Is it safe to have additional data partitions on a Windows recovery drive?

Question

I recently created a recovery drive on a new 64 GB USB flash drive, and discovered afterwards that the original 64 GB partition had been replaced by a 32 GB partition containing the recovery files.

So I thought about creating new data partitions on the remaining unused space to store other files. Meaning that I would now have a hybrid stick that has a recovery drive partition plus some independent user data backup partitions. But then I wondered if this would b safe.

By "safe" I am thinking about the following:

1. Would the presence of the extra partitions interfere with the recovery drive's operations in any way?

2. Would the recovery drive's operations be likely to overwrite or affect the other partitions in any way?

3. When making a new recovery drive on the same stick in the future (following a feature update for example), would the new recovery drive creation process only reformat / overwrite its own pre-existing 32 GB partition, or would it delete all the other user data partitions as well? Meaning that I would be back to having a stick with a whole lot of unused space where my user added partitions / files used to be?

Answer 1

"3. When making a new recovery drive on the same stick in the future (following a feature update for example), would the new recovery drive creation process only reformat / overwrite its own pre-existing 32 GB partition, or would it delete all the other user data partitions as well? Meaning that I would be back to having a stick with a whole lot of unused space where my user added partitions / files used to be?"

To answer 3.

I have discovered that the Recovery Drive creation process will indeed delete all pre-existing partitions on the stick, then create a new one.

My test 64 GB stick originally had three partitions, a first of 30 GB, a second of 10 GB and a third taking the remaining 18-odd GB of space.

All three disappeared and a new single 32 GB partition was created, with the rest of the stick left as unallocated space.

It deleted that last 18-odd GB partition even though the new partition does not physically overlap with it at all.

Recovery drives seemingly do not want to share their stick with anything else.

So my answer to 3 is that it is not safe to store extra partitions containing user data on a Recovery Drive that you intend to periodically update, unless if you are very confident that you will always remember to backup the extra partitions / data beforehand.

I still do not know the answers to 1 and 2 however. It might still not be safe even if you are confident that you will remember to backup before updating.

Answer 2

My suggestion would be to not have multiple partitions along with the recovery partition as it's not a good practice, but yes it’s technically possible. Below you can find the reason required to back up the suggestion.

1. Interruption with Recovery Partition: Additional partitions on the same USB drive as the recovery partition should not interfere with the recovery drive’s operations as the recovery process typically concentrates on the specific partition allotted for recovery and will not interact with other partitions on the drive. However, there's always a risk when modifying storage devices, so it's essential to proceed with high attention and caution.
2. Overwriting Risk: Usually, the recovery process only affects the partition allotted for it. However, if some mistakes occur then the recovery process might behave strangely, depending on what software or tool you are using. So it's best to back up any important data before performing operations that involve partitioning or formatting drives.
3. Future Recovery Drive Creation Risk: As you have already discovered, creating a new drive on the same USB stick deletes all the existing partitions creating a new one for recovery, so it’s not suggested to rely on the same drive for recovery and other user data unless you prepare for a backup recovery drive.

So as suggested in the beginning it's technically possible to have multiple partitions on a USB stick along with a recovery partition, it's not a recommended practice due to the risk involved. It's safer to keep recovery partitions separate from user data partitions to avoid any future problems or data loss.