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HP_Recovery Partition takes up 93% Hard Drive (5661 Views)
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Simguy Honor Student
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Simguy
Posts: 2
Registered: ‎12-16-2008
Message 1 of 6 (5,661 Views)
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HP_Recovery Partition takes up 93% Hard Drive

‎12-16-2008 04:43 PM

Hello everyone,

 

My mother-in-law purchased a HP Media Center PC (model m7000) sometime in 2006.  It still has the original Windows XP installation.

 

She was just now trying to download some pictures off of her digital camera when a message popped up saying that drive C was low on memory.  When I looked in My Computer, I discovered that her hard drive was partitioned into two partitions:

1) HP_PAVILION (C) - Total size: 18.0 GB

2) HP_RECOVERY (D) - Total size: 280.0 GB

 

I was shocked to discover that the HP_RECOVERY partition was 280 GB out of 300 GB total!  That's 93.33% of her hard drive taken by a partition she cannot do anything with!

 

The partitions have not been messed with since we purchased the computer.  I am the only one knowledgeable enough to attempt such a feat, and I have not done it.

 

I have tried calling the HP customer support with no success.  They refuse to direct me to any technical support technician unless I pay $$$ since it is now out of warranty.

 

I have tried Googling for a way to resize the partition to something reasonable -- such as the 8-10 GB that most people have for the HP_RECOVERY partition.  The only help I can find is on how to remove it completely.

 

As the HP_RECOVERY partition looks like a particularly helpful feature in case of a future disaster, I would like to keep it.

 

How can I resize the HP_RECOVERY partition to something reasonable? (i.e., not 93% of my hard drive!) 

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated!  Thanks in advance!

 

Once again, here are the specs:

HP Media Center PC

Model: m7000

Windows XP (SP2)

Total Hard Drive Space: 300 GB

HP_RECOVERY partition size: 280 GB

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Provost Provost
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CherylG
Posts: 16,558
Registered: ‎11-12-2008
Message 2 of 6 (5,642 Views)
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Re: HP_Recovery Partition takes up 93% Hard Drive

‎12-16-2008 08:51 PM

Strange problem,have never seen that one reported before.The partitions seem to be reversed completely.If she has made a Recovery Disk set you might try running them to see if that sorts it out_after backing up her photos/files of course.

You may could use something like Partition Magic or the free Partition Logic to resize the partitions,but have to warn you that messing with the proprietary HP partitioning has been known to cause disasterous results.Be sure you have the Recovery Disk set made and her files backed up before attempting it.

 

Creating Recovery Disc Set in XP:

 

 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&rule=69&product=3696841&docna...

 

HP System Recovery in Windows XP:

 

 

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&docname=bph07145&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_R1002_USE...


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Professor Professor
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RasterBlaster
Posts: 2,131
Registered: ‎11-17-2008
Message 3 of 6 (5,697 Views)
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Re: HP_Recovery Partition takes up 93% Hard Drive

‎12-17-2008 08:03 AM

The fix is documented in this HP support article:

 

HP Pavilion Media Center TV m7560n Desktop PC - Only 18GB of Usable Hard Drive Space Instead of 250G...

 

 

... an HP employee expressing his own opinion.
Please post rather than send me a Message. It's good for the community and I might not be able to get back quickly. - Thank you.
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Associate Professor Associate Professor
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Mister_Do
Posts: 1,623
Registered: ‎11-17-2008
Message 4 of 6 (5,617 Views)
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Re: HP_Recovery Partition takes up 93% Hard Drive

‎12-17-2008 08:08 AM

RasterBlaster is correct and beat me to the punch! :smileyhappy:

 

Guess I'll have to be faster next time.

...an HP employee just trying to help where I can, but not speaking on behalf of HP.
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Simguy Honor Student
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Simguy
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Registered: ‎12-16-2008
Message 5 of 6 (5,588 Views)
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Re: HP_Recovery Partition takes up 93% Hard Drive

‎12-17-2008 05:32 PM

Wow.  That article looks exactly like what our problem is!

 

Thanks so much!  I'll try it this weekend when I go to see her again!

 

Thanks again! :smileyhappy:

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Distinguished Professor Distinguished Professor
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Kalt
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Registered: ‎11-19-2008
Message 6 of 6 (5,584 Views)
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Re: HP_Recovery Partition takes up 93% Hard Drive

[ Edited ]

‎12-17-2008 05:43 PM - edited ‎12-17-2008 05:43 PM

You could of course use Partition Magic or any other partition applications.  If you have a Vista (or Vista install disc) computer, you could always hook the hard drive up to it and use the built-in Disk Management Console.
Message Edited by Kalt on 12-17-2008 07:43 PM
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