Blowing Away the Recovery Partition...Advice?
in [Dell]
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From: Daddy on 15 Mar 2010 21:33 Brian K wrote: > A friend has an XPS 9000. That's what we did. Deleted his recovery and > diagnostic partitions. He creates his own backup images. > > Before you start, check in Disk Management to see if the recovery partition > is the Active, System partition. It was in the 9000 so if you delete it, > Win7 won't boot. You need to copy the booting files from the recovery > partition to the Win7 partition before you delete the recovery partition. It > is a 2 minute job. > > Let us know if the recovery partition is Active, System and I'll post a > procedure to copy the booting files. > Thanks very much for your help, Brian. As you are likely aware, my computer has three partitions: The first partition - Dell's diagnostic partition - is identified only as "OEM Partition". The second partition is the Recovery partition. It's a primary partition, and it's marked System, Active. The third partition is the rest of my hard disc. It's also primary, of course, and it's marked Boot, Page File, Crash Dump. Backup (including making system images) is something with which I have a great deal of experience, so I really have no need for Dell's Recovery Partition. Besides which, after having spent most of a weekend setting up this computer the way I like, installing and setting up my software and uninstalling most of what Dell added, the last thing I want to do is to revert to the factory image! ;-) Daddy
From: Brian K on 15 Mar 2010 22:36 Daddy, does your second partition have a drive letter? Probably not, but I thought I'd ask before posting the removal fix.
From: Brian K on 15 Mar 2010 22:54 Daddy, I'll assume the recovery partition doesn't have a drive letter. I'm with you, I make my own backup images and I assume you have already backed up at least the Win7 partition. I'm also with William. I'd keep the diagnostic partition. It is small and it is useful. Before commencing the Win7 procedure you should make a BootIt NG (BING) CD. There is a one month trial so download from... http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm unzip the file double click makedisk.exe, next dot in I accept the agreement, next no tick for Registration, next dot in Mouse Support Enabled, next dot in VESA Video, next dot in Partition Work (Don't put a dot in Normal), next don't choose any Default Device Options (if necessary, these can be chosen in BING), next leave Registration strings blank, next select your CD burner drive letter (you can use a CD-RW or a CD-R disc) Finish In Win7, you have to unhide the Recovery Partition. In Disk Management, right click the Recovery Partition, click Change Drive Letter and Paths..., click Add, dot in Assign the following drive letter, click the drop down arrow and select P , click OK. Start an Administrator mode Command Prompt. To do this, click on the Start button, then All Programs, then Accessories. Right-click on the Command Prompt item and select Run as administrator from the pop-up menu. If a UAC prompt is displayed, click the Yes button. Unload the BCD registry hive by running the following command: reg unload HKLM\BCD00000000 Copy the bootmgr file from the Recovery Partition to the Windows 7 partition. Run the following command: robocopy p:\ c:\ bootmgr Copy the Boot folder from the Recovery Partition to the Windows 7 partition. Run the following command: robocopy p:\Boot C:\Boot /s The booting files have now been copied. If you wish to verify that they were copied correctly, run the following command: dir c:\ /ah If the bootmgr file and the Boot folder show up in the list, the procedure was successful. In Disk Management, right click the Recovery Partition, click Change Drive Letter and Paths..., click Remove, Yes. This hides the Recovery Partition again. In Disk Management, right click the C: drive, click Mark Partition as Active, Yes. Restart the computer with a BING CD in the drive. In BING, do a BCD Edit on Win7. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=318 In BING, delete the Recovery Partition. click Close on Work with Partitions click Reboot and remove the CD Win7 should boot.
From: Daddy on 16 Mar 2010 01:42 Brian K wrote: > Daddy, > > I'll assume the recovery partition doesn't have a drive letter. > > I'm with you, I make my own backup images and I assume you have already > backed up at least the Win7 partition. I'm also with William. I'd keep the > diagnostic partition. It is small and it is useful. > > Before commencing the Win7 procedure you should make a BootIt NG (BING) CD. > There is a one month trial so download from... > > http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm > > unzip the file > double click makedisk.exe, next > dot in I accept the agreement, next > no tick for Registration, next > dot in Mouse Support Enabled, next > dot in VESA Video, next > dot in Partition Work (Don't put a dot in Normal), next > don't choose any Default Device Options (if necessary, these can be chosen > in BING), next > leave Registration strings blank, next > select your CD burner drive letter (you can use a CD-RW or a CD-R disc) > Finish > > > > > In Win7, you have to unhide the Recovery Partition. > > In Disk Management, right click the Recovery Partition, click Change Drive > Letter and Paths..., click Add, dot in Assign the following drive letter, > click the drop down arrow and select P , click OK. > > Start an Administrator mode Command Prompt. To do this, click on the Start > button, then All Programs, then Accessories. Right-click on the Command > Prompt item and select Run as administrator from the pop-up menu. If a UAC > prompt is displayed, click the Yes button. > > Unload the BCD registry hive by running the following command: > reg unload HKLM\BCD00000000 > > Copy the bootmgr file from the Recovery Partition to the Windows 7 > partition. Run the following command: > robocopy p:\ c:\ bootmgr > > Copy the Boot folder from the Recovery Partition to the Windows 7 partition. > Run the following command: > robocopy p:\Boot C:\Boot /s > > The booting files have now been copied. If you wish to verify that they were > copied correctly, run the following command: > dir c:\ /ah > > If the bootmgr file and the Boot folder show up in the list, the procedure > was successful. > > In Disk Management, right click the Recovery Partition, click Change Drive > Letter and Paths..., click Remove, Yes. This hides the Recovery Partition > again. > In Disk Management, right click the C: drive, click Mark Partition as > Active, Yes. > > Restart the computer with a BING CD in the drive. > In BING, do a BCD Edit on Win7. > http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=318 > In BING, delete the Recovery Partition. > > click Close on Work with Partitions > click Reboot and remove the CD > > Win7 should boot. > > > > Many thanks for the detailed instructions, Brian. They are actually very similar to what I have read elsewhere, which is encouraging. I'll do the deed in a little while, as there are a few things on my to-do list that I would like to get to first. You are correct in saying that the Recovery partition has no drive letter. And oh yes, I have been backing up regularly. It's my practice to split the C: drive in two, with one partition for software and the other for data. (I acknowledge that there are other valid approaches.) The system partition is regularly imaged and the data partition is backed up. Daddy
From: Brian K on 16 Mar 2010 02:01
"Daddy" <daddy(a)invalid.invalid> wrote in message news:hnn5ou$105$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... >. It's my practice to split the C: drive in two, with one partition for >software and the other for data. (I acknowledge that there are other valid >approaches.) The system partition is regularly imaged and the data >partition is backed up. > Exactly what I do! I have one computer devoted to testing. I've used the above procedure over 10 times. I tried several other procedures before I found this one but this one is the easiest. You don't have to delete the Recovery Partition at the end of the procedure if you don't want to. A delete tomorrow or next week is fine. It will sit there but won't contribute to Win7 booting. |