Windows 7: System restore has created a new drive (recovery) plus, windows backup

Hi,
I recently did a system restore and it has created an extra hard drive RECOVERY (D:) Does anyone know how I can get rid of this, there does not seem to be any up to date info on it, only these,

Dell - Recovery - Temp - tmp and ResSys

I used to do a system image every night to my second hard drive - Hard Drive2 (B:) now when I go to back and restore settings this drive no longer appears and I am unable to do my system image. The drive appears everywhere else, my computer, windows explorer etc.

Please, can anyone one help me out,

many thanks,

Chris.

Have you tried restoring any of your previous system images? If not, and you made a system repair disk, try booting your computer up with it and see if your system images on 2 HDD are availble to recover your computer. If you didn't make a system boot disk, then go into Backup and Restore in the Control Panel and open "Recover system sytem settings on your computer". Then open "Advanced recovery methods" and select "Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer". Your computer should reboot then and take you to the Recovery Console.

Hi, Thanks for getting back to me, I really appreaciate it - I tried doing a factory restore, but I still have the same issues, its weird !!! I have also been through the recover consul, did all the checks and its still the same - booooooooo hooooooooooooooooo

H'mmm. A factory restore should have put your system back to the way your computer was when you bought it. Maybe you could post a screen shot of your Disk Management. That way we can see what you are talking about.

Hi,
it asks for a url when I try to attache the screen shot, do you have an email I could send it to

Chris.

Hi Chris. Looking at your screen shot I only see one Recovery D: partition listed, so I still am not sure what you mean. Also, I noticed that HDD 2 B: is set "active" and I was wondering why. Usually the only reason is if you have a second OS installed on that disk. If not, I would suggest you use the Diskpart command to make it inactive. It could possibly be part of the problem.

No, forget about making HDD 2 inactive. I just took another look and I see it is listed as "system". That means you have files the OS needs installed there. So you better leave it as is.

Hi again Chris. I have asked for help on the problem you are having and hopefully someone will have a good answer for you.

I'm not sure exactly what you did but the disk configuration is all wrong. You have a factory preinstall on Disk0 which has somehow had it's boot files derailed to Disk1, as signified by the System Active boot flags.

What I would do is unplug Disk1 and run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times to repair or rewrite the System boot files to Disk0. Since Recovery is marked Active we have to assume that's where they belong, but if all that does is trigger factory Recovery or fails then I'd Mark Partition C Active before running the 3 Repairs again until it starts and flies the System flag.

If you save backup images to Disk1 and don't really need the factory partitions anyway, then I'd strongly consider deleting them all during a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 to Disk 0 while Disk 1 is unplugged, following the steps in the tutorial to get a perfect reinstall of factory OEM without the corrupting bloatware.

Whichever you decide, after Disk0 has it's System boot files again then you'll want to Mark Disk1 Inactive so it can't interfere again.