Recovery partition

[murf633]

Hi Everyone:D

Could someone please help, my computer tells me that there is low disk space on my D:Recovery Drive. What and how can i safely remove, and will it improve my performance?

 

[coolnewyorker]

So empty it. Burn some DVD's.

 

[NormCameron]

Hi Everyone:D

Could someone please help, my computer tells me that there is low disk space on my D:Recovery Drive. What and how can i safely remove, and will it improve my performance?

The recovery drive contains the necessary programs to restore your computer to factory conditions if you have some major problem with your OS. If you delete it you lose that facility. By all means make a recovery DVD as a backup to this disk, but you should find another way to recover space.

Norm

 

[coolnewyorker]

You mean Murf's recovery partition is in D:? I think Murf's D: is full of something else...Games?

My D: is totally free space...not a thing is in there...until I insert a dvd.

So where is my recovery partition?

 

[murf633]

Thanks everyone,

Noi definately do not have games on this drive. It is a 320GB HD with a C: drive and this D; drive which calls itself Recovery. when I click on it, this is what i get:

Recovery Partition
Warning!

This area of your hard drive
(or partition) contains files used
for your PC Recovery.

Do not delete or alter these files.

Any change to this partition could
prevent any recovery later.

It is 10GB in size, and i only have 1GB free? And i have 223GB of 289GB free on the other?

Thanks again?

Murf

 

[Dzomlija]

Thanks everyone,

Noi definately do not have games on this drive. It is a 320GB HD with a C: drive and this D; drive which calls itself Recovery. when I click on it, this is what i get:

Recovery Partition
Warning!

This area of your hard drive
(or partition) contains files used
for your PC Recovery.

Do not delete or alter these files.

Any change to this partition could
prevent any recovery later.

It is 10GB in size, and i only have 1GB free? And i have 223GB of 289GB free on the other?

Thanks again?

Murf

NormCameron's suggestion is correct. You need to consult the user manual of your computer to determine how to make DVD copies of the information stored in the recovery drive.

The Recovery Partition is needed to restore your computer to factory defaults, and and the warning message states, should NOT be deleted.

And besides, you should not be saving anything to that partition anyway, unless you want to risk accidentally corrupting the recovery information. Don't fret yourself over this, considering that you have 223GB free on you C:...

 

[NormCameron]

Thanks everyone,

Noi definately do not have games on this drive. It is a 320GB HD with a C: drive and this D; drive which calls itself Recovery. when I click on it, this is what i get:

Recovery Partition
Warning!

This area of your hard drive
(or partition) contains files used
for your PC Recovery.

Do not delete or alter these files.

Any change to this partition could
prevent any recovery later.

It is 10GB in size, and i only have 1GB free? And i have 223GB of 289GB free on the other?

Thanks again?

Murf

AS I said. If you are worried about storage, get a USB drive. Coolnewyorker is a pro and it's easy for him, and for me, if we have problems. If you lose the recovery drive, and your DVD recovery disks go belly up, you can have real problems reinstalling your system with all it's drivers and OEM stuff intact. And anydody who says DVD's don't go belly up has had a little too much festive cheer,

Norm

 

[murf633]

Hi Just to follow up, I have thisRecovery Partition
Warning!

Recovery Partition
Warning!

This area of your hard drive
(or partition) contains files used
for your PC Recovery.

Do not delete or alter these files.

Any change to this partition could
prevent any recovery later.

 

[Dzomlija]

Hi Just to follow up, I have thisRecovery Partition
Warning!

Recovery Partition
Warning!

This area of your hard drive
(or partition) contains files used
for your PC Recovery.

Do not delete or alter these files.

Any change to this partition could
prevent any recovery later.

That's essentially correct. Refer to your documentation on how to copy the recovery partition to backup DVDs, and then make 2 copies of these DVDs, for just in case...

 

[coolnewyorker]

How often is recovery partition located in D:? Was it factory installed in D:?

Even with DVD copies, I still think he should move it to C: In any case, Recovery partition should not be deleted wherever it is.

But D: should also be given some room even just so he does not receive annoying notices of running out of space. Besides, D: is too unstable a drive.

