Disk Management - How do I delete recovery partition?

Avoriaz

EDIT: I have now sorted it using the instructions here:

http://blog.angells.com/2010/01/how-to-remove-hidden-partition-that.html

It requires running "diskpart" and getting into Commands. Reminds me of the old, pre Windows, DOS days.

God knows why MS don't make it easier. I can't be the only user wanting to delete hidden partitions.

I know they have to protect Windows from uninformed tampering butjust put the option in DM with a clear warning to b e careful.

I will leave the thread in case anyone has a similar problem.


Following is my original problem:


I want to erase everything on a 500gb disk that has 2 hidden recovery partitions.

Disk Management won't let me do anything with the hidden partitions.


I bought an Acer laptop with a 500gb drive set up for Vista. That drive has 3 partitions.

450gb Partition for Windows etc plus a 12gb Recovery Partition and a 3.5gb OEM partition.

I have removed the disk and replaced it with a 320gb disk on which I have installed Windows 7. That is all working fine so I want to use the 500gb disk for back ups in an external USB caddy but I can't delete the 2 extra partitions.

In Disk Management, right clicking on the 450gb partition gives the normal options but all right clicking on the other 2 partitions does is bring up a "help" option that just opens general DM help.

I want to delete all the partitions, repartition with a single partition and format the disk so I have all 500gb available in a single partition.

There should be an option for deleting all partitions and returning the disk to ex factory state.

How do I sort this out?

Thanks

Here is a screen image of DM. Disk1 is the disk I want to sort out.

point3

Stick it into an external caddy and re-format.

P.S. Do you know of a good way to clone the recovery partition?

debitcardmayhem

Easus partition manager free edition here or paragon free edition here

not used either , I used gparted on sysrecuecd from my usb stick thats here

Avoriaz

point3 wrote: »

Stick it into an external caddy and re-format.

P.S. Do you know of a good way to clone the recovery partition?

I don't wish to be rude but did you actually read the OP?

It is already in an external caddy. I can't reformat it, that is the whole problem. The hidden partitions don't show in Explorer because they have no drive letter and DM won't won't allow me to do anything. Anyway, as I have added above, I have now sorted it.

I don't want to clone the recovery partition. It is a Vista recovery partition and I have upgraded to 7.

I'm going to use the 500gb disk that came with the laptop for backups and run the laptop with a 320gb disk I already have and on which I have installed 7.

Avoriaz

debitcardmayhem wrote: »

Easus partition manager free edition here or paragon free edition here

not used either , I used gparted on sysrecuecd from my usb stick thats here

Thanks for those suggestions.

I have now sorted it as detailed at the very top of my OP.

debitcardmayhem

Glad you got it sorted .:)

point3

Avoriaz wrote: »

I don't wish to be rude but did you actually read the OP?

It is already in an external caddy. I can't reformat it, that is the whole problem. The hidden partitions don't show in Explorer because they have no drive letter and DM won't won't allow me to do anything. Anyway, as I have added above, I have now sorted it.

I don't want to clone the recovery partition. It is a Vista recovery partition and I have upgraded to 7.

I'm going to use the 500gb disk that came with the laptop for backups and run the laptop with a 320gb disk I already have and on which I have installed 7.

If you just click on the disk rather than on an individual partition, can you not format it in one go?

Avoriaz

point3 wrote: »

If you just click on the disk rather than on an individual partition, can you not format it in one go?

Unfortunately not.

Hidden partitions have no drive letter allocated and therefore do not show up in Windows Explorer. All you can see is the Main partition. This is presumably done to protect the hidden Recovery Partitions from accidental tampering or deletion.

You can see the hidden partitions in "Disk Management" but all the usual functions are disabled.

As I have discovered from Google, you need to run diskpart to override the standard Windows protection.

Most people just buy a laptop and use it as it comes. They never see or even know that there are hidden partitions on their disk.

It is only because I wanted to take out the 500gb drive, replace it with a 320gb drive and reuse the 500gb for backups that I ran into this problem.

Anyway it is all working as I wanted now and I have learned something new.

Something I will probably never need to know again but such is life.

point3

point3 wrote: »

P.S. Do you know of a good way to clone the recovery partition?

It's working, it's working. :j
Problem was that my USB HDD wasn't visible in a pre-Windows boot environment and once in Windows the software wouldn't copy an active partition.
So, to cut a long story short, I formatted the new IDE drive to FAT32 on a Win 7 machine, mounted it onto an IDE to USB adapter and then connected to the 2nd Win XP laptop. Booted into Mini XP off CD, at which point all drives were visble and then into Ghost. Copied all 3 partitions on Disk 1 onto Disk 2 quite happily.

point3

Avoriaz wrote: »

Unfortunately not.

Hidden partitions have no drive letter allocated and therefore do not show up in Windows Explorer. All you can see is the Main partition. This is presumably done to protect the hidden Recovery Partitions from accidental tampering or deletion.

You can see the hidden partitions in "Disk Management" but all the usual functions are disabled.

As I have discovered from Google, you need to run diskpart to override the standard Windows protection.

Most people just buy a laptop and use it as it comes. They never see or even know that there are hidden partitions on their disk.

It is only because I wanted to take out the 500gb drive, replace it with a 320gb drive and reuse the 500gb for backups that I ran into this problem.

Anyway it is all working as I wanted now and I have learned something new.

Something I will probably never need to know again but such is life.

Like the other chap said, just use a Partition Manager. I usually use Parted Magic.