How to clean "Recovery C"

[maisha]

Hello,
Recently i have rebooted my Dell Laptop (i think it is called reboot, it is now back to its orginal factory settings). I am trying to install Microsoft Programmes but i have no space. I get notifications that i am running low on memory. Please help in very simple terms. Thank you so much.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

What did you do to restore to factory settings? Did you use some DVDs? Or did you use a menu choice from your programs? Or did you use an F key when rebooting?

Something went wrong in the process. Look at that second picture.

For whatever reason, the recovery partition is shown as the C drive and is the boot partition. That partition is full and that's why you are getting that message.

Normally, you'd expect the partition shown as "OS" to be shown as the C drive and as the boot partition. It has plenty of free space and is where you would normally install programs.

The "recovery" partition should be left alone. It should not be marked as boot or page file or crash dump.

I'm not sure how you went off the track, but let us know exactly how you did the "recovery". Maybe you can do it again.

It may also be possible to repair this existing installation. Do you have any type of installation disc that may have been provided by Dell?

 

[maisha]

When i switched on the laptop i pressed F12 but also used a Dell installtion disk and just followed the steps as i went. Thank you for replying so soon

 

[ignatzatsonic]

When i switched on the laptop i pressed F12 but also used a Dell installtion disk and just followed the steps as i went. Thank you for replying so soon

I suspect you should have used the F12 key and ignored the Dell installation disk. I wouldn't think the installation disk would be necessary to do a "factory reset".

Have you tried to do another factory reset using the F12 key, without the installation disk?

I don't know how Dell sets things up, but I'd assume the installation disk to be used only for a clean install and NOT when you are trying to do a factory reset. A clean install and a factory reset are two different things.

 

[maisha]

When i swtiched on the latop it read "BOOTMGR Missing, Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"
I recall pressing F12 and then pressing the second option that came up. Windows restarted, i was asked to enter country and just followed the steps.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Try this:

Open Windows Disk Management so you see something like what is shown in your second picture above.

Click on the C partition (recovery partition).

Go to the Action menu and choose "all tasks".

Choose "change drive letters and paths". Select some other letter for that recovery partition. R would be fine.

Then try to assign the drive letter "C" to that partition now shown as "OS". You may have to back up a step or two and click on that "OS" partition and then go back to the action menu.

After you get the OS partition renamed to C, reboot and go back to Disk Management and show us a new picture.

 

[maisha]

I'm not quite sure what you mean? Line 4? could you break this down please.
Also what would this do?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I'm not quite sure what you mean? Line 4? could you break this down please.
Also what would this do?

Line 4 is:


Go to the Action menu and choose "all tasks".

What don't you understand or follow about that?

The entire procedure I outlined may solve your problem and may not.

Programs want to install to the C drive. Your current C drive is full. My idea is to rename OS to C. The OS partition is already shown as your system and active partition, which is good.

 

[maisha]

After line 4 then what? I dont understand line 5 either.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

After line 4 then what? I dont understand line 5 either.

What don't you understand about line 5?

Can you complete line 4? If so, do you or don't you see a choice for "change drive letter and paths", like this:

 

[maisha]

i can complete line 4 but do not understand what to do next

 

[ignatzatsonic]

When you do step 4, do you or do you not then see a choice for "change drive letter and paths" as shown in post 10????

If you do see that choice, choose it.

If you do not see that choice, either post a picture of what you do see or tell me what you do see.

 

[maisha]

Try this:

Then try to assign the drive letter "C" to that partition now shown as "OS". You may have to back up a step or two and click on that "OS" partition and then go back to the action menu.

After you get the OS partition renamed to C, reboot and go back to Disk Management and show us a new picture.

How do i assign the drive letter?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Did you do step 2 before doing steps 3 and 4?

Namely, select the partition now shown as recovery.

You have to change what is now C to something other than C before you can do anything else. I asked you to change C to R.

In your picture, the recovery partition is still shown as C. You have to change that.

 

[kronckew]

use the ADD button. hilite & change drive C 1st - add a letter, R. remove the letter C to free it. hilite the OS partition, go to the change letter, add C.

edited:
oops, didn't mean to step on your toes ignatz.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

If you cannot reassign the drive letters in Windows Disk Management, you may have to use Partition Wizard Boot Disk.

 

[maisha]

ive done something stupid! oh nooo how do i un-do/rename them?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I have no idea how that \R got into that picture.

You apparently renamed the OS partition to R. I don't know how or why.

Click cancel and start over.

Then go back to that same screen.

With the mouse, highlight "Recovery (C)" in that picture.

The change button should then light up. Choose change and then assign the letter M to that partition from the next window.

Then show us another picture.

 

[maisha]

i cant cancel, the changes have already been made!

 

[ignatzatsonic]

i cant cancel, the changes have already been made!

Then click OK and show us a picture. You don't have much choice at this point.