Can I delete the healthy (recovery partition)?

[TGSoldier]

I would just format your whole hard drive and delete accordingly in the Windows 7 setup. Reinstall and have a nice fresh install of windows. Install necessary programs and create an image.

And yes. You can use it in the future. Whatever you install before you make the image is what will be there when you load back the image.

 

[whs]

If you make a backup DVD from the recovery partition, that is exactly the same system as it was when your PC came out of the box - only the default stuff installed (including some of the bloat). But the programs you downloaded, you will have to install again.
You can, however, also make image DVDs with an imaging program (Macrium, Ghost, Acronis, etc.) after you installed everything and did all the system settings and tweaks. That image will then reflect the system as it was when you took the image. If you want to do that only once, DVDs may be OK. But for constant imaging (I do that every second day), an external disk is much more practical.

 

[karlsnooks]

That partition at the front is your Windows 7 and mfgr utitlities partition which is meant to be used to do a full restore to the original state of your machine when it was produced by the mfgr.

Whether you remove the partition or not is your choice. There are pros and cons. I will not touch that question but I will tell you that with DiskPart you can 100% reclaim that space but you will not be able to extend your normal C: to include that area.

The 100 mb at the tailend you can reclaim with DiskPart. Once again you will get pro and con arguments as to whether to actually take the step. Since I have the Recovery Environment on a bootable DVD and on a bootable USB Flash Drive, then I always reclaim that 100 mb and extend my "c:" to include that space.

On your "c:" is a \recovery folder which contains a subfolder with winre.wim and boot.sdi. The .wim file is your system repair program that you normally reach via f8 at computer startup time. the .sdi file is a system deployment image file whose purpose is to prepare a ntfs-formatted disk in ram so that the recovery environment runs from ram.

Win7 offers via control panel, and backup and restore which can backup your entire disk. This program produces a VHD file which, if you desire, you can "Mount" and then extract files from if some unforeseen disaster occurs. You can also do a 100% restore of your hard disk using the backup make by the Backup and Restore program. I have tested the full and the partial backup capabilities built-in to Win7 and also the restore from these backups. Very slick and easy to use.

 

[RN09]

Wow, I didn't know there were many ways to back up the system. Well, I still don't but am little better .

I have always reinstalled OS to get rid of bloatwares when I got new computers. Only this time it doesn't come with OS cd. I had to download from digitalriver, I thought it didn't work, but it does. And I used it to repair after deleting 100 MB and 12GB claimed above.

I thought the only way to get the whole thing back after deleted bloat ware, install software, programs is clone hard drive. Now I learn that back up image can too.

 

[whs]

Imaging is actually the easiest route. look at this little tutorial I made, you will be in business 1, 2, 3. It is very, very easy. But do yourself a favor and use an external disk. DVDs are too messy.

 

[RN09]

Imaging is actually the easiest route. look at this little tutorial I made, you will be in business 1, 2, 3. It is very, very easy. But do yourself a favor and use an external disk. DVDs are too messy.

Thanks for the link. Will down load and work on this weekend.

 

[whs]

no problem, any time.

 

[RN09]

Imaging is actually the easiest route. look at this little tutorial I made, you will be in business 1, 2, 3. It is very, very easy. But do yourself a favor and use an external disk. DVDs are too messy.

DL software and made a disk image. My C drive is about 18gb but the disk image is about half (8gb and some). Is it right? I thought the image's capacity should be as same as the original's. May be I made some mistakes. The instruction is pretty forward.

 

[whs]

Imaging is actually the easiest route. look at this little tutorial I made, you will be in business 1, 2, 3. It is very, very easy. But do yourself a favor and use an external disk. DVDs are too messy.

DL software and made a disk image. My C drive is about 18gb but the disk image is about half (8gb and some). Is it right? I thought the image's capacity should be as same as the original's. May be I made some mistakes. The instruction is pretty forward.

That's ok. The image is compressed to save disk space. My images are also only about half the original.
If you are brave, pull the image in to test whether it works. I always make that test - but first on a little test partition that I create for the purpose - usually a 3GB partition into which I move some data (anything), then I image, then I delete some of the data, then I pull the image in. If my deleted data is back, I know it worked.
Just another little hint. You can open the image file and look what's in it. But that will mount a volume that you can see in Computer. Do not worry about it, it will disappear with the next reboot (and if you open the image 3 times, you will see 3 volumes, but they are virtual).

 

[RN09]

I created an image and saved it in usb external hard drive.

When computer crashed, how can I run Macrium to restore image back to computer?

 

[TopWeb]

No do not delete

I know a lot more people will read these thread and become confused. The true answer for almost every normal person is NO, NO, NO.

Do not remove a partition called Recovery Partition with 10 or 11 Gig in it.

Why would you?

When you need more space you go out and buy a 1T or 2T external drive.

Recovery is there for a reason and the attitude of looking for things to screw up your machine is a bad attitude that needs to stop or eventually you will do something serious.

The geeks in here, like myself, we can do this kind of thing. Your normal and can't. When a geek does this we already know that this machine is expendable and we already have recovery backup in 2 or 3 redundancy levels. Average bl-oaks don't.

So forget it. Recovery means recovery. If you don't want to ever recover again, or you what to gamble with your life, then delete it and that will be the end of an important feature. Maybe data is not your life like it is for some of us.

