Partition Resizing

[cabri]

Based on this thread.

I continually on my Win7 Home Premium get notifications that running out of space on the Recovery Partition.

I took a look at the disk stats as shown below in the displayed order


System (200MB) | C: (223GB 40% Free) | UnAllocated (215MB) | D: /Recovery (12GB 0% Free) | E: /HP_Tools (3G 0% Free) |

I am hoping to get the Unallocated space merged in with the Recovery partition; removing that annoying message about lack of space 1-2 times a week.

Back in the NT days, I was able to manipulate partition sizes.

Under the Computer Management->Storady->Disk Management there does not seem to be a way.

Am I SOL due to the positioning of the Unallocated area

 

[ignatzatsonic]

With Windows Disk Management, you can add that unallocated space ONLY to whatever partition is shown as immediately adjacent to the left of the unallocated space.

By your description, that would mean you could add it to C only.

You can use another product, such as Partition Wizard, to add it to any partition, not just C.

But you have only about 1/5 of a GB unallocated. Not much. You'd probably fill that up quickly.

You apparently have something else going on that's chewing up space. Could be any number of things---malware, a runaway application, backup gone wrong, Avast anti-virus, etc.

Or just decide to paddle your own canoe and get rid of the recovery partition--and use some other recovery method (recovery disks or imaging). But OEM's have a goofy way of putting critical system files on recovery partitions, so you have to be careful about deleting that partition.

 

[Elixer]

You can use a gparted boot CD/DVD/flash drive to merge partitions together.
However, as was said, adding 215MB is barely anything.

 

[cabri]

That is 150 floppy disks

I was hoping to add it to the recovery partition to stop the warning.

However based on the first response, i can not add it to the D: anyhow, so i will have to accept.

Thanks for the feedback

 

[mikeymikec]

Usually when OEM recovery partitions are getting low on space it's because the user has stored some other data on them as well.

A classic one is Windows informing the user that they ought to have a backup system, and Windows provides the user with an opportunity to use another partition as the destination for the backup (even though it's on the same physical disk).

 

[corkyg]

I moved my Recovery Partition to an external drive so that if I had a main drive failure, I could still "recover."

 

[Shelleyer]

You can merge partitions with built-in Disk Management. However, you need to delete the other partition before merging since Disk Management cannot directly resize the partition. it is advisable to choice free third-party AOMEI Partition Assistant to get the Unallocated space merged in with the Recovery partition.

 

[Ketchup]

Usually when OEM recovery partitions are getting low on space it's because the user has stored some other data on them as well.

A classic one is Windows informing the user that they ought to have a backup system, and Windows provides the user with an opportunity to use another partition as the destination for the backup (even though it's on the same physical disk).

I was going to post this same thing. If you are using this partition for recovery, I would use another drive, as this is only another partition on the same drive, which isn't helping alot. If the recovery wasn't meant to be placed here, I would just remove the backups and change the backup plan, and you won't even need to resize.

 

[cabri]

Usually when OEM recovery partitions are getting low on space it's because the user has stored some other data on them as well.

A classic one is Windows informing the user that they ought to have a backup system, and Windows provides the user with an opportunity to use another partition as the destination for the backup (even though it's on the same physical disk).

I was going to post this same thing. If you are using this partition for recovery, I would use another drive, as this is only another partition on the same drive, which isn't helping alot. If the recovery wasn't meant to be placed here, I would just remove the backups and change the backup plan, and you won't even need to resize.

The drive configuration is what came with the laptop; I have checked, there area no personal files on the D: (recovery) drive.

Either HP/Windows did not size the partition properly, there is now older information that is outdated (purchased in fall 2011) which can be purged or something has squirreled itself on which has fouled up the sizing.

Given the size; I like the idea of Corky's in just putting the recovery on a spare 16GB Flash drive

 

[mikeymikec]

The drive configuration is what came with the laptop; I have checked, there area no personal files on the D: (recovery) drive.

Either HP/Windows did not size the partition properly, there is now older information that is outdated (purchased in fall 2011) which can be purged or something has squirreled itself on which has fouled up the sizing.

Given the size; I like the idea of Corky's in just putting the recovery on a spare 16GB Flash drive

Any big-name OEM will have just hard-coded the partition size as it would be silly to end up with a recovery partition maybe three times larger than it needs to be (or not large enough if an SSD was used) because a developer used a percentage of the available space. I can't imagine what older information might be on that partition because it should be untouched after leaving the factory.

you could run DIR DRIVELETTER:\ /A > C:\file.txt (driveletter being the recovery partition) and post the results here, someone might be able to spot something that shouldn't be there.

If you can move it off then by all means go for it, it makes a reasonable amount of sense, the only thing I'm unsure about is how to convince the computer to read from that recovery partition when it is hosted by another storage device.

 

[ninaholic37]

That is 150 floppy disks

I was hoping to add it to the recovery partition to stop the warning.

However based on the first response, i can not add it to the D: anyhow, so i will have to accept.

You already filled over 8000 floppy disks (12GB) so an extra 1/56 probably won't save you. :awe:

 

[Elixer]

That is 150 floppy disks

I was hoping to add it to the recovery partition to stop the warning.

However based on the first response, i can not add it to the D: anyhow, so i will have to accept.

Thanks for the feedback

And that is wrong. You CAN add it. Read what I wrote.

 

[cabri]

And that is wrong. You CAN add it. Read what I wrote.

:wub:
did not catch the first part of your posts.

Apology offered.

Possibly also that I did not understand what you meant by gparted

 

[TuSpockShakur]

The recovery partition does not need to have a drive letter, so just remove it. Go to disk management, select partition, change drive letter and remove. No more space warnings and the partition is somewhat protected from accidental f-ups.

 

[Z15CAM]

KISS. Backup your Partitions with GHOST to a separate Fat 32 32 GB Volume - Spanned if necessary. Resize your working Media Partitions with a Win Deskpart Boot and dump your OS Images to your resized partitions with a DOS Boot and Reset your PC.

Don't rely on 3 Party GUI Crap - Use DOS Apps.