Can I delete these hidden partitions and resize the boot partition?

[Dougmeister]

I am using GParted.

It is an older laptop (Lenovo Z580) that a friend wiped and installed Windows 10 on for me.

As you can probably tell by the screenshot, the only drives that show up in Windows Explorer are the 417 GB "Boot" drive and a 25GB partition (also marked as "primary").

I know it's not gaining me much extra storage (~60GB), but do I need these other partitions? I understand that at one point (Windows 7? Windows 8? Still in Windows 10?), these were used to allow the user to revert back to a fresh install of the operating system (or something to that effect).

But I don't think that they would still serve that purpose.

I used Clonezilla to make a full disk backup, so I can afford to play around a little bit.

1) So can I use GParted to delete all partitions except the 417GB one and resize it?
2) Even if I mess something up, I can always just re-install Windows, right?

 

[JackMDS]

This freeware software is a good toll for deleting and resizing Partitions.

 

[Dougmeister]

A buddy of mine who works in IT asked his co-workers. One of them said that partitions 5-8 could "probably" be safely deleted and re-combined, but advised leaving 1-4 intact.

I left the big partition go. I used GParted to delete 6-8. But it wouldn't let me "expand" partition #5 to include the new extra space.

When I booted back into Windows, Disk Manager still pretty much shows the same thing. There is still 20GB that I can neither access nor add to the 25GB partition. Nor can I add the 25GB to the 417 GB partition.

Edit: after a while, a pop-up dialog box warned me that something was wrong with the hard drive and I'd need to reboot to fix it. I left it go for 15-20 minutes and finally decided to just restore the backup. So *something* wasn't kosher with deleting those last few partitions...

Any ideas, anyone?

 

[Insert_Nickname]

It is an older laptop (Lenovo Z580) that a friend wiped and installed Windows 10 on for me.

As you can probably tell by the screenshot, the only drives that show up in Windows Explorer are the 417 GB "Boot" drive and a 25GB partition (also marked as "primary").

Your friend didn't repartition the drive it seems. That looks suspiciously like an OEM partition scheme. Which leads directly to;

I know it's not gaining me much extra storage (~60GB), but do I need these other partitions? I understand that at one point (Windows 7? Windows 8? Still in Windows 10?), these were used to allow the user to revert back to a fresh install of the operating system (or something to that effect).

But I don't think that they would still serve that purpose.

Windows 10 includes the ability to reinstall Windows directly from the installation itself. So no, OEM recovery partitions are no longer required.

I used Clonezilla to make a full disk backup, so I can afford to play around a little bit.

1) So can I use GParted to delete all partitions except the 417GB one and resize it?
2) Even if I mess something up, I can always just re-install Windows, right?

I'd start over with a clean Windows installation. When the installer prompts to select which disk to install to, delete all partitions manually first. Then select the only disk available. Windows will setup an appropriate scheme itself. This will leave you with all available space in one partition.

 

[Dougmeister]

Thank you, Insert_Nickname.

I could start another thread if necessary, but do you (or anyone else) know of a way to *extract* the current Windows registration key? Everything I've Googled so far says it's either not possible or maybe the guy who installed Win 10 on this computer used some sort of enterprise installation or something.

Edit: I found a thread here that gave several options... the .VBS one gave me a key... I'll see if that works.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

I could start another thread if necessary, but do you (or anyone else) know of a way to *extract* the current Windows registration key? Everything I've Googled so far says it's either not possible or maybe the guy who installed Win 10 on this computer used some sort of enterprise installation or something.

If your Windows 10 installation is activated, you don't need the 7 key, unless you want to move it to a different system. I don't even think 10 saves the original install key.

10 recognizes your system when you connect to the internet and activates automatically. You don't really need to do anything.