How to delete Windows 8.1 Recovery Partition

Luis_Almeida
Luis_Almeida Member Posts: 5 New User
in 2015 Archives

I bought an Aspire E11 with a 32Gb eMMC which actualy is just 29Gb ...

From these 29 Gb Windows 8.1 reserves 10Gb for recovery partition, leaving me with only 8Gb free on drice C after system and apps installed. I have already created a dedicated USB recovery pen, how can I delete and use as extension of drive C the 10Gb initially reserved for recovery ???

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Answers

  • sathya0403
    sathya0403 ACE Posts: 586 Pioneer
    Hi,
    Its better suggested not to delete the partition, but yes you can use programs like partition magic to get the job done,. Cheers
  • Luis_Almeida
    Luis_Almeida Member Posts: 5 New User

    Nnnn.... don't think so. I tried using EASEUS Partition Master, deleted the Recovery Partition and extended drive C. When I rebooted the system he couldn't find boot sector... I had to use the USB recovery pen I made previously to restore the computer. So, there must be a trick here, something to change on BIOS or something like that ....

     

  • Marcus35
    Marcus35 Member Posts: 17 Troubleshooter

    I am having the same problem.

    I ordered a new 32GB MicroSD but still everything works on C:\ and takes more and more space, soon i only have 5GB left.

     

    Even that i placed the microSD card, dont know what to do? how to remove the files from C:\ to the microSD card ?

    Help anyone ?

     

    thnx

  • Luis_Almeida
    Luis_Almeida Member Posts: 5 New User

    Marcus35, the only thing you can do is to send all the document data to the SD card. Go to Documents, Video, Music, etc., and change its path to the SD card. You'll then have all your documents on the SD card which also means that you can fiddle around with the OS you'll always have your documents kept away in the SD card. ;-)

     

    What would really make a difference is to free those 10Gb that win8 reserves to recovery. This 10Gb partition is huge when you only have 30Gb of disk. How the hell can ACER do something so stupid ?? Why not offer a 8Gb USB with the recory files and let the user have all the drive space available specially in this kind of ultra-portables ?? 

  • Marcus35
    Marcus35 Member Posts: 17 Troubleshooter

    Hi Luis Almeida,

     

    how to free those 10 GB that windows8 reserves to recovery ?

    Where to do it ?

     

    thank you.

     

  • Luis_Almeida
    Luis_Almeida Member Posts: 5 New User

    Good question. That's what I'm asking at the beginning of this thread.

    It should be easy to do: everyone says that you simply do a recovery drive from the windows options, and at the end the system asks if you want to delete that recovery partition on the disk. After confirming the deletion you then go to disk management and extend the drive C to the space previously occupied by the recovery partition.

    But is seems that ACER DISABLED THAT OPTION and not only the option of deleting the recovery partition doesn't show up, if you delete the partition and extend C with an external software, the system goes crazy when you reboot it again.

    So, does anyone knows how to do this? I've already phoned ACER ASSISTANCE and nothing! They we're supposed to send me an email with the possible fix but nothing till now. What a great disapointment this brand is ....

  • sathya0403
    sathya0403 ACE Posts: 586 Pioneer
    OK, So if that is the case, when you created the recovery media you 'd have got an option to remove / retain the recovery partition, have you noticed the same!?
  • Luis_Almeida
    Luis_Almeida Member Posts: 5 New User

    No, if I create a USB recovery pen on this system IT DOESN'T SHOW ME AN OPTION TO REMOVE THE ORIGINAL RECOVERY PARTITION. I had to go throgh EASEUS Partition Master to delete recovery and extend drive C and after that couldn't boot as usual. Had to use the recovery pen to go back to the out-of-the-box OS.

    And of course, the 10Gb recovery partition pops up again ....

    Now do you understand my problem?.... 

  • Marcus35
    Marcus35 Member Posts: 17 Troubleshooter

    My first question is: when i bought this acer, i had 23 free GB and then i Re-Formate the Acer aspire switch, then i had only 16 GB free, why? how come ?

     

    and My Second question is: can i move alot of files from C:\ to microSD in Acer?

     

    anyone please help me with those 2 questions?

     

     

  • bcarlsonvt
    bcarlsonvt Member Posts: 1 New User

    I had the same problem.  Did you ever get an answer to the question of how to delete the recovery partition?

  • Marcus35
    Marcus35 Member Posts: 17 Troubleshooter

    Hi.

     

    No i did not get any answer from the support.

     

    Still waiting Smiley Sad .

     

    Let me know if you got any answer.

