Everything You Need To Know About HEALTHY (OEM PARTITION)s and How To Easily Remove Them

If you look at the disk partitions on your PC (right click START button and select DISK MANAGER), you are very likely to see a number of HEALTHY (OEM PARTITION) entries.

This leads to a number of questions:

1: What is HEALTHY (OEM PARTITION) aka Recover Partition?

That partition is used by Windows as a “Recovery Partition” which is accessed automatically on bootup if your PC has a serious problem.  Fortunately, you can get to the same recovery features by simply booting off a Windows 10 CD or memory stick (and selecting REPAIR) if you ever do have a problem booting up.  Don’t worry about not having either of those because Microsoft has made a free little tool that will make one for you and you can download the Microsoft Windows Media Creation Tool here.  Also, you can reinstall the Recovery Partition by following the video at the end of this article, if you are panicy about it.

2: Why Do I Have So Many HEALTHY (OEM PARTITION)s?

Every time Microsoft pushes a new build of Windows 10 (not to be confused with the monthly Windows updates), it will install a new recovery partition.  As you can see in the screenshot at the top of this article, I have a pile-o-partitions because I am on the Windows 10 beta Fast Ring which gets me new versions of Windows 10 every few weeks.

3: Is it Safe to Delete HEALTHY (OEM PARTITION)?

Yes, you can safely delete HEALTHY (OEM PARTITION)s without causing your PC any issues.

4: How Can I Delete HEALTHY (OEM PARTITION)s?

If you simply right click on one of the HEALTHY OEM PARTITIONs you will find that DELETE is not one of the options.  You can either download a tool like EASEUS PARTITION MASTER FREE or you can use the simple command line options to delete these recovery partitions.

1. Right click the START button and select COMMAND PROMPT (ADMIN) – make sure it is the one with ADMIN elevation
2. type DISKPART and press enter
3. type LIST DISK and press enter
4. type SELECT DISK 0 (or whatever disk number contains the partitions you want to remove) and press enter
5. type LIST PARTITION and press enter
6. type SELECT PARTITION 14 (or whatever partition number contains the partition you want to remove) and press enter
7. type DELETE PARTITION OVERRIDE and press enter
8. Repeat steps 6 & 7 for every partition you want to remove

5: How Can I Manually Recreate the HEALTHY (OEM PARTITION) Recovery Partition?

As explained in answer #1 above, you don’t need a recovery partition to physically on your PC.  Microsoft has wisely added that partition because most PC’s do not ship with Windows DVD’s any more and most users lack the technical skill to create one.  If you still want to recreate the recovery parition just follow the steps in this video: