Windows 10 to take much smaller space for recovery data, eliminate the need for separate partition
Now, this is some very good news. Windows, whether it is a tablet or notebook or a desktop, takes too much of space and as time goes by, this increases a lot. Even the recovery image partition is sometimes huge. Thanks to a new approach from Windows Storage and Deployment Teams, Windows 10 is set to have a very compact foot print on hard drive. Windows 10 will be using a new compression algorithm that is more efficient in compressing system files This is implemented in new builds and on a 32-bit system, it has freed up 1.5GB of storage and on 64-bit system, it has cleared 2.6GB of storage space. The new algorithm will be applied to Windows Phone devices too.
Also in place will be a redesigned Windows Refresh and Reset functionality that will eliminate the need for a separate recovery image (pre-loaded in a locked partition by OEMs). This will reduce Windows storage footprint from 4GB to 12GB (depending on make and model). Imagine how much of an advantage this would be for tablets where storage space is at a premium.
In short, on a 64-bit device, there will be a minimum of 6.6GB of space cleared and available for user.
WIMBOOT is the new compression tool that decided when to perform the compression operation (at upgrade if there is enough system resources available for compression else at a later point of time). WIMBOOT can also compress the store applications and this will further reduce the foot print in devices like tablets. When there is a need for recovery, Refresh and Reset will rebuild the OS using the runtime system files and this way, any update that was done till that point of time will be in place.
It is still advisable for you to create a separate recovery image that is stored on a USB drive or DVD or Bluray so that in case of severe corruption, this image can be used for recovery/reset.