     

  • IronFly
    IronFly ACE Posts: 18,413 Trailblazer

    Try command line option:
    start cmd.exe as administrator, then inside the cmd windows, type
    diskpart
    then on diskpart type
    list disk
    take note of the correct disk ID to erase
    type
    select disk x
    (x is the ID of your HDD to erase)
    type
    list volume

    check the partition volume number

    type

    select volume x

    (x is the ID of your partition to delete)

    type

    delete volume

    (if you receive an error type delete volume override)

    type exit

     

    reboot your pc

    your partition will be erased completly

    or you can try partition magic:
    http://www.partitionwizard.com/

    or if it doesn't work:
    http://www.hirensbootcd.org/download/

    hiren's boot cd and the available gparted tool.
    you must create a bootable media as CD or USB pen.

    I'm not an Acer employee.
  • nav2014
    nav2014 Member Posts: 7 New User

    Same issue here. I got the same laptop, but the Signature edition from Microsoft Store. It had 14.3 gb free space of the 32 gb eMMC. I created the Factory backup on a USB Drive AND that took about 7 gb. At the start of that process, in Acer Recovery management, it shows a Hypderlinked text to delete the partition, but clicking it does nothing. Thinking that it will let me do it at the end of writing the Recovery disk, I re-did this step. But alas, no link at the end to delete the recovery partition.

     

    Disk Management utility shows 3 paritions, one 10 gb one is the Windows Recovery and other 100 mb is for EFI System Parition and then the C drive with 18.9 gb Capacity, out of which I have right now 9 GB free. 

     

    Would be great to recover that 10 gb Recovery partition space now that the backup is created.

     

    I get 90 days free Signature support from Microsoft. So called them, but even after long wait, no one picked up the phone, so just hanged up.

     

    Using Acer Recovery Management, I had also created a separate "Drivers and Applications Backup" which took 1.5 gb. The Acer Recovery Management does have a link to Delete the source files for this, which works, but I did not proceed as I was not sure if this will then interfere with removal Recovery partition.

     

    So needless to say, I am still looking for a solution. I was hesitant to try the Command prompt route that last poster mentioned as not sure what else it will screw up.

  • nav2014
    nav2014 Member Posts: 7 New User

    I did little bit of reading and trying last night and I conclude that we cannot free up that 10 GB of Recovery partition, no matter what.

     

    I re-created the Recovery disk this time using windows Recovery Drive Creator.

     

    http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows-8/create-usb-recovery-drive

     

    From this wiki page, it says that if at the end of the process, you do not see an option to delete the recovery partition, then there probably isn't one that is taking up extra disk space.

     

    It is really hard to understand why it would be when Disk management shows it as a Recovery partition. I also read about what this WIM partition is all about and that is a new thing in Windows 8.1 machines using SSD or eMMC. It is a single image of windows in a compressed format for such machines that have low space. In a regular machine there is a compressed and an uncompressed image.

     

    In this machine though, this WIM partition seems to be the same C drive with capacity of 18.8 GB out of which 4 or so GB is used and rest is the free space that we get. So what the heck is in that other 10 GB Recovery partition then ?

  • FreeJAC
    FreeJAC Member Posts: 9 New User

    Hi,

     

    I picked up a few ACER machines for Christmas with the same issue and noticed the same symtoms. The link to delete the partition not working after creating the recovery pen drive.

     

    I do not believe it is related to the new WIM boot technology, but we do seem to be locked out from deleting this recovery partition. If I had read the previous parts of this thread correctly, using 3rd party partition tools doesn't seem to work either and causes you to have to reload the O/S.

     

    I do plan on moving / redirecting the documents / pictures / videos / music / OneDrive to an SD card. I didn't like the way an SD card sticks out of the laptop, so I ordered a mini drive adapter for it.

     

    http://www.theminidrive.com/products/theminidrive-new-universal-super-mini-14mm

     

    Once I try it out I will report back. They allow you to insert a microSD sideways which should make the storage flush. Once it is inserted, formated etc. Its a matter of redirecting the documents / pictures etc to that new drive.

     

    That said I would still like to remove the 10Gb recovery partition.  

  • nav2014
    nav2014 Member Posts: 7 New User

    I had called Microsoft Support to ask if this Recovery Partition could be removed and the second level tech support was not very good at understanding. She basically said, she cannot answer it and I have to use paid support to get a simple question answered "can the recovery partition be removed".

     

    So I gave up. As I am using this laptop as a HTPC, the sticking out SD Card has not bothered me so far. But I will take a look at this minidrive adaptor. I could not quite understand if it will sit in a SD Card slot of a PC as the link seems to indicate it is for Macbook and maybe fit some windows laptops. Will wait for your feedback and maybe a picture of how it looks.

