Hello Autum, and welcome to Sysnative!
In my opinion you'd be best leaving the recovery partition alone and as it is - honestly, and I do really mean this from experience not just bluffing you off, the recovery partition is fully optimised already.
First, the recovery partition contains the absolute minimum number of files it needs. There isn't a
single file I can think of on there you'd be wise to delete. Each and every file on there has an important role to play.
Second, the files on there are compressed. In fact, many tens of thousands of files are squashed into single huge ".wim" files. This means that they take up the smallest amount of space on your hard disk (for complex technical reasons, compressing thousands of files together makes them take up less space than having them separate - this has already been done on your recovery partition).
Third, again for slightly technical reasons, a free space buffer of about 2GB is required for the correct operation of the recovery partition when you go to use it (it's dormant space the rest of the time, but you must leave it be so that it's there when you need it).
Fourth, a free space buffer any larger than 2GB isn't needed. That'd only be wasting valuable space on your hard disk. So, the manufacturers size the disk to be 2GB extra (there or there abouts), no more (this is the same across lots of computers, not just yours).
Fifth, the files are then tightly locked down to prevent editing (as you've found out). This helps prevent against accidental damage, malicious damage, infection from malware, anything. To ensure that they work when you need them to, you're advised to leave those protections in place because they guard against more types of damage than just from the person using the computer.
The way it works is - Microsoft provides the absolute minimum number of files needed to install Windows, manufacturer for your PC injects the smallest number of additional files it thinks it needs to make your specific PC run at its best, those files are heavily compressed, a 2GB space buffer is added, the partition is scaled down to that size, the partition is locked down, and there it lies dormant, best left untouched.
Now - that was a slightly oversimplified explanation. It's possible for experts to quibble over my exact wording and we could get into a jargon laden debate over the details. But I hope it gives you the flavour for what's going on.
Top tip from me - leave it well alone! It's very unlikely that you'll be able to optimise it at all, and there's a high risk something horrible will go wrong. The type of tools you will need to use to access those partitions are very complex and extremely powerful - a slight slip and you could end up deleting every file off your computer within seconds (genuinely, like actually true
)
If you want to try to increase your PC startup speed, here are some good tips for how to do so safely and effectively:
Speed up your PC's boot time by finding the worst startup offenders | PCWorld
Hope this helps!
Richard
