Windows 10 Recovery USB Drive Partitioning?

[Darkherow]

So I have a windows tablet, and I recently got a 128GB USB flash drive. I then went into Windows 10 Recovery, and created a Recovery Drive and no problems there. However the process creates a FAT32 partition for the recovery, which only has a 32GB partition, while the other 80+GB is unallocated and not useable. I tried right clicking on the unallocated part in the disk management, but all options are greyed out and not selectable, so I can't create a new partition from the unallocated space.

I even tried to create a partition for the entire flash drive, but once I create the recovery drive, it writes over the partition and leaves me with only 32GB again.

Is there anyway for the unallocated space to become usable? As a 128GB flash drive is now only 32GB.

Thanks.

 

[Kilbane]

From what I remember, during the creation of a recovery media in windows, the media is designed to be created and stored separately from any further usage. I have come across the issue before where Windows will create a partition and basically mark the resty of the media as unusable.

The only way around this that I personally know is to either :

1/ purchase a Flash drive specifically for a backup/recovery disk

2/ reformat the media and separate it into 2 separate partitions before starting the process. Telling windows to use the drive partition you have created for it.

Personally I would purchase a smaller drive to keep as recovery if you need to. Partitioning a drive into separate drives is simple enough, however Windows will not always recognise the partition table and may reformat again and ultimately you will end up in the same predicament.

Your other choice could always be to get a 4GB drive and create a windows 10 install media. If anything goes badly wrong you can just do a clean install of Windows.

 

[Darkherow]

Thanks for the reply Kilbane, looks like I might have to get an additional flash drive.

I don't think option 2 will work, as when you create a recovery drive, it does it's own formatting and partitioning automatically. There isn't really a way for it to specify which partition write to, you only specify the device that it detects. Unless, it detects each partition as separate drives. In any case, it would seem having separate partitions could end up with the computer not recognising them, which defeats the purpose of backing up the system.

It's a shame, as it's kind of a flaw since flash drives are coming out with ever increased capacities, yet it'll reduce the drive to a fraction of it's usable space. It makes sense to have you backup recovery on the flash drive, and be able to use it to transfer or store other data, with the unused space. I mean, I have a 128GB flash drive, and the recovery is only maybe 2GB space on the 32GB partition, and there's 80+GB of free space not used. I understand the reasoning for FAT32, so it can be accessible from the BIOS, but maybe it's time to make it so other formats can do so instead, that can have higher capacities.

Sorry for the rant, just frustrating and thanks again for the advice.

 

[Kilbane]

Don't worry about the rant dude, it is a royal pain at times.