Blowing Away the Recovery Partition...Advice?
in [Dell]
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From: Daddy on 18 Mar 2010 11:52 Brian K wrote: > "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. > > Hi Brian (and others). Not to take anything away from the detailed and helpful instructions you provided to remove Dell's Recovery partition, but couldn't I simply delete the Recovery and Diagnostic partitions - from Windows 7's own Disk Management utility - and then boot from my Windows 7 System Repair Disc and repair the MBR? The 'repair' performed - as I understand it - simply replaces the existing (damaged) MBR with a standard, generic MBR. To do this means also losing the Diagnostic partition, but I can run the same diagnostic utilities from the Drivers and Utilities disc that came with my computer. The generic MBR might not recognize my Data partition, but that's no problem, since I can easily recreate it and restore the contents from backup. Daddy
From: Brian K on 18 Mar 2010 15:27 Daddy, As I mentioned, there are several ways to copy the booting files. The first method I tried involved copying these files while in BartPE. Unfortunately, the Recovery partition can't be deleted from Disk Management. Windows won't let you do it because it is the System partition. I can't recall if the Diagnostic partition can be deleted from Windows. Another point to mention is the MBR. None of these methods alter the Dell MBR code or the partition table. So don't worry about your Data partition. Even if you had 15 data partitions before you started, they will still be there when you finish. Another method that works is simply deleting the Recovery partition using a partitioning tool (outside of Windows). BING for example. Then set Win7 Active. When you then try to boot, you will receive this error.. BOOTMGR is missing Press Control, Alt, Delete to restart There is no point pressing Control, Alt, Delete because the same error message recurs. You don't have booting files. But you can recreate the booting files in your Windows installation. If you boot from the Win7 DVD and do two repairs, Win7 will boot. You must do two repairs, one is not enough. It is only on the second repair that you get to a big menu where you can choose Startup Repair. The repairs can take a few minutes so I moved away from this method. Out of interest, here is another method (describing the System Reserved Partition in this case). From Win7, open Regedit, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, unload BCD00000000 from the registry by highlighting it, click File/Unload Hive, Yes - or the following boot files will be in use and won't copy. In Disk Management, right click the SRP, click Change Drive Letter and Paths..., click Add, dot in Assign the following drive letter, OK. In Folder and search options, View tab, put a dot in "Show hidden files, folders and drives". Also, remove the tick from "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)". OK. In Computer, SRP, right click to copy the "Boot" folder and "bootmgr" and paste them into the C: drive. (Copy, not Move these files) In Folder and search options, View tab, put a tick in "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)". OK. In Disk Management, right click the SRP, click Change Drive Letter and Paths..., click Remove, Yes. 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 (Partition Work), delete the SRP. In BING, do a BCD Edit on Win7. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=318 reboot
From: Daddy on 18 Mar 2010 16:46 Brian K wrote: > Daddy, > > As I mentioned, there are several ways to copy the booting files. The first > method I tried involved copying these files while in BartPE. > > Unfortunately, the Recovery partition can't be deleted from Disk Management. > Windows won't let you do it because it is the System partition. I can't > recall if the Diagnostic partition can be deleted from Windows. Another > point to mention is the MBR. None of these methods alter the Dell MBR code > or the partition table. So don't worry about your Data partition. Even if > you had 15 data partitions before you started, they will still be there when > you finish. > > Another method that works is simply deleting the Recovery partition using a > partitioning tool (outside of Windows). BING for example. Then set Win7 > Active. When you then try to boot, you will receive this error.. > > BOOTMGR is missing > Press Control, Alt, Delete to restart > > There is no point pressing Control, Alt, Delete because the same error > message recurs. You don't have booting files. > > But you can recreate the booting files in your Windows installation. If you > boot from the Win7 DVD and do two repairs, Win7 will boot. You must do two > repairs, one is not enough. It is only on the second repair that you get to > a big menu where you can choose Startup Repair. The repairs can take a few > minutes so I moved away from this method. > > > > Out of interest, here is another method (describing the System Reserved > Partition in this case). > > From Win7, open Regedit, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, unload BCD00000000 from > the registry by highlighting it, click File/Unload Hive, Yes - or the > following boot files will be in use and won't copy. > > In Disk Management, right click the SRP, click Change Drive Letter and > Paths..., click Add, dot in Assign the following drive letter, OK. > > In Folder and search options, View tab, put a dot in "Show hidden files, > folders and drives". Also, remove the tick from "Hide protected operating > system files (Recommended)". OK. > > In Computer, SRP, right click to copy the "Boot" folder and "bootmgr" and > paste them into the C: drive. (Copy, not Move these files) > > In Folder and search options, View tab, put a tick in "Hide protected > operating system files (Recommended)". OK. > > In Disk Management, right click the SRP, click Change Drive Letter and > Paths..., click Remove, Yes. > 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 (Partition Work), delete the SRP. > In BING, do a BCD Edit on Win7. > http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=318 > > reboot > Thanks again, Brian. It's not surprising that there's more than one way to get this done. Another method I'm considering is simple and elegant...if it will work. I submitted it to the user forum for my backup (disk imaging) software. It doesn't hurt that I made an image of the C:\ drive immediately after setup completed, after I pushed the power button on my computer for the very first time. Here's the outline of my idea: 1- Backup my C:\ drive as it is now. 2- Using the boot disk from my imaging program, delete the C:\drive, Recovery partition and diagnostic partition. 3- Restore the backed-up C:\ to the empty space A key point is to restore a generic Windows MBR - not Dell's modified MBR - and to set the restored C:\ partition as Active. I'm sure most any imaging program can do all the above. What I'm left with is a C:\ volume that can 'extend' to occupy the remaining empty space, and an image of the factory-fresh C:\ drive that I can restore at any time, e.g., if I'm selling or donating the computer. This /should/ work...but I'm checking it out just to be sure. Daddy
From: Brian K on 18 Mar 2010 17:24 Daddy, That's a lot of effort and it won't work because your Win7 doesn't contain the booting files. Your (Daddy's) booting files are in the Recovery partition. You would still have to do two repairs from the Win7 DVD to create booting files. Keep those ideas coming. I don't mind examining the pluses and minuses of new ideas. Again, the booting files have nothing to do with the MBR, Dell or generic.
From: Brian K on 18 Mar 2010 18:27
Daddy, I forgot to mention that after you have deleted the Recovery partition in BING (and the Diagnostic partition if you want to), you can slide and resize the Win7 partition to remove that 8 GB of unalloacated free space. |