Ive got a dell xps 8300 that came with a recovery partition on the hard drive.
Its taking up about 19 gigs of space and is not needed as I use recovery software on my machine. I want to format this partition and merge it with the rest of the C: drive.
How do I go about this. I have tried right clicking on the partition but the format choice is greyed out
19 Gigs IS a lot of space for a recovery partition to take BUT I myself would just leave it alone. I know you use other recovery software but it never hurts to have another option to take your machine to "day 1" if worse came to worse.
If you could please post a screenshot of DISKMGMT.MSC's output (full-screen please, with columns in the upper-part expanded to show all text in each column so that we can read it) we could make the right suggestions.
The recommended method would be to use Partition Wizard (using its standalone boot CD method, which you can download the ISO for and burn to CD) to do it all. You can also install the regular Win7 version of the program for other uses which can be done while running under an operating Win7, but for operations involving the C-partition itself you need to use the standalone boot CD version.
As long as the contents of your 19GB recovery partition are of no concern then it's just going to become unallocated space when you delete it using PW.
After that, telling you how to get it added to your C-partition depends on where it is right now on your drive. If it's at the extreme left or extreme right of the picture, and where C is in relation to it... that will determine the one or more steps necessary to accomplish your goal.
The screenshot of your current layout is crucial to us, in then defining your steps.
But in essence, you're simply going to delete the recovery partition, and resize C to grow. But partition(s) may need to be "moved" right or left to kind of shuffle that 19GB free space so that in the end it becomes unallocated immediately adjacent on either the right or left of your C-partition. Then the C-partition can be "re-sized" to simply "absorb" that new unallocated space immediately to its left or right, thus enlarging C by this newly available 19GB and accomplishing your goal.
There are of course other partitioning options you might consider, depending on your feelings, how large the drive is, etc. You might re-size C to be smaller (to say 100GB) and allocate a new partition D for "data". And the partitioning other than C might be done as "logical" rather than "primary" so that you could really have any number of these "logical" partitions, rather than being limited to the FOUR "primary" partitions an MBR drive is limited to. But this can be discussed later.
Let's see that screenshot.
Unless it is marked Active in Disk Management just delete it in Disk Management: Partition or Volume - Delete
Then extend Win7 into its space: Partition or Volume - Extend
If it's marked Active or won't delete, post back the requested screenshot and we will give you the steps.
Clean up factory bloatware
Whatever you do, contact Dell Support and request for OEM Reinstall Disk which they will send you free of cost.
This will enable you to clean install your OS anytime, without any crap and without the need to activate online through the net or phone. ( The OEM reinstall disk is the same regular Windows Install Media with OEM activation info built-in.)
I think it is best to tinker with partitions during booting. Please use a Partition Manager Boot Disk and after deleting this partition merge the resulting unallocated space with the C Drive.
Quote