Empty partitions

I am getting ready to upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Win 10. This laptop is a Lenovo G500 with only one disk installed. It came with Win 8 pre loaded and I upgraded to Win 8.1. It came with the disk partitioned with several unused partitions. I would like to know what these partitions are for and do I need them. Disk management shows the following information. No volume information, no drive letter shown, all healthy partitions, all look to be empty.


1. Recovery partition, capacity 1000 MB, 1000 MB free
2. EFI system partition, cap 260 MB, 260 MB free
3. OEM partition, cap 1000 MB, 1000 MB free
4. Recovery partition, cap 350 MB, 350 MB free
5. Recovery partition, cap 13.02 GB, 13.02 GB free

Lenovo has this "one key backup featureâ€, but that does not explain the need or purpose for 3 recovery partitions, two of those would not be large enough to hold a backup anyway.
Can anyone tell me what these partitions are for and do I need any of them?

It also has drive C, the system boot partition.
Drive D, Lenovo, Capacity 25 GB, 9.58 GB free, used for one key backup.
Drive E, F, and G which I created for user data.

I would appreciate an answer or even a wild guess as why Lenovo partitioned the hard drive this way.
Gordon

 

Thank you for the prompt reply.
Do you know whether or not an upgrade install of Windows 10 will write new updated information in some of those partitions, such as the OEM partition. I don't think that was updated when I went to Windows 8.1 from Windows 8. Microsoft considered that as a service pack for Win 8. Win 10 is a whole new operating system, not a service pack. Or is the OEM partition just a way for the PC manufacture to ship a backup copy of the original, as shipped, version of Windows and it will never be updated again?

If a person does a clean install of Windows 10 on an empty disk, what partitions get created? I assume C and what about the EFI partition. I still have no idea what that partition is used for.

Gordon

 

A Google answer: "EFI Partition "

Cheers Neil.

 

Thanks Neil,
I had read a lot of questions about what is the EFI partition, do I need it, can I delete it, and most answers talked around the question. That Wikipedia explanation answered it.
Gordon