Recovery partitions keep or delete?

[nate42nd]

Most new computers are shipping without installation CDs. You can make "recovery CDs" with the manufacturers included wizard. Can you do clean installs with these?

What are you doing with your recovery partitions? As you start dual-booting Vista and Windows 7 what is the best thing to do with the recovery partition? Is it worth keeping? My recovery partition is to the left of the Vista partition....so can I even use this space without doing a clean install and deleting with the install disk?

 

[brummyfan]

I have just left the recovery partition to reside as it is,the space it occupies is about 7GB and by deleting it I am not going to gain anything but by keeping it I am confident that if anything goes wrong I can always restore my laptop to Factory state, I have also made a recovery disc as an additional security.

 

[nate42nd]

That's a good idea. I made recovery discs with the "wizard" HP ships. I am assuming it's an image since it took 3 DVDs. Could you use those to do a clean install?

 

[mansrm81]

Only to factory condition when you got the computer.

 

[nate42nd]

I wonder why it would take 3 DVDs to just restore it to factory state. I use Macrium reflect to "ghost" my system so I would never use the recovery partition. (unless I couldn't get Macrium to work) I guess it's so small that it's not hurting anything. I just don't see a lot of recovery partitions on screen shots. Just wondering if they're worth keeping.

 

[mansrm81]

It all depends on what HP installed on your computer software wise and what programs they installed will depend on how many DVD's you had to use.

 

[Brink]

I wonder why it would take 3 DVDs to just restore it to factory state. I use Macrium reflect to "ghost" my system so I would never use the recovery partition. (unless I couldn't get Macrium to work) I guess it's so small that it's not hurting anything. I just don't see a lot of recovery partitions on screen shots. Just wondering if they're worth keeping.

Hi Nate,

Usually you will have 2 DVDs for the actual Vista restoration, then 1 DVD that includes your device drivers and the freebie and trial applications that came with your computer.

 

[bgowers]

I deleted the recovery partition on my laptop, it's inconceivable that I would ever want to go back to the ex factory state.

All drivers I need, I have saved on a dvd.

Bernard

 

[MilesAhead]

I wonder why it would take 3 DVDs to just restore it to factory state. I use Macrium reflect to "ghost" my system so I would never use the recovery partition. (unless I couldn't get Macrium to work) I guess it's so small that it's not hurting anything. I just don't see a lot of recovery partitions on screen shots. Just wondering if they're worth keeping.

If you have image backup and a DVD factory restore set I see no reason to keep the partition other than inertia. I have mine on Vista64 because I don't want to add any OS for awhile. On my 32 bit machine I dual boot Vista/XP and I got rid of the restore partition. If you put Linux on then you can use it for a swap partition.

If you leave it on and make partitions around it then it's just one more thing for the disk head to seek over. Causes thrashing.