Changing the Drive letter of the Recovery Partition

[KM2011]

After previous bad experiences trying to segregate data to be backed up from the program files, I have got into the habit on my previous Windows computers of creating a separate partition on my hard drive to store data files. Out of habit I still do that on my desktop PC running Windows XP (an excellent program)  instead of using the My Documents folder.

I want to do the same on my new DV6-3142 which i use for work and create a separate partition for my data files. I understand how to create a new partition on the hard drive and reallocate drive letters for existing partitions, but I want to use the drive letter D for it. However, that is the drive letter used for the Recovery partition.

Can I change the drive letter of the Recovery partition to, say R without affecting the working of the recovery process, or must I leave it as D for the system recovery to function properly should I ever need it?

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Hi:

You will need to leave the recovery partition's name and drive letter unchanged, and your drive C:'s name unchanged.

If you change these, when you hit the F11 key to launch the recovery process, the program won't know what to do.

I'm a firm believer in also having a set of factory recovery disks. To me it is worth the less than $20 investment.  If your HDD fails after the warranty period, (or if you want to upgrade your HDD), your recovery partition is useless anyway. 

Contact HP customer support to see if they have a set for your notebook:

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c00810334

Paul

[KM2011]

I thought as much.

I have made a set of Recovery disks using Recovery Manager. I really do not understand the logic in not including a full set of operating system disks and drivers with the PC. The only reasons seem to be a) to prevent unauthorised copying of the OS, and b) saving the manufacturer the bother of making sure that the disks that they supply with the PC are the right ones for the PC.

In the UK a set of recovery disks costs the equivalent of USD50 after sales tax (VAT), but I shall buy them anyway on the basis that if I have both my Recovery Manager generated set and the manufacturer supplied set then I will be relatively safe if I reuse the Recovery partition for my data files. As you point out, if the hard drive fails the recovery partition is likely to be useless anyway.  They're just a waste of space.

[HaiderOfSweden]

Hi!

I just want to tell about a thread I made about the same issue.

My computer is a dv7-6035eo and I am not sure if the recovery software/solution differs from computer to computer.

However, to make a long story short, I could change the drive letter to someting else and still being able to recover from hard drive using the F11 method.

[KM2011]

Haider,

Thank you for your help.

[cust29jul2013]

I propose two ingredients to the solution:

(1) Create recovery DVDs as Paul said, and then copy them as ISO to the hard disk, and put them on any and all backup hard disks. Include the Windows repair disc as an ISO. Should the DVDs fail, you can burn them over again with the aid of another computer. It is 15 GB all together.

(2) There is a trick to make the partition 😧 "offline" with a little registry entry. It is documented for example as http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926185. In that KB it was for a different reason. Googling also gives instructions.

I'm not sure whether HP  Support Assistant accesses 😧 during updates, but otherwise it should be safe to keep 😧 offline. It will not affect the ability of Refreshing or Factory reset, because the offline state is in the registry and not in the partition itself. Also note that diskpart does not allow changing the drive letter of an OEM partition, whilst it allows it for ordinary partitions. I'm sure this is for a reason.

I do not understand Pauls suggestion that the NAME of C: should be left unchanged, specially when there is no name. The naming of C: should not affect anything.

I suggest reducing the size of C: with the aid of diskpart, and creating two new data partitions E: and F: (for small and large personal files, respectively, to keep backups easy, and to keep Volume Shadow Storage clear of personal files, and to keep System Images reasonable.)

[cust29jul2013]

The recovery partition is there for re-installing the operating system, or for refreshing the computer in Windows 8. Both are useful relatively time-savers. They preserve user data and the other partitions. They waste 15 GB on a 500+GB hard disk.

[cust29jul2013]

Regarding preserving the recovery partition from any influence - The standard weekly disk defragmentation task includes the Recovery and the WINRE partitions. And it includes other invisible partitions without drive letter .. Of course I turned all this off.

[ForTran68]

For those of us who are accustomed to either having two disks installed, or having extra partitions created, having HP use the 'D:' for a recovery disk that 99% of users will never use is a thoughtless nuisance...why not just use 'K:' or something beyond?

[cust29jul2013]

Sure it is a nuisance. The recovery partition should carry no drive letter at all (neither D:, neitheryour  "K:")