Why is my recovery partition 37GB?

siboli · 07 Feb 2012

Hi w7ers
I'm new so please be gentle.

OK, so I looked at Disk Management under Computer Management->Storage looking at my C: drive, and see that my Acer has
37.03GB in an unnamed volume, healthy, recovery partition,
26.26GB NTFS system, active, system reserved and
169.6GB NTFS "Acer" "healthy, boot, page filve, crash dump, primary partition".

37GB for recovery seems large (NB: system restore is OFF), but as I said I'm new to W7.

What I'd like to have is C: reserved for boot, page file, crash dump, etc, and D: for my data.

How do I go about doing this without causing any damage to the system?

Thanks very much....

Comp Cmndo · 07 Feb 2012

Win7 has 2 necessary partitions: System & Boot
The Recovery Partition is in lieu of the installation DVD's. It has nothing to do with System Restore. Leave it alone.
If you want a data partition, you can shrink the primary Acer partition & create a new one from the unallocated space.
You HDD seems to be somewhat small for a new hard drive, about 250GB.

siboli · 07 Feb 2012

Thanks Comp Cmndo
I'll try that. Yes the drive is only 250gb, but because of the recovery partition and primary partition, i only have 170gb for storage of data.

TVeblen · 07 Feb 2012

You could delete the 37GB Recovery partition if you knew you would not ever need or want to restore the PC to the condition it was in when you first took it out of the box.

Some people use the option to burn the recovery files to DVDs which then could be used, if necessary, to restore the PC to factory condition. Look for that option in your Start menu.

Other people use Disk Imaging programs to create backups, and will take an image of the new hard drive before starting to play with and change things around.

26GB for the Windows System Reserved partition seems excessive. This partition is normally 100MB. But I would want to see a picture of that partition in Disk Management before I suggested changing anything there.

And also, for more advanced Windows users, there is a way to eliminate the System Reserved partition altogether. But I would not advise doing so unless there is a compelling reason to do it.

DeaconFrost · 07 Feb 2012

TVeblen said:

Some people use the option to burn the recovery files to DVDs which then could be used, if necessary, to restore the PC to factory condition. Look for that option in your Start menu.

If you have this option, burn the discs, and then you can remove the Acer Recovery partition. I'm not a fan of having your only recovery method stored on the system's hard drive.

Comp Cmndo · 08 Feb 2012

siboli said:

Thanks Comp Cmndo
I'll try that. Yes the drive is only 250gb, but because of the recovery partition and primary partition, i only have 170gb for storage of data.

Is 30GB more really going to make that much difference? You'd probably be better off with a 2nd internal HDD or USB HDD for storage of data. Probably both, because you should keep multiple backups of your data.

siboli · 09 Feb 2012

Thanks for your help Comp Cmndo and TVeblen and DeaconFrost.

Can you let me know
1. Any utilities which can help me back up the recovery partition to DVD
2. What to look for in the system reserved partition

Thanks again,

Siboli

TVeblen · 09 Feb 2012

1. It's already on your laptop (or desktop).
Go to the START (orb) > Click on "All Programs" > and then navigate down to find a folder with the name of your laptop brand in it (Dell, Acer, etc). Look in those folders to see if you can find something along the lines of "Recovery".

(Note: do not start any recovery! You will lose all you personal data!)

When you open the folder for recovery there will be 2 or 3 steps to go before you actually start a recovery (just be careful). Somewhere in those folders will be an option to "create recovery disks". That is what you want to do.

2. There is nothing in the System Reserved partition that a user needs to look at - normally.
In fact, while you can see the partition in Disk Management you should not be able to see it in Windows Explorer or Computer, and it should not have a drive letter.
If yours is any different, let us know.

Comp Cmndo · 11 Feb 2012

siboli:
1. Macrium Reflect can image the entire HDD or any partition you choose.
Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download
2. Ignore the System Partition

TVeblen:
FYI, HP does not follow your outline.
There is no option to create Recovery Disks. You can get them from HP. I did.
I believe Acer uses the same procedure, but am not sure.

TVeblen · 11 Feb 2012

Thanks Comp. That is good to know.

I've worked on some Compaqs and they did have the option pretty much in plain sight. I just assumed that the sisters would be the same.

It is pretty sad if that is indeed the case. It seems more like extortion than anything else.

EDIT:
I found this: http://www.pctechbytes.com/hp/recovery-creation/
and this: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...1-3ad5322045c5

It would seem that the option should be there on an HP.