Should Backup include Recovery Partition?

I'm using Win 7 Backup and Restore on two Win 7 systems. Both backups include the recovery partition. Each system is backing up to its own external hard disk attached via USB.

Is it a good idea to include the recovery partition?

On the notebook system, with only 63GB in the main C partition and 22GB in the recovery partition, backups have all of a sudden started taking several hours (these backups are partials). No errors are being reported by backup or in the event log. However, during the latter part of the backup, if I open Computer which then displays the disks, the normally blue bar for the recovery partition is red. This is the normally blue bar that represents how full the disk is. When the backup finally completes, the bar turns blue again.

Any clue as to why the recovery partition has a red bar rather than a blue one?

-- Larry

Usually the recovery partition is not available in 'Computer'. How did you get it?
And, a system backup doesn't need to include recovery partition.

I find that both of my Win7 systems (both HP) show, under Computer, two drives: C and D. These are partitions on the same physical disk, D being HP Recovery. The is also another unnamed small partition, a EFI System Partition. It does not show under Computer but shows via Disk Management.

As far as I know, I didn't so anything special to make the recovery disks (partitions) visible under Computer.

Although the Recovery Partition is visible double clicking it brings up a message from HP saying you must not mess with the contents and doesn't provide a way to view the contents.

-- Larry

mjf said:

I think it is a good idea to keep at least one image of the non OS partitions that aren't pure personal data partitions eg. Recover/Tools partitions. You will need to use a program like (free) Macrium Reflect. You may never need them but they could be useful in the future and they don't take much space on an ext HDD.

I'm not sure how HP are currently partitioning their PCs so a screenshot may get you more advice.
This tutorial tells you how to send a disk management screenshot:
Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

I will get a backup of the non-data partitions and change Backup & Restore to exclude them.

I'm not sure what good a disk management screenshot will do since I don't have an issue with the disk management. I am perfectly happy seeing the HP Recovery partition in Computer. Actually I would think something is wrong if I didn't see it. What were you thinking of seeing?

-- Larry