Can I delete WINRETOOLS partition and is it safe to do that in Windows 10/8/7? Definitely, you have to backup current system state and be careful to delete that partition.
According to Microsoft, if you deploy Windows using media created from Windows Imaging and Configuration Designer (ICD), the WinRE tools partition will automatically created on both UEFI and BIOS-based devices, which locate after the Windows partition.
If you have Dell Inspiron desktop or other series computers, you might have the following partitions:
WINRETOOLS OEM Partition (contains WinRE image file (winre.wim), boot to the recovery tools even if the system partition has problems or encrypted with BitLocker)
Image OEM Partition (contains factory settings images)
DELLSUPPORT OEM Partition (for boot diagnostics)
Generally speaking, WINRETOOLS partition is for Windows backup and restore, it’s hidden by default, which means no drive letter.
Is it safe to delete WINRETOOLS partition and other “extra” partitions? WINRETOOLS partition and other extra partitions are quite essentials for Windows 10/8/7 operating system.
If you delete or move WINRETOOLS partition to somewhere else, these partitions probably not function as designed, maybe you could not restore your Windows 10 to factory settings or could not troubleshoot problems if system has some problems, even could not boot your OS.
Absolutely, if you really want to use these storage space, I suggest you to make a system image before modifying system related files and create Windows recovery media, and then delete WINRETOOLS partition and other partitions.
Note: It’s highly suggested that you backup Windows related partitions in the event of system or hardware failure.
Today, we will take delete WINRETOOLS partition for example, and use the best free disk partition manager - AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard to delete Dell recovery partition in Windows 10/8/7:
1. Run this program after installing, right click the WINRETOOLS partition, and select Delete Partition at the dropdown menu.
2. Choose one of the delete methods, and click OK:
Delete partition quickly (delete partition without wiping data)
Delete partition and wipe data on it
3. Click Apply at the left upper corner to delete WINRETOOLS partition.
4. In the next window, press Proceed button to confirm the WinRE Tools partition deletion.
Tips:
The steps are the same as WINRETOOLS partition deletion if you want to delete Image or DELLSUPPORT partition.
AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is designed for Windows Vista, XP, 7, 8, 8.1, and 10.
Now, you could download it now to have a shoot.
Sometimes, you might receive an error stating “Low Disk Space - You are running out of disk space on WINRETOOLS (M: )”. Don’t worry, it’s probably that the WINRETOOLS partition is the destination for your backups, please check it and change the backup destination to repair this issue.
Or if you lost WINRETOOLS partition by accident, the Partition Recovery Wizard (provided by AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional) would help you to restore lost partitions. Besides, you could create system restore point or create a recovery partition with AOMEI OneKey Recovery from now on if something happens to restore to normal state.
You could delete WinRE Tools partition if you really would like to, but before deleting, you’d better to take a backup of your Windows operating system. Then do what you want to do. After the deletion, you will generate an unallocated space, and you could merge partitions, resize partition, create partition, and allocate free space, other operations with AOMEI Partition Assistant.