 

[MSDOS]

As with most systems , a snapshot of the system profile is recorded on the Hard Drive from the factory. Example , with every Dell system you get a partition called Recovery that you can use to restore your system to factory default settings. What i suggest is burn the contents of the recovery drive on a DVD and make it bootable ( Using tools like Nero DVD Burner).

 

[coolnewyorker]

My point is, why in D:? In 10 weeks of my new HP, I have had probs with D: twice already...it seems too unstable. My recovery partition is in C: and my D: is completely empty. Factory emptied.

 

[rive0108]

You never ever want to put your "recovery" onto the same partition as the active Windows Installation. The reason it was placed on a second partition is so that if the primary partition needs to be repaired/restored it can be without affecting the restore utility. Placing the recovery utility on the same active partition will result in it being overwritten/deleted if a reinstall is performed. If you want to increase the "D" partition size shrink the primary partition (C), and expand the (D) partition.
Some computers do not include removable media disks that contain a OEM factory restore image of the Operating System. The loss of the recovery Utility in a situation like that will render the system from that point non-recoverable/non-reinstallable and will neccesitate the purchase of a Windows O/S disk to perform future reinstalls or access to the advanced recovery utilities.

I personally have deleted the utility off my wife's desktop eMachine as I installed Vista Business, and had a created driver/App disk ready for the installation. At that point it became superfluous, and I deleted D: and expanded C:. If you have a Vista O/S dvd, driver/apps disk, and the skill to reinstall, then delete the utility partition if you want.

 

[Joan Archer]

Mine is hidden, unless I go into disk management you don't see the recovery partition. The main section is labelled C: which holds the OS and all my programs etc: the recovery doesn't actually have a drive letter but it shows as being just over 6GB total space taken, and my CD/DVD drive is E:

Perhaps the OP's drive is showing because he still has to make the recovery disc's, I don't know this for sure but it's possible and once he's made them the partition becomes hidden. His documentation should give details with regards recovering his system to new.

 

[coolnewyorker]

@rive:

OH no!!! I see your point. So, now I wonder...where did HP put mine?

MY D: is 100% free space(all blue in the graph) until I insert a disc. And I do not see E: until I plug in hardware. I kinda really like it that way. But does that mean I have but one partition for everything? Or I really dunno what I am talkin' about.

Educate me!!!!

 

[coolnewyorker]

Hi Joan...that makes sense.... that I can understand. Let's see what the rest of gurus think.

 

[rive0108]

My post has been edited above

Some recovery partitions are indeed hidden, and accessable through hitting a key at boot for "recovery" This partition should be visable under the "manage" utility.

 

[Joan Archer]

Don't know where they put your's but I know my XP machine was HP, well a Compaq Presario, and with that you had to make a set of CD's when first getting the machine with the special software installed. Trouble was you could only do this once and if like mine the recovery disc's were crap, you had to get in touch with HP and hope you could get another set sent out.
I was lucky as I had my own retail copy of XP, a present from a friend, so I just wiped out all the crap HP had put on the machine and installed a nice clean copy of XP :D
Now this machine I have with Vista doesn't give you the opportunity to make recovery disc's, just instructions on how to restore back to factory conditions from the hidden partition, at least they don't include loads of crap with the recovery, just the OS and a trial of OneCare which is obsolete anyway

 

[rive0108]

The main advantage Ultimate has over Premium is the "complete pc Backup" utility that allows creation of a installation image. and is updatable.
This makes repairing and reinstalling the O/S with all settings/software/files of the user intact a breeze. It also has the effect of rendering OEM Recovery partitions/cd's superfluous.

 

[coolnewyorker]

@Joan: I was very lucky that my very first attempt in DVD burning (all my previous DELLs were incapable) was successful., I was able to use all three DVD's I created a month ago in System Recovery with HP Recovery manager.

So, without me realizing it, HP Recovery Partition was indeed in separate drive until I created the 3 recovery discs after which it got hidden? Where? 'Cause my D: is always visible (empty) and my E: comes and goes (also empty).

I have a hidden F:? (LOL)