Disk management - removing the recovery partition

rgz

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I have a laptop running windows 8.1 that was updated from Windows 7 some time ago with 240gb hard drive. The 'Disk Management' subheading in the 'Computer management' window shows that I have four partitions. The first one does not have a name but under status is labeled as a recovery partition with 20 gb allocated and 0% in use. The second one is a hibernation partition with 8gb and 0% in use. the third is the c drive and the fourth is 'system reserved' with 350mb and 15% used.

It seems to me that the recovery partition with 20 gb allocated is not being used by the system. I would like to do one of the following:

1. Have the computer utilize it for recovery.
2. free up the space and add it to the c drive.

Any suggestions would be welcome.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    dell
    CPU
    core i7
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 640m, intel hd4000
As to 1, I find having a recovery partition on the same drive as the OS is asking for trouble. If the drive fails, your recovery partition goes with it. I prefer having an image backup (using Macrium Reflect) on another local drive, so I can restore my setup in only a few minutes -- if needed. So, yeah, you could reformat all that space into a single partition and use Macrium Reflect (or built-in Windows functions) to store backups in it.

As to 2., you can do that using Disk Management. Simply delete the two partitions, then reboot, then use Disk Management to expand C: to fill the unallocated space. It will probably have to reboot to do that, but it does work OK.
 

My Computer

Thanks for the reply. The system does not allow me to delete either the recovery or hibernation partition. Right clicking only shows the 'help' option. On the C drive partition right clicking shows more options such as shrinking the volume and others that are actionable and not.

How do I proceed?
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    dell
    CPU
    core i7
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 640m, intel hd4000
Disk management won't allow you to delete System reserved/Recovery partition. You'll need to use diskpart command run from Admin command prompt.
  1. Open Admin command prompt and type diskpart
  2. list disk
  3. select disk # where # is the disk number contains the 20GB recovery partition
  4. list partition
  5. Take a note the partition # of the 20 GB partition
  6. select par # from step 5
  7. delete partition override
  8. exit
  9. Open disk management right click on C: drive ->Extend volume
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
Thank you for the reply. Steps 1-8 seemed to work. In 'disk management' the 20 gb is now unallocated. However I cannot extend the c volume. How should I proceed? Do I need to format the unallocated portion of the disk? I believe my hard drive is in raid 0 configuration.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    dell
    CPU
    core i7
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 640m, intel hd4000
Thank you for the reply. Steps 1-8 seemed to work. In 'disk management' the 20 gb is now unallocated. However I cannot extend the c volume. How should I proceed? Do I need to format the unallocated portion of the disk? I believe my hard drive is in raid 0 configuration.
What make you think that you have a Raid 0 configuration ? For Raid 0, you must have 2 or more of identical drives. DO you have that setup ? You did not mention anything about Raid 0 in your original post.

In order to extend the volume. You must have the 20GB unallocated space next to the right of C drive. You might need a third party partition manager to do this.

Open disk management and take a screen shot then post it here so we can suggest what to do next.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1x64PWMC Ubuntu14.04x64 MintMate17x64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Home Brewed
    CPU
    I7 4970K OC'ed @4.7 GHz
    Motherboard
    MSI-Z97
    Memory
    16 GB G-Skill Trident X @2400MHZ
    Graphics Card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce GTS 450
    Sound Card
    X-Fi Titanium Fatal1ty Professional Series
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Dual HP-W2408
    Screen Resolution
    1920X1200
    Hard Drives
    256 GB M2 sm951, (2) 500GB 850EVO, 5TB, 2 TB Seagate
    PSU
    Antec 850W
    Case
    Antec 1200
    Cooling
    Danger Den H20
    Keyboard
    Logitech
    Mouse
    Logitech Performance Mouse MX
    Internet Speed
    35/12mbps
    Browser
    Firefox
It is a 256 GB hard drive in raid 0 configuration
Below is the disk management screen.

disk management screen - Copy.jpg
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    dell
    CPU
    core i7
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 640m, intel hd4000
Use Aomei partition Assistant and create bootable media..

You need to MOVE the 350MB partition to the left
Then you can RESIZE the Windows C:\ Partition

AOMEI Partition Assistant
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
Use Aomei partition Assistant and create bootable media..

You need to MOVE the 350MB partition to the left
Then you can RESIZE the Windows C:\ Partition

AOMEI Partition Assistant

Can you provide some tips on using the partition assistant? Looking through the internet, partition software are known as data killers if not used properly.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    dell
    CPU
    core i7
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 640m, intel hd4000
Have not had an issue with AOMEI..
Download the program and then use the option to create a boot disk.. (Or download my custom windows recovery, in my sig below)

once you run AOMEI, it will populate your disk, right click on the 350mb partition and select move, the program will show a slider bar
slide it to the left.. then from menu bar, upper left, select apply..

the program will move the partition and data and then will re-populate the disk
right click the windows partition and select resize - a slider bar will pop up - drag the partition out to fill the bar.. Upper menu - apply.

that's is, reboot and your done..

AOMEI How To Manuals
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
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