    Primary            100 MB  1024 KB
  Partition 2    Primary             49 GB   101 MB
  Partition 3    Recovery           524 MB    49 GB
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