Blowing Away the Recovery Partition...Advice?

Brian K wrote:
"RnR" wrote in message
...
How much space do you gain?


About 10 GB. I think the recovery partition is that size.



A progress report:

My preference is to remove the Recovery partition using software with
which I am already familiar, if possible, rather than installing
additional software just for this purpose.

My other preference is to avoid entering unfamiliar commands at a
command prompt.

I have discovered that I can use either of two familiar applications:
EasyBCD (which I used when I was dual-booting) and ShadowProtect Desktop
(one of my backup applications.)

Brian's technique, which uses BING, would work out just fine,
notwithstanding my previously expressed preferences.

Since there's no big rush to get this done, I asked Dell if they would
send me a set of bootable factory restore discs, or failing that, and if
the price is nominal, if they will sell me the Pro version of Dell
DataSafe Local Backup 2.0, which can create bootable discs from the
Recovery partition (as can the free version of DSLB, except that it's
not separately available.) I have a feeling that DSLB may be vaporware,
since no one I have spoken to at Dell has heard of it.

Once I have an answer from Dell, one way or the other, I will finally
'blow away' the Recovery partition. (I have a backup of it.)

It's been a real trip and a great education (thank you, Brian) if you
enjoy learning about this sort of thing, which I do.

Daddy

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:28:36 GMT, "Brian K"
wrote:


"RnR" wrote in message
.. .

How much space do you gain?


About 10 GB. I think the recovery partition is that size.



Thanks. I guess that's worthy of some consideration how to deal with.
Some say not to blow it off but I tend to but then I replace it with
Acronis's way of recovery in it's own hidden partition. To each his
own of course.

I have discovered that I can use either of two familiar applications:
EasyBCD (which I used when I was dual-booting) and ShadowProtect Desktop
(one of my backup applications.)

Any retail version of Win 7 can do it. Just delete the partitions when you install.
I do that to all our Dell machines and they don't care if the recovery partition
is there or not. Of course, if you restore from the Dell DVDs, you get the recovery
partition back.

Tom Lake

"RnR" wrote in message
...
Some say not to blow it off but I tend to but then I replace it with
Acronis's way of recovery in it's own hidden partition. To each his
own of course.

Sure. It is a personal choice. The main disadvantage of having any type of
recovery partition on the same HD as the OS is if there is a HD failure, you
lose both.

"Daddy" wrote in message
...

My preference is to remove the Recovery partition using software with
which I am already familiar,



That certainly reduces the stress level.

I have an old Gateway computer that is used for tests. Pentium 4 1.3 GHz.
It's a little slow but it takes me less than 5 minutes to run the procedure
I posted about removing the system partition and booting back into Win7.

As you mentioned in earlier posts, there are blunt instrument ways to remove
the partition and to get Win7 booting. You can just delete the partition
using a partition app boot disc. (The partition can't be deleted from Disk
Management as it is the System partition). Next, boot from the Win7 DVD and
do two repairs. It is only on the second repair that you get to a menu that
offers "Startup Repair". I don't like this method as it is time consuming.

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:23:37 -0500, "RnR" wrote:

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:52:56 GMT, "Brian K"
wrote:

I omitted....

You can delete the Recovery partition and keep a functioning Utility
partition.



And / or use Acronis to more or less do the same.

Talking about removing partitions with Acronis I assume Disk Director.
Good news bad news time. Acronis Disk Director is at version 10 which
is not compatible with Windows 7 (have tried it.)
I have been a happy user of Acronis both True Image and Disk Director
for many years but am now wondering why 6 to 7 months after the
introduction of Windows 7 they don't have a patch for Ver 10 or an
upgrade to Ver 11.

Art

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:28:15 GMT, "Brian K"
wrote:


"RnR" wrote in message
.. .
Some say not to blow it off but I tend to but then I replace it with
Acronis's way of recovery in it's own hidden partition. To each his
own of course.

Sure. It is a personal choice. The main disadvantage of having any type of
recovery partition on the same HD as the OS is if there is a HD failure, you
lose both.



Excellent point !! Which is why I make a backup on an external
drive too. I've thought of even doing it on 2 externals but I haven't
done that yet. Sounds like you know your stuff

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:19:00 +1000, Star@*.* wrote:

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:23:37 -0500, "RnR" wrote:

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:52:56 GMT, "Brian K"
wrote:

I omitted....

You can delete the Recovery partition and keep a functioning Utility
partition.



And / or use Acronis to more or less do the same.

Talking about removing partitions with Acronis I assume Disk Director.
Good news bad news time. Acronis Disk Director is at version 10 which
is not compatible with Windows 7 (have tried it.)
I have been a happy user of Acronis both True Image and Disk Director
for many years but am now wondering why 6 to 7 months after the
introduction of Windows 7 they don't have a patch for Ver 10 or an
upgrade to Ver 11.

Art


Appreciate that info. I haven't changed my main OS to win7 so I was
unaware of this. I will keep my eyes open for this when / if I
change over. May have to consider a replacement for TI and DD.
Thanks Art for the info.

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 08:28:34 -0500, "RnR" wrote:

On Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:19:00 +1000, Star@*.* wrote:

On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 06:23:37 -0500, "RnR" wrote:

On Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:52:56 GMT, "Brian K"
wrote:

I omitted....

You can delete the Recovery partition and keep a functioning Utility
partition.



And / or use Acronis to more or less do the same.

Talking about removing partitions with Acronis I assume Disk Director.
Good news bad news time. Acronis Disk Director is at version 10 which
is not compatible with Windows 7 (have tried it.)
I have been a happy user of Acronis both True Image and Disk Director
for many years but am now wondering why 6 to 7 months after the
introduction of Windows 7 they don't have a patch for Ver 10 or an
upgrade to Ver 11.

Art


Appreciate that info. I haven't changed my main OS to win7 so I was
unaware of this. I will keep my eyes open for this when / if I
change over. May have to consider a replacement for TI and DD.
Thanks Art for the info.

Yes good info that I found out by accident. I had DD10 so wanted to
set up a Windows 7 machine about 3 months ago and did the partition of
the HDD and installed Windows 7 and the system would not run after the
first reboot so let Win7 format the partition I created and all went
well. I then found an update to my DD10 and tried to install the
updated version on my Win7 machine and got the "This program is not
compatable with the current windows version" so would not install on
Win7 at all.

Art

Daddy wrote:
I recently received a new Studio XPS 8100. I opted to keep the C: drive
pretty much as-is, and uninstalled most of the smell-ware that Dell adds.

I'd really like to delete the extra two partitions that contain Dell's
diagnostics and the factory image. My first inclination was to simply
use the Diskpart command, but now I'm not so sure.

My problem is: I don't really understand the boot process that well. I
believe Dell customizes the Master Boot Record to make it possible to
access those hidden partitions (with the right key combination.) If I
delete the extra partitions, do I risk making my computer unbootable?

Daddy

As a finale to this story: I used EasyBCD 2.0 (build 90) to reconfigure
my computer to boot from the C: drive. EasyBCD setup a BCD store on C:,
copied the existing BCD entries from the Recovery partition, and made
the C: drive Active. All it took was one click.

As effortless as that was, it took a lot for me to work myself up to
that point.

Windows 7 doesn't have 'blow away' as a context menu selection; I had to
settle for 'Delete'. But my Recovery partition is now gone.

Daddy