DON'T LISTEN TO THOSE WHO TELL YOU FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE TO DELETE STUFF, THEY WILL BE LAUGHING WHILE YOU SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES.

THIS IS A WARNING FOR EVERY AMATEUR OUT THERE.

FROM A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER SINCE 1981.

TRUST THE GREY BEARDS.

 

[theog]

Nice post TopWeb.

   Information

We always assume you have made your Recovery Disks using the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Media Creator app the first day you had your new PC.
& made the Startup Repair CD.
startup repair disc-create
​

Did you make the OEM manufacturer's Recovery Disks?

 

[ksilerjr]

I had the same problem, here is how I deleted it

I had the extact same issue. 500Gb drive with 12GB partition that I could not delete. Right click only had Help option. I finally downloaded a low level disk format utility (Download HDD Low Level Format Tool 4.25 Free - Utility for low-level hard disk drive formatting - Softpedia) and it cleared the entire disk giving me back 465GB of unallocated space.

All I need to do using this utility was pick the correct drive from the list and check "Perform quick wipe" and click format. 10 seconds later the drive was clear and read for use.

Looks like you might be able to do the same thing using DISKPART but I found that info after I had solved my issue.

 

[AddRAM]

I know a lot more people will read these thread and become confused. The true answer for almost every normal person is NO, NO, NO.

Do not remove a partition called Recovery Partition with 10 or 11 Gig in it.

Why would you?

When you need more space you go out and buy a 1T or 2T external drive.

Recovery is there for a reason and the attitude of looking for things to screw up your machine is a bad attitude that needs to stop or eventually you will do something serious.

The geeks in here, like myself, we can do this kind of thing. Your normal and can't. When a geek does this we already know that this machine is expendable and we already have recovery backup in 2 or 3 redundancy levels. Average bl-oaks don't.

So forget it. Recovery means recovery. If you don't want to ever recover again, or you what to gamble with your life, then delete it and that will be the end of an important feature. Maybe data is not your life like it is for some of us.

DON'T LISTEN TO THOSE WHO TELL YOU FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE TO DELETE STUFF, THEY WILL BE LAUGHING WHILE YOU SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES.

THIS IS A WARNING FOR EVERY AMATEUR OUT THERE.

FROM A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER SINCE 1981.

TRUST THE GREY BEARDS.

I totally agree with you. There is no reason to worry about 12 GBs. Just add another hard drive to the system.

 

[gregrocker]

You can delete unwanted or dysfunctional OEM partitions using free Partition Wizard bootable CD.

If you do this you must first check the labels on the partition you're deleting to make sure it does not hold the System Active flags. If so you need to mark Win7 partition Active and run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts and it's partition holds the System Active flags. Partition - Mark as Active

Then you can delete the unwanted partitions and if desired recover the disk space into another partition using PW CD's Resize function. Sometimes Resizing on the boot sector can cause Win7 to fail to boot so check the Active flag is set and run Startup Repair until it starts again.

 

[TerriMo]

I know a lot more people will read these thread and become confused. The true answer for almost every normal person is NO, NO, NO.

Do not remove a partition called Recovery Partition with 10 or 11 Gig in it.

Why would you?

When you need more space you go out and buy a 1T or 2T external drive.

Recovery is there for a reason and the attitude of looking for things to screw up your machine is a bad attitude that needs to stop or eventually you will do something serious.

The geeks in here, like myself, we can do this kind of thing. Your normal and can't. When a geek does this we already know that this machine is expendable and we already have recovery backup in 2 or 3 redundancy levels. Average bl-oaks don't.

So forget it. Recovery means recovery. If you don't want to ever recover again, or you what to gamble with your life, then delete it and that will be the end of an important feature. Maybe data is not your life like it is for some of us.

DON'T LISTEN TO THOSE WHO TELL YOU FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE TO DELETE STUFF, THEY WILL BE LAUGHING WHILE YOU SUFFER THE CONSEQUENCES.

THIS IS A WARNING FOR EVERY AMATEUR OUT THERE.

FROM A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER SINCE 1981.

TRUST THE GREY BEARDS.

If it should not be deleted how can it be cleaned up at least? I did a clean install of Windows to give the laptop to my daughter, but it was also saved in the recovery drive which is now full and I can't download anything because of it. I don't have a recovery drive on any of my other laptops and I have never had an issue. Please help!

 

[gregrocker]

A Recovery partition won't run anyway after a Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7 on a Dell or most other makes. What I recommend with Dell is to Run Built-In Diagnostics for Your Dell Computer | Dell US
to check the hardware and see that it runs. If so leave that small OEM partition at the beginning of HD only since it remains bootable after reinstall and is valuable for its many diagnostics.

Everyone needs to weigh the need for making Recovery Disks or otherwise preserving the factory preinstall, however most realize that this is the factory preinstalled Win7 which is the worst install one can have. That's why we've helped tens of thousands of average consumers get a perfect Clean Reinstall of Win7 without a single complaint.

 

[AssetDk]

I had the same need and I can expalin why anyone would want to delete the recover partition.

I migrated my Labtop to a SSD Dual drive with SSD120+1Tb, and the recovery partition takes up 10% of valuable SSD space. Further I still have both the old Harddisk and the backup-image - containing the original recovery partition - worst case I can go back to the original disk or I can restore the image to the new disk.

Anyway, I guees that a OEM installed systems on a new laptop with SSD would have the same issue... and thus many people would want to remove the recovery partition?

Regards Per