I maintain a reusable Windows golden image and apply it with Clonezilla. The layout is a larger EFI/System partition, the Microsoft Reserved partition, a larger Recovery partition, and the OS partition at the end. I want the System, Reserved, and Recovery partitions to retain their carefully chosen sizes when deploying to different disk sizes, while allowing C: to expand into all remaining space at the end of the disk. Clonezilla's expert-mode k1 option proportionally resizes partitions, which is not what I want. Would using the default k0 behavior and then expanding C: manually be the right approach, or is there a free tool or Clonezilla setting that can preserve the first partitions and automatically grow the OS partition during deployment?
3 Answers
Recovery can be removed if you do not depend on the local Windows Recovery Environment. Disable WinRE first with `reagentc /disable`, then remove the recovery partition with DiskPart using `delete partition override`. This prevents Windows from trying to maintain that partition, but it is not appropriate if you rely on features such as Intune wipe or reset that require WinRE.
A practical way to handle this is to deploy the image with space left after the OS partition, then run a DiskPart script on the first boot or during setup. The script can select the Windows volume and use `extend` to consume the remaining unallocated space. That gives you fixed sizes for the earlier partitions while still making C: fill the target disk.
If you are using Sysprep and Windows setup, you may not need Clonezilla to perform the final expansion. There is a Sysprep configuration option that can make the data or OS partition grow to use the remaining disk space during OOBE. The relevant setting is applied during the specialization phase, so it is worth checking the unattend configuration.
Right—the automatic expansion is handled during the specialization pass of Sysprep, rather than by Clonezilla itself.
Be careful with that approach: Windows reset and wipe workflows can require WinRE. Removing the recovery partition may work for a purely reimaged environment, but it can break those management features.