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HP Recommended
Notebook 15-ac055nr
Microsoft Windows 10 (64-bit)

I know deleting the recovery partition is not recommended, but it seems to be the only way to address the space issue I'm having with this machine. I have made a mirror image of the entire drive -- with the exception of the recovery drive -- and also rescue media that will boot into WindowsPE. The image is saved on an external drive and I plan to make new images monthly to stay up to date. 

 

Can I use something like EaseUS Partition Master to remove this drive? Should I leave it on the machine except reduce the size, in case an update comes along that wants to put something in there? (That's what happened with a Windows 10 Update that expanded the drive beyond its limits, creating all sorts of problems.)

 

Thanks in advance for your help!

Lauren

 

My Edit: I forgot to mention that I dealt with the original issue of the overloaded recovery drive in another thread on this board and received excellent help there, but it hasn't had any follow-up and my issue isn't completely resolved yet, so I'm posting again with the specific problems I'm now facing.

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions
HP Recommended

This is so simple, it embarrasses me that it never crossed my mind. There's no need to delete the Recovery Drive. Just delete the 3.05GB Windows 10 Upgrade folder that filled the drive to capacity. (I made a copy of it on DVD before deleting, but mostly I'll rely on the Macrium Reflect mirror image and rescue media I made, should the need arise.)

 

Also, this machine defaulted back to its original BIOS boot order setting, so if your USB drive doesn't seem to work, check the setting again to see if it changed on you. Once it was reset to start from USB first, the rescue media worked fine.

 

Thanks for being here. I appreciate every single one of you that contribute to this board!

 

My edit: I won't be deleting the drive because it is no longer overloaded and creating problems.

View solution in original post

3 REPLIES 3
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@GallantFox

 

I haven't personally used that partitioning product, but you should be able to use it to remove the Recovery drive.

 

My own recommendation is to use this product:  http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

 

And, if that won't work (due to Windows restrictions), then I would recommend this alternative:

 

You can obtain it from here: https://www.partitionwizard.com/partition-wizard-bootable-cd.html

Once you have this, you have a choice of media to create:
1) If you can boot from CD, download and install ImgBurn and use the Write Image to Disk option to create a bootable CD.
2) If you can boot from USB, download and install RUFUS and use the option to create a bootable USB stick from the ISO file.

Boot your PC with the media you created. You should now be able to do partition changes without problems.

 

Also, regarding making Recovery images, yy suggestion is you consider using a third-party solution known as Macrium Reflect (MR).

I prefer to use third-party recovery solutions for the following reasons:
1) More flexibility and reliabilty -- can make recovery media as often as you like, not restricted to one attempt, which if it fails, then you are stuck.
2) More media options -- can create media in DVD, USB stick, or external drive format
3) Mounting option -- can "mount" the save images as virtual "drives" and extract individual files and folders
4) WinPE boot option -- can install a special boot option that allows you to boot to recovery information and do a repair or restore from there -- when Windows will not boot

What I recommend is the following:
1) Download and install Macrium Reflect (MR) from here: http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx
2) Run MR and choose the option: "Create an image of the partition(s) required to backup and restore Windows" to write a full backup to an external drive, USB stick, or DVDs
3) Use the option to create a boot USB stick or CD

My experience is that MR, when using the High Compression option, typically can compress the saved image file to about 50% of the USED space in the OS partition. This means if you have an 80GB OS partition, and 40GB is used, MR only needs about 20GB to store the image file.

I use this all the time and it typically takes less than 10 minutes to do the image backup and about the same time or less to do a restore. Plus, MR has the option to Add a Recovery Boot Menu entry. This allows you then to boot into WinPE, and you can then use that to do a restore -- when you can't boot into Windows!

NOW, you have the means to restore a full working system from the external drive, USB or DVDs stick in only a few minutes.

Good Luck

 

 



I am a volunteer and I do not work for, nor represent, HP
HP Recommended

Thanks for your reply, WAWood. I used your suggestion of using Macrium Reflect to create my system image when you replied to my first thread on this and I love the product. I also used it to create the rescue media (on USB), but I don't know how to test it to see if it works. I had planned to go to MR's website to see if they could guide me, but perhaps you might know these answers: 

 

When testing the USB (it's now first in the boot order in the BIOS), will it boot into Windows PE? It seems logical that it would and I would see something other than regular boot into Windows. I don't know if the USB booted the machine up or if it went through its sequence, eventually getting to the hard drive files and booted from there. I'll see something different, right?

 

Thanks for the information on partition wizard. I'll check it out.

 

And forgive me if I've repeated myself. I've been posting on more than one tech board trying to find help and I can't see my original post from this Reply window.

HP Recommended

This is so simple, it embarrasses me that it never crossed my mind. There's no need to delete the Recovery Drive. Just delete the 3.05GB Windows 10 Upgrade folder that filled the drive to capacity. (I made a copy of it on DVD before deleting, but mostly I'll rely on the Macrium Reflect mirror image and rescue media I made, should the need arise.)

 

Also, this machine defaulted back to its original BIOS boot order setting, so if your USB drive doesn't seem to work, check the setting again to see if it changed on you. Once it was reset to start from USB first, the rescue media worked fine.

 

Thanks for being here. I appreciate every single one of you that contribute to this board!

 

My edit: I won't be deleting the drive because it is no longer overloaded and creating problems.

† The opinions expressed above are the personal opinions of the authors, not of HP. By using this site, you accept the <a href="https://www8.hp.com/us/en/terms-of-use.html" class="udrlinesmall">Terms of Use</a> and <a href="/t5/custom/page/page-id/hp.rulespage" class="udrlinesmall"> Rules of Participation</a>.