MAJOR MESS, Restored windows now have RECOVERY as C drive

damo87 · 28 Oct 2011

Ive just done a system restore on my Dell Inspiron and since doing that i now have a recovery drive which is labelled "C" drive its 14.6gb in size but only 248mb free space and I also have a "D" drive which is named "OS" this is 283gb with 252gb free, So my problem is that i want to get rid of the drive named "Recovery" as i am always getting the error message telling me its running low on space allthough there is not really much on there, Is there a way of increasing the capacity or just removing it all together, Ive tried another restore but it wont let me as there is not enough space on the "Recovery" drive, this drive wasnt on there before i done the restore so why is it there now, I just want it off the laptop as these error messages are beginning to bug me....PLEASE HELP!!!!

alphanumeric · 28 Oct 2011

What procedure did you follow to do the system restore? It sounds like you may have restored to the wrong drive or partition? It could be a real mess to fix now. A screen shot of your expanded disk management screen may help sort it out.

damo87 · 28 Oct 2011

I was given an operating system disk with my laptop it says on the disk "Reinstallation disk windows 7 home premium 64 bit, and where do i find the expanded disk management

damo87 · 28 Oct 2011

damo87 · 28 Oct 2011

Somebody please help me

alphanumeric · 28 Oct 2011

We need to see the disk management screen to see what drive or partition is the active and or boot drive. If you type manage into the search box in the start menu, you should see Computer Management in the list. Once you launch that go to the Storage section and launch Disk Management. Maximize that screen and then post a screen shot of it.

damo87 · 28 Oct 2011

alphanumeric · 28 Oct 2011

damo87 said:

I was given an operating system disk with my laptop it says on the disk "Reinstallation disk windows 7 home premium 64 bit, and where do i find the expanded disk management

So you booted from that disk and did an OS install or recovery? There is a difference! Do you remember what menus or options came up and what you did?

damo87 · 28 Oct 2011

If my memory serves me correctly it was an OS install, i put in the disk followed the instructions ( basically clicked next a few times) it did give me 2 options and one of them was advanced and that was the one i went with as the other one said it would keep all my files on the computer and i had allready transfered them to an external hard drive so didnt need them

alphanumeric · 28 Oct 2011

What I see in your screen shot doesn't make sense to me? Its been my experience that the Recovery partition is normally the last partition on the drive, not the first or second? The OEM partition likely has diagnostic utilities etc on it. Its a hidden partition so it doesn't get a drive letter. Your recovery partition is C because the boot files are there and its marked as active. The OS got installed on the last partition and got labeled D. Normally the OS partition would be the the first or second partition and be labeled C. The recovery partition would be last and labeled D. I think if it was me I would start over with a clean install. I would delete the second recovery partition and the last OS partition. Then create a new partition structure and make sure I install Windows 7 to the correct partition. You may want to wait and see if someone more knowledgeable than me has a better idea.
Clean Install Windows 7