     

    The low profile USB drives are about $43 bucks for a 64 gb model, that was one alternative I was thinking off. Issue with any of these solutions is that your data is not secured, so anything you want to secure, you probably should store in the internal storage and only store disposable media (movies, songs etc) on external storage.

     

    I have used WinDir utility and found that there is about 1.5 gb that can be freed if you remove the Microsoft Office 360 installation files if you do not plan on getting a Office 360 subscription. I plan to remove that folder as I have backed it up, when I run really low on space.

  • FreeJAC
    FreeJAC Member Posts: 9 New User

    OK. I know what is going on. That 10Gb partition is indeed related to the new WIMBoot technology and it needs to be there. To be honest you are probably ahead of the game in terms of drive space leaving the WIMBooting in place.

     

    Here is a blog article that explains the WIMBoot partitions.

    http://avisek.pl/translations/installing-windows-8-1-on-asus-t100ta-wimboot/

     

    The important part is this and the two screens after it.

     

    rem == 1. System partition (ESP) ===================
    create partition efi size=100
    format quick fs=fat32 label="System"
    rem == 2. Microsoft Reserved (MSR) partition =======
    create partition msr size=128
    rem == 3. Windows partition ========================
    create partition primary size=25500
    rem shrink minimum=10000
    format quick fs=ntfs label="Windows"
    assign letter=c
    rem === 4. Images partition ========================
    create partition primary
    format quick fs=ntfs label="Images"
    assign letter=m
    set id="de94bba4-06d1-4d40-a16a-bfd50179d6ac"
    gpt attributes=0x8000000000000001
    list volume
    exit
  • FreeJAC
    FreeJAC Member Posts: 9 New User

    Thanks for the reminder and tip about WINDIRSTAT. I will check that out on this little guy. I just found out the recovery partiton is part of the WIMBOOT technology. The only way to gain that space back would be to redo your whole O/S and use a more traditional method for partitioning but I belive WIMBOOT yeilds more drive space in the end anyway so one may as well leave it as is.

     

    Also that MINI Drive I linked to is Windows compatible but MAC seems to be their target audience.

     

    If you have access to a business class Windows 8.1 PC, you can bitlocker encrypt the SD card that way if it falls into the wrong hands the data is useless. Any Windows machine can prompt to open and decrypt the drive, but only business class Windows can actually do the encryption in the first place. I have a Surface 2 (RT) setup working this way.  

  • tyfoza
    tyfoza Member Posts: 2 New User

    I used Acer Recovery management to copy recovery data to USB flash.

    I tried to delete recovery partition but Windows not run again.

    Via recovery on flash system was returned to manufactured setting.

     

    I used GParted - recovery partition named "Images" and has atrrib - DIAG and HIDDEN.

    http://gparted.org/

    for setting atributes for partition. I changed attributes diag and hidden.

    Without another changes.

     

    Now I can see drive D: 10GB in my Windows.

    There is about 1.8GB free place. I transfered pagefile.sys to drive D:

     

    Od drive D: (recovery partition) is folder "Windows Images" with big files *.wim

    custom.wim and install.wim 

    I could not remove this files. I started windows in recovery mode with command line

    and deleted this files. 

    Windows not run again. This files was mounted on windows boot. 

     

    How to modify windows boot for run without INSTALL.WIM and CUSTOM.WIM?

    ??

    ---- this is no way:

    Now I try to copy install.wim and custom.wim (about 8GB) to SD card,

    make they smaller and copy they back.

    It is not solution but work around for free some place on litte E11 disk.

    I believe that ACER SUPPORT will help us.

    I made smaller wim files but Windows not start.

    This in no way.

     

    We need acer support help!

  • FreeJAC
    FreeJAC Member Posts: 9 New User

    As soon as you do that, you break the way Windows was configured to boot. That partition and those files are there for a reason. You can setup the partitions the way you want, re-install Windows yourself, but you should be on your own at that point and it will cost you more in drive space in the end.

     

    Here is the documentation regarding WIMBOOT. http://blogs.windows.com/itpro/2014/04/10/what-is-windows-image-boot-wimboot/

     

    "So let’s assume the WIM file (INSTALL.WIM) is around 3GB and you are using a 16GB SSD. In that configuration, you’ll still be left with over 12GB of free disk space. How does that compare to a non-WIMBoot configuration? Well, on that same 16GB system there might be only 7GB free after installing Windows – and then only if you don’t set up a separate recovery image."

     

     WIMBOOT-DRIVE-SETUP.PNG

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