Factory Restore Partition ???

[BuckSkin]

I have a Windows 7 Pro machine that I may resort to using the factory restore option; I know it works as I did it on the same machine a couple years ago.
Disk Management shows the Factory Restore Partition and says it is healthy.

When I first used the factory restore, the HDD only consisted of a single drive = C:
As best I remember, when I went into the Control Panel, there was a page that had three restore options; System Restore to an earlier point, Reinstall Windows using an install disk, and Reset with the factory restore.(I may have not worded everything just as it says but you get the idea).

Since that time, I have partitioned that HDD with three lettered drives; the C: drive has only the operating system and whatever programs are installed; another drive is for pictures; and the third drive is for miscellaneous.
Today, when I look in the control panel, I am only seeing two options; restore to an earlier time and restore from a disk; I am not seeing any option for Factory Restore.

My question is two-fold.

1. How do I implement the factory restore ?

2. Will Factory Restore limit itself to ONLY messing with the C: drive and leave the other drives un-molested ?

Thanks for reading.

 

[SIW2]

How Do I restore this Recovery Partition on my Dell - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[BuckSkin]

Thanks!

Thanks!
Looking in Disk Management, I see my Factory Restore partition size is 34.08-GB with 25.56-GB of free space; that only leaves 8.52-GB for the system/data/whatever; does that look about right ?

Is there any reason I shouldn't scoot that partition size down to maybe 12-GB or so ?

Thanks.

 

[mrjimphelps]

I wouldn't make any changes to the factory restore partition. Perhaps Dell made it that size for a reason. If you shrink it, you may mess up your ability to do a factory restore.

 

[RolandJS]

Often, specialized partitions have data that cannot be seen by Windows' explorer.exe, hence, as a previous poster indicated, do not adjust that factory restore partition's size.

 

[RolandJS]

If memory and experience serves me, a factory restore will place the internal hard-drive to exactly what it was when it left the factory. it = meaning the hard-drive. Whatever was added since leaving the factory -- will be gone.