TMB311R-31-C32R, Hidden Windows Partition get updated with the new OS while upgrading to win 11?

bluepen61

My system is a TMB311R-32-C31R. It came with Windows 10 Pro and I subsequently upgraded to Win 11 Pro.

A small part of my C: drive contains, I think, a hidden partition or partitions which may have originally been populated with Win 10 Pro installation files with the appropriate Acer drivers. A recovery partition(s) of sorts, I suspect.

When upgrading to Win 11 Pro, does the hidden partition(s) get updated with the new OS?

[Edited the thread to add model name to the title]
[Edited the thread to add issue detail]

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/697226/tmb311r-32-c31r-hidden-windows-partition-get-updated-with-the-new-os-while-upgrading-to-win-11

There are 4 partitions (volumes) on a Windows10 GPT boot drive, 2 are system reserved: ESP and MSR that don't have a drive letter, the 3rd is the Recovery partition that contains WindowsRE and the 4th one holds your data (C:\). Don't bother with ESP and MSR, just work with WindowsRE when you boot with a USB Recovery drive (or ALT+f10) and the C:\ partition. Yes, upgrading Windows will change the ESP and MSR and Recovery partitions and if you back up your entire boot drive these 3 volumes will be included but only W7 BU utility in Windows10/11 will correctly recognize these partitions as part of the OS, other BU programs will prompt "Unknown volumes will be backed up". Here some more info: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/configure-uefigpt-based-hard-drive-partitions?view=windows-11

billsey

128GB drives are defined by the manufacturers as 128,000,000,000 bytes. When size is calculated for Windows 1024 bytes per K is used, 1024K per M and 1024M per G. So, 128,000,000,000/1024/1024/1024 = 119.2 GB in size. You likely have the remainder used by the three hidden partitions.

MBR boot schemes haven't been in use since the late Windows 7 days. Starting with Windows 8, GPT was required and is pretty much in all ways better. Along with that change was the change from boot blocks to EFI files, which greatly reduced the prevalence of rootkit viruses.

In answer to your first question, the Windows 11 update rewrote the Acer recovery Windows 10 image on your drive with a vanilla Windows 11 image.

Puraw

https://community.acer.com/en/discussion/697226/tmb311r-32-c31r-hidden-windows-partition-get-updated-with-the-new-os-while-upgrading-to-win-11

There are 4 partitions (volumes) on a Windows10 GPT boot drive, 2 are system reserved: ESP and MSR that don't have a drive letter, the 3rd is the Recovery partition that contains WindowsRE and the 4th one holds your data (C:\). Don't bother with ESP and MSR, just work with WindowsRE when you boot with a USB Recovery drive (or ALT+f10) and the C:\ partition. Yes, upgrading Windows will change the ESP and MSR and Recovery partitions and if you back up your entire boot drive these 3 volumes will be included but only W7 BU utility in Windows10/11 will correctly recognize these partitions as part of the OS, other BU programs will prompt "Unknown volumes will be backed up". Here some more info: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/configure-uefigpt-based-hard-drive-partitions?view=windows-11

bluepen61

Thank you for the bringing me up to speed on Microsoft's boot scheme. I read last week about an app that changed one's MSR boot to a new one (GPT) used in Win 11, but I didn't read up on GPT. I was curious to the small, hidden partitions on this TravelMate, and questioned the size of the 116.5 gb emmc as I expected something like 128 gb. But I confirmed the Sandisk specs, which are 116.5 gb. Surprise to me. (GPT)

I did examine the partitions but left well enough alone, especially since there wasn't a significant amount of potentially abandoned partition space to recover/merge into the C: partition.

In the days when Windows was really buggy and crashed occasionally, the recovery drive scheme was handy. But with Win 7, Win 10, and Win 11, I have never (knowingly) used the recovery method. I did have to free up space and update Win 11 to 23H2 by installing Win 11 from Windows install scheme, but it wasn't a clean install, just an install over my existing install; though I did verify the correct drivers closely after 23H2 install with the Acer prescribed drivers.

I was able to migrate and integrate my data (not programs) onto my 256 gb uSD card. Part of that integration included placing Microsoft's OneDrive on the uSD card. Plus, I encrypted both drives, C: and D: with Bitlocker encryption. Annoying, as I have to unlock D: driver, the uSD every time I reboot Win 11. Fortunately, this doesn't occur when I wake the laptop up from Sleep. I use Sleep, the F1 key frequently!

Again, thank you for the info.

billsey

128GB drives are defined by the manufacturers as 128,000,000,000 bytes. When size is calculated for Windows 1024 bytes per K is used, 1024K per M and 1024M per G. So, 128,000,000,000/1024/1024/1024 = 119.2 GB in size. You likely have the remainder used by the three hidden partitions.

MBR boot schemes haven't been in use since the late Windows 7 days. Starting with Windows 8, GPT was required and is pretty much in all ways better. Along with that change was the change from boot blocks to EFI files, which greatly reduced the prevalence of rootkit viruses.

In answer to your first question, the Windows 11 update rewrote the Acer recovery Windows 10 image on your drive with a vanilla Windows 11 image.