Windows 7: How To Remove Recovery partition

KenY7744 · 23 Dec 2010

I have the 320Gb HD which came in my Dell, but I have replaced it with a 1TB drive which has my Windows 7 OS on it. I'd like to reformat the 320, but there is a small partition which has the original Dell recovery on it.

I've tried to remove the partition in Disk Manager, but it is not offered as a choice.

I have also tried to install Windows 7 on this disk while the 1TB is disconnected, but get messages that I can't install Windows 7 on it.

Is there a free utility available online which will do a complete wipe of the HD and alow me to partition it anew? Or perhaps a way to do it with means currently available to me?

Thanks in advance.
Ken

DocBrown · 23 Dec 2010

Check out this tutorial on Partition Wizard

Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD

KenY7744 · 24 Dec 2010

Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately, the free version doesn't convert dynamic partitions to basic disks.

Any other FREE utils out there that can totally reformat the drive and zap that dynamic partition?

TIA
Ken

essenbe · 25 Dec 2010

You may try Parted Magic. It should do that, it will do most things. It includes gparted and a linux utility called hard drive erase.

KenY7744 · 27 Dec 2010

It's amazing that all the suggestions I received were for utilities that either cost money for what I needed to do, did not do what I wanted to do, or used UNIX or some other OS that I don't use.

In order to change a HD from a dynamic drive to a basic drive you simple need to use a command line prgram in Windows 7 called diskpart. I'll dispense with all the techie stuff. I found something on Microsoft Technet which gave several methods to do the task. Just google "How to convert dynamic disk to basic disk Windows 7" and you will see near the top an article in MS Technet.

Thanks for all the attempts at resolving this for me.

Ken

Windows 7: How To Remove Recovery partition

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