Need To Restore HP Recovery Partition Contents

[TPA2011]

Hello HP Community,

Some time back, I unfortunately deleted the backup files in the HP Recovery hard drive partition. I've been trying to sort out MAJOR Windows 10 update problems and this has reminded me of the deleted files. Could someone tell me the way to restore these backup files in the event that I need them. These Windows updates have been very hard on my PC lately and I need as many recovery options as possible.

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi

HP Pavilion p6837c Desktop PC

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-pavilion-p6800-desktop-pc-series/5080733/model/5110083

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-pavilion-p6800-desktop-pc-series/5080733/model/5...

USB-Windows 7 64-bit Recovery Kit System Recovery Kit for Consumer Notebook Order Media

N/A

N/A

Jun 3, 2011

Otherwise...

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

If in doubt please ask.

[WAWood]

@TPA2011

If your question is to how to restore the Recovery partition --but leave everything else intact -- then sorry, there is no way to do that.

HP Recovery Media does that by doing a full factory reset of the PC, and that starts out by reformatting the ENTIRE hard drive, removing everything on it.

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 15 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 stick or DVDs in only a few minutes.

Good Luck

[WAWood]

@TPA2011

Just saw this information on a website I frequent:  

https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/oem_recovery_partition_creator.html

I haven't tried this, but apparently it is FREE so it might be worth trying out.

Good Luck

[TPA2011]

Thanks for the additional info WAWOOD. It's a pity that this is also only useful for a NEW install of Windows.

[TPA2011]

Thanks for the resources Lil boy blue

[TPA2011]

"If your question is to how to restore the Recovery partition --but leave everything else intact -- then sorry, there is no way to do that."

That's exactly my question more or less. I now have an 11 GB partition that's practically empty. I'm wondering if I can either remove it or use Macrium to store a backup file there. Given I have no idea how large the backup would be, I'm guessing removing it and creating a new one would make more sense. There must be a command to remove a partition?

[Lil_Boy_Blue]

Hi

Make certain Fast Start Up is disabled.

If it was mine, initially Piriform Recuva in Windows.

But for a real recovery I would use Knoppix Linux and Gparted.

GParted is a free partition editor for graphically managing your disk partitions.

With GParted you can resize, copy, and move partitions without data loss, enabling you to:

• Grow or shrink your C: drive
• Create space for new operating systems
• Attempt data rescue from lost partitions

Deletion is no problem if the attempt is made before any overwrite.

If it all fails then Gparted will happily re-allocate the space.

[TPA2011]

I went ahead and deleted the partition in Win disk management but it appears to be a boot partition so Win 10 won't let me extend the C drive into it. Will GParted do the trick if it involves a boot drive?

[WAWood]

@TPA2011

The HP Recovery Partition is that large because it needs to contain a compressed image of Windows along with drivers and HP utilities.

You should be able to remove it without issues using Macrium Reflect, and after that, you should be able to extend the OS partition into the unused space -- but MR will need to reboot the PC to do this as you can't modify a partition that is in use.