I'm trying to recover from an error on Windows update (security update KB5034441 failing), and I have read many posts suggesting enlarging the disk's recovery partition, so it has more than 250MB free space.
I have two disks on the computer, each having its own Windows installation. It's not a "dual boot" configuration (ie the Windows Boot Manager is not involved). They are two independent installations and I choose the installation to boot from the BIOS menu (pressing F12 during power-on, this displays the BIOS boot menu). I opted for this configuration so that a disk can be removed, cloned etc without affecting the other. Both disks are MBR, and the recovery partition is 530MB large for both.
So now I can use one disk, and I want to repair the other one. I guess not having to repair the disk with the (currently active) OS, should rather make things a little easier. I have considered quite a few solutions, but I don't know which would be the "best", and the safest particularly. For example:
- Follow the Microsoft-recommended "manual" procedure (using diskpart), just for the other disk. Can it be done really? I'm also wondering if deleting and re-creating the recovery partition alone would be enough (I would like to avoid shrinking the OS partition, who knows what this could do to the files there), as the partition is 530MB (well above 250MB) and all its space will be free, no?
- Deleting and re-creating the partition (or deleting all its contents), maybe enabling special priviledges, or using some other tool. I'm not given any such option (incl assiging a drive letter there) in Computer Management/Storage/Disk Management.
- Using a third-party tool, like EaseUS. I have never tried such tools, and I'm a bit afraid actually. It has a "Crashed PC" facility, but what I can comprehend is that it will create a bootable USB drive, so you can boot the computer and copy the data files to another disk, finally having to perform a clean Windows installation.
So what should I do? I'm open to alternative suggestions from experts, particularly taking into account that I'm trying to fix a disk not containing the currently running OS.
